Answer:
I feel like identities and the self never stops changing, that we will always change whether from age to the slang we use. A positive aspect of a strong identity is that you feel empowered and ready to be yourself, but a downfall is you could easily grow egotistical and snarky to others.
The storyteller of "Family" by Grace Paley utilizes a few descriptors to portray different relatives, and says a portion of the modifiers adhered to her, while others, "discovering me American and smooth disappeared."
This last line recommends that Americans are "smooth," and that modifiers, or thoughts regarding individuals, can "slip" off them. This appears to imply that Americans are not ready to see past the self-evident; don't look further into a thought.
The ideal and thought a person be thinking about in their own mind