With the short story I've read, when thinking about identifying versus relating, it sparked questions I never thought of before. I've always thought of the two words as basically one of the same, at least on the broadest sense of the words. While reading Even the Queen, with the intent on writing this passage about identity, I kept thinking 'yeah, I could say that I identify with the main character.' As time went on and I was able to meditate about it, I do not identify with the lead, instead, I relate. I've always thought about identifying as something that cannot be completely true, due to past experiences being unpredictable and the like.
One thing that struck me odd about the story, was the representation of women. There was only one man in the story, who had a very minor part in the overarching story. Even though the man's part was minor, it was well established that men were the rulers of the land and women had little place in the world. The feeling I got from the story was, even though there were hardly any men, that the men were behind a one way glass, looking in on the action, but never revealing themselves; always in control.
While I cannot say I identify with anyone living under those same restrictions, I can relate. As a person, I feel very few people can identify with those in this story because of the conditions being radicalized to the extremes. I feel this story comes from a place of relate-ability and the author wrote it from a place of heart, but I doubt even the author can identify with the lead 100%.
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