I fail to grasp the said meaning of this film

Correct me if i'm wrong, but for years, the meaning of this movie has always been that the guy slowly "loses his identity" when his face starts turning white. But to me, that doesn't make sense. He doesn't lose his identity - but rather his identity just changes into "the man with the white face"...I never cared much for this movie and have always felt it was one of the weaker of the Romero movies...