The purpose of this paper is to discover what shapes and changes an individual’s identity construction in a modern society, as it is represented in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. I argue that in his book, Gaiman challenges the questions of both essentialism and constructivism, and the controversy whether modern or pre-modern societies are more valuable, reflecting on the pros and cons of both social structures. I will study how the male protagonist’s identity quest is affected by the discourses of different cultural systems, and his own non-subject position. Shadow, as someone who tries to exclude himself from society, is a character who suffers from the crisis of identity. I will investigate the causes of this crisis, and also discuss the solution offered by the novel.