Culture Among War

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Recommended: Relevance of cultural identity

Nations have been fighting wars since the inception of the human race. It seems as if we are in a constant state of war. Though the United States Federal Government has not declared war since World War II it is hard to view Vietnam, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan as simple policing actions. From sheer observation it seems most wars are fought over money and pride. As an American one thing we can all relate to is a special sense of pride in our country even though it is still very young; other countries see our pride as arrogance. The charge of arrogance has never deterred our spirit; it has become part of our culture. A person’s cultural is unarguably the most important thing they possess. In the case of Anne Moody the author of Coming of Age in Mississippi she deals with the dilemma of her home country do everything they can to bring her down. In Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis 2 her country is engulfed in revolution causing a split in her cultural which causes a spilt in her identity. So is patriotism more important than cultural heritage? We will examine the question through the scope of these two novels to draw a conclusion.
Before we delve into the heart of the essay first it is important to understand the question that is being asked. Patriotism as defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary is the love someone feels for their country. So when we talking about things like loyalty to your country and being proud of where you were born you are referring to patriotism. Where your roots come from is a different story entirely. Cultural heritage as defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in ...

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...ican-American. In Essie Mea situation she values patriotism and cultural heritage almost equally.
For Marjane, patriotism was the most important thing for her only when it pertained to her own country. Cultural heritage won out in the end for her even though she left Iran again to go be in France. Though the novel ends there, through her adventures the reader can be rest assured she stayed true to who she was in her heritage. So the answer to the question really is not, yes or no, but who the person is. For someone who grew up in the same country as their cultural heritage patriotism always wins, but for someone born into a country their ancestors migrated to (voluntarily or involuntarily) patriotism will either be balanced or come second, but never first. The answer to this question ultimately lies within an quote by Pliny the Elder, “Home is where the heart is.”

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