There are two perceptions of the self. Our perception of our image and identity and the perception that others have of us. We behave differently towards certain people and situations. When we communicate with people we know, we act casually. When we communicate with a stranger, we are careful about the words we say. And so, let's pay attention to who we communicate with. In Night Walker by Brent Staples, he describes his experience of being stereotyped as a dangerous man. Adopts cautious and compliant behavior to alter public space in a positive way at the expense of self-development. Through Staples' experience, he was stereotyped as a dangerous man. The night Staples went out onto a deserted street, a woman perceived him differently than she expected. Staples is a “six foot two inch” black man dressed in a “bulky military jacket” (256). When he approached a white woman and continued walking down the street. Moving closer to him, she studied his appearance. Ultimately, she ran away from him and made him seem like a dangerous person. Yet Staples didn't think so. He never thought he was dangerous. He is a harmless boy, a "softie...barely capable of picking up a knife for a raw chicken" (256). Anyone who does not know how to slice the flesh of a dead animal could not harm a living person. Furthermore, he claimed to suffer from “insomnia” (256). A tired and sleepless person is not someone who has the power to stalk and hunt other people. Due to his sleeping problems, he goes out on the streets late at night. When people meet him, they act as if they are his victims. At the age of 22, that white woman he met during that night's incident is his first victim. She is young and “well dressed” (256). There were motifs… half the paper… Valdi's Four Seasons theme for “the cowbell that hikers wear… in bear country” (258). He resembles himself as the hiker and warns others that he is here, so don't be surprised by his gift. However, its course of action is limited. Instead of acting as if he were normal, his actions were influenced by others around him. Brent Staples shows in Night Walker that as he gains a cautious attitude and conforms to the audience, he loses his own development. Inclusion in society cost him the loss of personal growth. He changed himself because people stereotyped him, treated him differently, and that's what he didn't like. He wants to be treated like a normal person. He was also worried about his safety if people didn't treat him normally. As he develops to seem like a peaceful person in the eyes of others, he loses other factors that make him grow and become different.