One’s culture can quite drastically impact the views they place upon others and the world around them. Experiences contribute to how one discerns particular situations. People react distinct in comparison to one another precisely because of their culture, and the culture of the people they encounter throughout their life. Culture fundamentally justifies the perspectives that one may possess.
In the passage Two Ways to Belong in America by Bharati Mukherjee, what is being expressed are two drastically distinguished perspectives containing two sisters who migrated from their homeland in India to the “land of opportunity,” best known as the United States of America. Both sisters, Mira and Bharati find it challenging when their two, very different,
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According to the passage it recalls that before departing India, both sisters were practically identical to each other in appearance and attitude. “We dressed alike, in saris; we expressed identical views on politics, social issues, love and marriage in the same Calcutta convent-school accent. We would endure our two years in America, secure our degrees, then return to India to marry the grooms of our father’s choosing”, Bharati proclaimed. Her and her sister possessed the preposition of returning to their native land as soon as they completed their studies. The situation didn’t turn out as suitably as they might have thought it would. Living for several years in the U.S now, Bharati claims as if it was her domicile now, where she desires to enduringly remain in the U.S. She has constructed a new life there. She endured the necessity to become part of the community she had adopted. “The price that the immigrant willingly pays, and that the exile avoids, is the trauma of self-transformation”. She …show more content…
The visitors expect to find beautiful palm trees in this new “Promised Land.” They see buses and shuttles with specific, culturally related tokens broadcasted upon them. “ They see Koreans piling into the Taeguk Airport Shuttle and the Seoul Shuttle...they see newcomers from the Middle East disappearing under the Arabic script of the Sahara Shuttle...a black Chevy Blazer with Mexican stickers all over its windows, being towed.” What they don’t see shocks them most of all. They don’t see “military planes on the tarmac here...no khaki soldiers in fatigues, no instructions not to take photographs…” The California they saw on tv is almost nonexistent. The blue skies, the palm trees, they are all covered by the fog and pollution. All they can see is signs reading, “Hilton and Hyatt and Holiday
...is an American by virtue but Indian due to her parent’s upbringing. That is the reason why she is referred to being an Indian-American author which she has embraced. Due to the fact Bengali marries within their caste, Lahiri married a Latin American Journalist Alberto Vourvoulias and have two sons, Octivian and Noor. After getting married, Lahiri does not feel the need to be shy about speaking in Bengali or any other language. Currently residing in Rome with her family to feel how immigrants adapt to change and to go experience what her characters and parents do in her short stories. Through writing, Lahiri has discovered the fact she belongs to both the worlds and the generations of Indian-American immigrants will change and bring intense joy. "It has been liberating and brought me some peace to just confront that truth, if not to be able to solve it or answer it.”
On page 53, four paragraphs down the author states that the boy’s choice in moving away improved his academic life. His father only lived a mile and a half down the road, like the old saying so close but so far away. At the end of page 53, the author talks about him and his Aunt going on trips. She taught him all about Indian culture on these trips. They even traveled to the imitation Stonehenge Monument. On this trip his Aunt had begun to talk to the main character about what he wants to be in life. The boy answers “I want to be like you,” and she had told him to think about following in his father footstep’s considering the fact many Indian boy’s do.
Culture is a unique way to express the way one shows the world and others how different each one is. Culture affects the way one views the world and others. This is demonstrated in the stories “Ethnic Hash” by Patricia Williams, “Legal Alien” by Pat Mora, and “By Any Other Name” by Santha Rama Rau. These stories come together to show examples of how people of different cultures are viewed by others as different. Mora, Williams, and Rau all have very unique styles, and this is shown throughout the following quotes.
Culture is expressed through a variety of different ways, from clothing styles to lifestyles to faithful traditions. It can also have a deep impact on the viewpoints of those around you, whether negatively or positively. No matter how a person goes about their everyday life, they can rise above the expectations of their culture to change the world around them. Culture does not have to be the basis of every thought, word, or deed of a person.
...d and left with little cultural influence of their ancestors (Hirschman 613). When the children inadvertently but naturally adapting to the world around them, such as Lahiri in Rhode Island, the two-part identity begins to raise an issue when she increasingly fits in more both the Indian and American culture. She explains she “felt an intense pressure to be two things, loyal to the old world and fluent in the new”, in which she evidently doing well at both tasks (Lahiri 612). The expectations for her to maintain her Indian customs while also succeeding in learning in the American culture put her in a position in which she is “sandwiched between the country of [her] parents and the country of [her] birth”, stuck in limbo, unable to pick one identity over the other.
Mira is the sister that likes celebrates her culture of being Indian. For example, Bharati talked about how her sister felt about being american, she said “She is happier to live in America as an expatriate Indian than as an immigrant American”. She expresses that her sister wouldn’t want to change her culture or who she is. Bharati on the other hand, likes the American way of life better than her Indian culture. In other words, she wants to be more apart of her new culture, she said “I need to feel like a part of the community I have adopted (as I tried to feel in Canada as well)”. This reinforces how she and Mira have different views on how to integrate into America. This relates to the feeling of being introduced to a new culture. How you can still be apart of your original culture, or how you can just become really into this new culture. It expresses how cultural morals would affect just about anything in your
Mukherjee then begins to compare and contrast her sister in a subject-by-subject organization. She states, “…she clings passionately to her Indian citizenship and hopes to go home to India when she...
This essay is about two sisters, Bharati and Mira, who move from India to America to pursue their dreams, achieve their goals, and further their education. Mira wants to continue her Indian heritage and move back to their homeland in India but Bharati wants to create a new lifestyle and experience different cultures in America. Bharati understands that America is full of different cultures that become one American culture but Mira chooses to go against her sister’s beliefs. Mira would much rather live in a gorgeous mosaic rather than a melting pot because her culture would be accepted in a place where diversity is encouraged to benefit a nation. In the essay “The Myth of the Latin Woman”, Judith Ortiz Cofer talks about her life in America as Puerto Rican. She uses her own experiences to describe the difficulties her culture faces when living America. She wanted to fit in with everyone else but couldn’t because of the stereotypes she faced. She believes the challenges that she faced weren’t only because of the fact that she was an immigrant, but also because she was a woman. Cofer would also rather live in a gorgeous mosaic so she could feel more accepted by others around
Becoming aware of a culture supersedes the individual emotions you may experience in trying to understand how a group of people have become, through their own experience, different from the identity that you have attained from your own culture. “Cultural awareness is one being aware of their personal attitudes, beliefs, biases, and behaviors that may influence the type of care they are able to render in an environment.” (Mopraize)
The author of the story was born in 1967 in London, and soon after she moved to Rhode Island in the United States. Although Lahiri was born in England and raised in the United States and her parent’s still carried an Indian cultural background and held their believes, as her father and mother were a librarian and teacher. Author’s Indian heritage is a strong basis of her stories, stories where she questions the identity and the plot of the different cultural displaced. Lahiri always interactive with her parents in Bengali every time which shows she respected her parents and culture. As the author was growing up she never felt that she was a full American, as her parents deep ties with India as they often visited the country.
Culture often means an appreciation of the finer things in life; however, culture brings members of a society together. We have a sense of belonging because we share similar beliefs, values, and attitudes about what’s right and wrong. As a result, culture changes as people adapt to their surroundings. According to Bishop Donald, “let it begin with me and my children and grandchildren” (211). Among other things, culture influences what you eat; how you were raised and will raise your own children? If, when, and whom you will marry; how you make and spend money. Truth is culture is adaptive and always changing over time because
In “My Two Lives” Jhumpa Lahiri talks about her hardship growing up in America coming from two different cultures. At home she spoke Bengali with her parents, ate with her hands. According to Jhumpa’s parents she was not American and would never be. This led her to become ashamed of her background. She felt like she did not have to hide her culture anymore. When Jhumpa got married in Calcutta she invited her American friends that never visited India. Jhumpa thought her friends would judge from being part of the Indian culture and isolate her.However her friends were intrigued by her culture and fascinated. She felt like her culture should not be hidden from her friends anymore, and that coming from an Indian-American culture is unique. Jhumpa believes that her upbringing is the reason why she is still involved with her Bengali culture. Jhumpa says“While I am American by virtue of the fact that I was raised in this country, I am Indian thanks to the efforts of two individuals.” Jhumpa means that she is Indian, because she lived most of her life and was raised here. In the story Lahiri explains that her parents shaped her into the person she is. Growing up coming from two different cultures can be difficult, but it can also be beneficial.
In those times people of different cultures never interacted with one another, causing the idea that all the other cultures were inferior to become main steam. As immigrants in America there was really one two ways to survive living in America. The article “Two Ways to Belong in America “deals with two sisters that choices different options. One that refused to give up any connection to her culture and the other that let American culture in. It helps to show that because one of the sisters refused to change her culture, it was hard for her to
Bharati Mukherjee’s story, “Two Ways to Belong in America”, is about two sisters from India who later came to America in search of different ambitions. Growing up they were very similar in their looks and their beliefs, but they have contrasting views on immigration and citizenship. Both girls had been living in the United States for 35 years and only one sister had her citizenship. Bharati decided not to follow Indian traditional values and she married outside of her culture. She had no desire to continue worshipping her culture from her childhood, so she became a United States citizen. Her ideal life goal was to stay in America and transform her life. Mira, on the other hand, married an Indian student and they both earned labor certifications that was crucial for a green card. She wanted to move back to India after retirement because that is where her heart belonged. The author’s tone fluctuates throughout the story. At the beginning of the story her tone is pitiful but then it becomes sympathizing and understanding. She makes it known that she highly disagrees with her sister’s viewpoints but she is still considerate and explains her sister’s thought process. While comparing the two perspectives, the author uses many
To conclude, cultures are a major part of our lives and they constitute the image we see the world in. cultures can sometimes influence us, even in ways we don’t expect. Sometimes we find ourselves forced in cultures with negative stereotypes but that does not mean we should be ashamed of those cultural groups but rather embrace our culture and stray from the negative characteristics of that