Culture and Views of the World While human beings experience culture everyday, many are only exposed to their own. It is easy for a person to live their life, ignorant of all other traditions rather than their own. However, experiencing people with a different culture can be insightful and can have a positive effect on society. At first, it may be difficult to understand why certain groups of people have rituals or celebrate on special days, but because of culture, IDK. Culture consistently informs the way one views the world and others because it challenges society to look at one another and explore their way of life. Culture can inspire one to abandon their way of thinking for someone else’s. In “Two Ways to Belong in America” the author writes, “America spoke to me- I married it -I embraced the demotion from expatriate aristocrat to immigrant nobody…” (Mukherjee 71). This quote is evidence that the author’s culture helped her accept a new one. She was confident enough with her Indian culture that she decided to embrace the culture surrounding her. Before this, she was forced to view American culture because it was different than hers and it stood out. Immigrants can look at culture in America differently because they come from a separate culture. They explore American …show more content…
They believe that culture hides individuals from the world, however, culture intensifies the world and the different groups of people in it. Native American culture stands out to others because it is so foreign to a bystander. Immigrants come to America and are amazed by the consumerism and the new culture, as seen in the story “Where Worlds Collide.” (Iyer 51). This surge of difference is caused by opposing cultures. In a new environment, one is forced to look upon someone else’s way of life. Their culture does not hide them from new thinking. It does the contrary and exposes people to different
“Like many immigrant offspring I felt intense pressure to be two things, loyal to the old world and fluent in the new, approved of on either side of the hyphen” (Lahiri, My Two lives). Jhumpa Lahiri, a Pulitzer Prize winner, describes herself as Indian-American, where she feels she is neither an Indian nor an American. Lahiri feels alienated by struggling to live two lives by maintaining two distinct cultures. Lahiri’s most of the work is recognized in the USA rather than in India where she is descents from (the guardian.com). Lahiri’s character’s, themes, and imagery in her short stories and novels describes the cultural differences of being Indian American and how Indian’s maintain their identity when moved to a new world. Lahiri’s inability to feel accepted within her home, inability to be fully American, being an Indian-American, and the difference between families with same culture which is reflected in one of her short stories “Once in a Lifetime” through characterization and imagery.
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.
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
They both think they deserve the blanket because Maggie wants the quilt to use everyday as a blanket and Dee wants the blanket to have up. Maggie has a bigger culture than Dee because Maggie will use it everyday and she will have it when her and her man get married. Wangero said, laughing that “Maggie’s brain is like an elephant’s” , well they mean she has a memory as and elephant. Dee said “Maggie can't appreciate these quilts.” Their mom thinks maggie deserves it. My mom would have said Maggie deserves it too because my mom would want to to use it everyday. Their culture and my culture sees the same. It’s the same and a lot of ways. Maggies mom made a promised and she kept it , exactly like my family would have. (Maggie 64) by now was standing in the door. I could almost hear the sound her feet made as they scraped over each other. As I see it is that we all see culture in the same way but just by different
In “My Two Lives”, Jhumpa Lahiri tells of her complicated upbringing in Rhode Island with her Calcutta born-and-raised parents, in which she continually sought a balance between both her Indian and American sides. She explains how she differs from her parents due to immigration, the existent connections to India, and her development as a writer of Indian-American stories. “The Freedom of the Inbetween” written by Sally Dalton-Brown explores the state of limbo, or “being between cultures”, which can make second-generation immigrants feel liberated, or vice versa, trapped within the two (333). This work also discusses how Lahiri writes about her life experiences through her own characters in her books. Charles Hirschman’s “Immigration and the American Century” states that immigrants are shaped by the combination of an adaptation to American...
Society and culture surround everyone at all times. It helps raise and shape the population into what it is from the moment a person is born to their death. It is a very powerful factor in the world. It can cause hatred and war but it can also cause love and acceptance. It affects our behavior, tolerance, and decisions.
In America, it is a common misconception that all foreigners are similar; it is believed that they all have similar dreams and each of them end up chasing after the same jobs. However, this is not the case. Not only do immigrants from different countries hold different dreams, but those with a shared background even have varying hopes and dreams for the future. This is evidenced in Bharati Mukherjee’s essay, “Two Ways to Belong in America.” She utilizes several rhetorical strategies in order to show that immigrants have the ability to be assimilated into the American culture, but that they should not be deported if they choose not to conform to said culture.
The United States is the largest immigrant receiving country in the world. A number of people with different cultures are moving to the United States every day. Therefore, American culture is a diverse mix of customs and traditions from almost every region of the world. However, any culture with the value of the traditions and beliefs can be greatly weakened when introduced to a new and overpowering culture. It happens quite frequently to families that move to a new city or country with different lifestyles. As a result, the children of these families grow up to not care as much about their original culture 's traditions as the older generations do. As we know, Native Americans, who are indigenous peoples of the United States, account for less
Something that has always fascinated me is the confrontation with a completely different culture. We do not have to travel far to realize that people really lead different lives in other countries and that the saying "Home sweet home" often applies to most of us. What if we suddenly had to leave our homes and settle somewhere else, somewhere where other values and beliefs where common and where people spoke a different language? Would we still try to hang on to the 'old home' by speaking our mother tongue, practising our own religion and culture or would we give in to the new and exciting country and forget our past? And what would it be like for our children, and their children? In Identity Lessons - Contemporary Writing About Learning to Be American I found many different stories telling us what it is like to be "trapped" between two cultures. In this short essay I aim to show that belonging to two cultures can be very confusing.
The Indian culture is family oriented and place family values first, while American culture is more individual oriented and place their individuals values first. Also, the expectation between females and males in the American and Indian society contrast greatly, since the Indian society is predominantly patriarchal. Thus, Indian woman are in lower status compared to an Indian man. Indian woman that are raised in the American culture and Indian culture have both aspects of each culture making their identity very unique. The identity of an Indian woman reflects and complements the collective lifestyle of her family, culture, religious symbolism, and role expectations. Therefore, growing up as an Indian Hindu female in America affects identity through experiencing the Indian and American culture
As an immigrant, I have talked about my culture numerous time, and as a Psychology major, I was certain, I knew all about culture. For instance, Dominicans we are loud, we are always talking about food, merengue, salsa or bachata music, or things we used to do when we still lived in the Dominican Republic. In fact, my Dominicans friends and I use the phrase “that’s so Dominican”, as though we have identified every pattern of behavior of my country. Interestingly, after I read the initial chapter of this course textbook, I realized that culture was not limited to customs, or typical dishes, but rather, that the extent of culture goes beyond race, ethnicity or nationality. In the book, there are two ways in which culture is defined: broad and
Culture sometimes informs the way one views the others and the world in our everyday lives. Some say your culture shapes you as who you are but others say that it’s the experiences you’ve had. Whenever I hear the question “To what extent does one’s Culture inform the way one views others and the world?” I think of two different things. I think of the differences between people, an example being people who have homes and the homeless. They have different point of views because they are in drastically different situations. So I do agree with it may have to deal with experiences, but then I also think about racism and racial judgement, etc. Thats where the Culture comes into play and then with that information I stand in the middle. Its both,
Coming to the United States was a big change for me, having to learn a new language and a new way of living. I didn’t realize that I have an accent when I speak English until people started asking, “Where is that accent from?”. The experience of coming to a different country made me realize I was different. Therefore, experiencing things is what makes you acknowledge who you are. Cultural identity is your surroundings, beliefs, and experiences. Furthermore, what you do and believe is cultural identity. On the other side, there’s invisible culture where our culture is invisible to us because we see that other cultures are different to ours, but we don’t see that ours is different to others.
First, understanding culture helps us to understand how others interpret their environment. We know that culture shapes how people see their world and how they function within that world. Culture shapes personal and group values and attitudes, including perceptions about what works and what doesn’t work, what is helpful and what is not, what makes sense and what does not.