More handpicked essays just for you.
An essay about the role of culture in personality development
American literature has many ethnic groups
Racism and ethnicity novels
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Some people believe that a person sees the world based on their culture. Others believe it is the choices and life experiences that shapes a person’s point of view. However, not many people know that it is actually both. In texts such as “Ethnic Hash”, “Two Ways to Belong in America”, and “Legal Alien” readers can see that sometimes culture can affect how a person lives but other times it does not.
In Patricia J. Williams excerpt “Ethnic Hash” Williams writes in the point of view of her younger self, when she was trying to understand her culture. “What are the habits, customs, and common traits in which I have been guided in life” (Williams 13)? Williams is not sure what exactly her culture is, but does believe that it has an effect on her
Cultural diversity is an important element. Often times we acknowledge cultural diversity but we don’t quite understand it simply because we do not live it. With this novel, readers can understand cultural
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.
Some may say that people can adapt to a new place and completely let go of their culture; thus they are saying that cultural identity does not continually inform the way one views the world. This however, is not accurate. While people can adapt to a new place and adapt to parts of a new places culture, they cannot completely let go of their cultural identity. It will always impact the way one views the world. Take for example Bharati, the author of the personal essay “Two ways to belong in America”. While Bharti's sister Mira chose to hold on to every aspect of their indian heritage; Bharati wanted to feel like she belonged fully in America. When talking about her sister she says “She is happier to live in America as expatriate Indian than as an immigrant American I need to feel like a part of the community I have adopted”(85). Bharati needs to feel like she belongs, and though she may have broadened her culture; her perception of the world and others is still influenced by her indian cultural
When people migrate to America, they experience a cultural shock. Immigrants feel overwhelmed by the new language and culture. The struggle to adapt to the new environment forces them to try to fit into the American stereotype. In The Soul of Black Folk, Du Bois says that the way white Americans view African Americans creates a tension on African American social identity. This tension is also seen on immigrant’s social identity once they migrate to the United States. Immigrants struggle to reconcile two cultures with a multi-faceted perspective of self, which creates a double consciousness.
However, the unjustified discrimination in America is often represented by the hard transition that immigrants face when they move to America. This statement is exemplified in the short narrative piece, “American Dreamer” by author Bharati Mukherjee. In “American Dreamer” Mukherjee reflects on her own experiences of being an immigrant and her transition into becoming an “American”. Most people think of America as a cultural melting pot where other cultures are accepted perhaps even celebrated. In spite of this, what America actually celebrates is harshly debated. America likes to say that is prides it self on being “multiculturalists”, yet Mukherjee points out that even multiculturalism, “leads to a lack of respect for individual differences within each group.” (358) The idea of multiculturalism seems like a good idea, but this is rather not true since the idea of multiculturalism, “implies the existence of a central culture.” (Mukherjee 358) Much of the unjustified discrimination in America comes from people from other cultures not fitting into the “central culture” that the US seems to have adopted. This has led to an “us” vs. “them” mentality (Mukherjee 359) in America. Many people in America seem to rely on discrimination since they don’t like the idea of America’s culture changing. However like Mukherjee states America shouldn’t be afraid of the culture changing and instead should embrace that America’s culture is “constantly reforming.” (Mukherjee 359) I hope like the author that one there will be less discrimination towards immigrants. I believe that if more Americans can accept that it our culture is constantly changing and that it is a good thing it is changing, there can be less unjustified discrimination. I truly think that discrimination can never be
We strongly believe that culture has a great influence one’s perspective on the world as well as the people around them. This may include the choices you make and how you view from what's right and wrong. It’s influence can be great, controlling your entire lifestyle from how you dress to what you eat, or it could be small, slightly influencing the decisions you make. Your own culture may be judged and be discriminated against, causing you to react in a certain way to protect what you stand for. In the story “By Any Other Name” by Samantha Rama Rau, shows how two Indian girl’s followed their culture and stayed true to their beliefs.
“When people rely on surface appearances and false racial stereotypes, rather than in-depth knowledge of others at the level of the heart, mind and spirit, their ability to assess and understand people accurately is compromised.” (James A. Forbes) In the world, many people label and stereotype other nationalities, races, or cultures. Some do this simply to compare their culture to others’, but some label people a certain way to make them feel bad about themselves. Occasionally, groups of people don’t like the way the are labeled or stereotyped, so they work together to change the way they are perceived. Steinbeck shows how labeling and stereotyping influence how people look at the world by making the characters quick to judge one another based on their actions.
When I first announced to my parents that I was going to marry my current wife, the first words out of my father’s mouth were, “But she’s from another culture.” My father and mother, although being generally good people, are the products of an older system of beliefs. It is the matrix I was raised with, and that dictated my earlier learning experience. Fortunately for me, I chose to risk alienating my parents, and told them that if they ever mentioned “different cultures” to me again, it would be the last time we would be on speaking terms. I chose to ignore the matrix I was presented with, and the happiness and peace of mind that came from that decision have shaped my life ever since. I share this example because it is the key point of what I want the reader to understand from the comparison in this paper. It is a comparison between two choices made by two different primary players from the movie The Matrix and Octavia Butler’s novel Dawn.
So many things have said about the cultural assimilation, and so many people have struggled to live the new society to prove themselves and work hard to absorb the new life by learning the language and new culture. So many people devoted their lives to assimilate to be part of American society. Cultural assimilation does not only means to survive in the new life, but also people who try to fit in the new society. A society where people are not judged by their class, money, or education, but are determined by race, color, religion, and where they come from. Do we really and profoundly feel what it means to be part of new society? Do we keep following the stereotypes that we have created in our very own minds, which is, if we speak the same language with same exact dialect, and we share common interests from the new culture, we lose our own cultural roots or background? To make a long story short, what is cultural assimilation means? One of the brilliant examples from personal experience is revealing a particular point of view on the matter of the outstanding work of Richard Rodriguez “Hunger of Memory”. Rodriguez shows cultural assimilation in his personal examples, and displays the issue completely by talking about himself as a Mexican-American who tried to survive a new way of life to become something of himself. In this book, Rodriguez tries to idealize not only his way of life when he assimilates, but he includes his feeling of being alienated from his own culture, his background, society, and his family. He believes that his existence in American society made him understand what it is to be a Mexican American, and what it is to be a minority f...
For many years, the idea of race itself has been in question by sociologists who are attempting to come up with a definition for what identifies one racial group from another. In fact, the largest possible determinant has been culture. Our culture is the basis of who we are in life. It is a way of life that determines the lifestyle that is practiced within a group of people, or society. In other words, a significant concept to understand is that cultural beliefs, behaviors, values, and practices are learned from birth: first at home, then in church and other places where people assemble. Some practices and beliefs in human culture include food, music, religion, sports, and health beliefs, which symbolize the values we possess in life. Furthermore, our own culture is diverse and it is significant to look within and identify what we value the most, what is essentially needed, and how we perceive the world. It is our surviving tool and subconsciously we don’t even realize it is needed to communicate and socialize with o...
In terms of literature, perhaps the focus should be on the way different kinds of people are represented and how they represent themselves. Representation is the means by which people formulate their identity. Some may wish to discard their traditional national identity, whilst others make a strong effort to maintain it. Hence there is a continuous dialectic between received...
The first way describes cultural identity as a shared culture by many people; a culture is like a collective self. As he further argues that cultural identities always highlight the same practices of past which give people stability, unshifting and constant frames of reference and meaning beneath the shifting divisions and shifting in their actual history (6). Hall shares his personal experience of immigration in Minimal Selves (1987) that when he thinks about identity, he got to know that he has always felt that he is a migrant amongst the foreigners. Similarly Lahiri’s fiction is autobiographical she explains her sorrows as a migrant and suffering in a foreign
Wilkens, S., & Sanford, M. L. (2009). Hidden worldviews: eight cultural stories that shape our lives. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic.
Three Levels of Cultural Awareness. Lecture Notes), is a characteristic of “difference” that I am aware of is the differences in skin color. I view my social identities as being shaped many factors of changes throughout my life that contributed to my exposure to different communities, television, people, and the drive to better myself and show society that; though I am seen as being part of a minority ethnic group, I can have the qualities that they highly regard as middle class. However, I have always seen my ethnicity as Mexican, but have been influence by dominant culture to become a U.S. Citizen, which I am Mexican American, and my mother’s beliefs in the Catholic faith has shape to follow her faith and raise my children in this religion. My family structure has also changed through my life in childhood biological parent were married, and through young adulthood I was an unmarried single parent, now I am in a interracial marriage with 4 biological children. My internal oppression developed from dominant culture’s standards that reflected “physical characteristics, name, language, cultural traditions, or values” (Derman-Sparks &
In the end, what we learn from this article is very realistic and logical. Furthermore, it is supported with real-life examples. Culture is ordinary, each individual has it, and it is both individual and common. It’s a result of both traditional values and an individual effort. Therefore, trying to fit it into certain sharp-edged models would be wrong.