There are many ways in which a traveler can come to understand a culture. Many people have the idea that by visiting certain places, they are captivating the culture that exists there. I can say that this is further from the truth. In both “Vietnam’s Bowl of Secrets” by David Farley and “Caliph of the Tricksters” by Christopher de Ballaigue, the authors experience the culture with one thing in particular that ties many aspects of that same culture together. For David Farley, it was the detail in the recipe surrounding the dish called “cao lau”. For Christopher it was the cockfighting scene that demonstrated the hardship the city had faced.
In both cases it is evident that the authors had gone further into the culture than a tourist who just
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As stated on page 102 “The town now has a modern system for running water, but the residents still make the pilgrimage to Ba Le.” This understanding of this culture is a mission that David wanted to comprehend in his quest for the recipe. He says “I’m just a food-loving traveler obsessed with unraveling weird mysteries”. In today’s world, most people do not need to be obsessed about anything in order to get the real essence of a place of travel. Most of the time all they really need to do is talk to the residents of that community. Learning from people’s life story is more significant than just stepping foot on a famous place. Yes, it can be very touching seeing nature or a great mosque, but that has no meaning to me if you cannot explain things through the resident’s eyes. I have been fortunate enough to visit several Latin American countries. All of my visits have been magnified because of my interactions with the local people. For instance, in the Dominican Republic I stayed at a missionary place for the majority of my stay. I visited an orphanage and I got to understand how hard it is for kids when their bones calcify due to lack of movement. I also got to learn about their passion for baseball when I …show more content…
He spoke to a policeman named Fakhri who told him that the season of cockfighting starts in December and continues to spring. He speaks of how the act is illegal because it involves gambling and it is against the Islamic Law, yet he says that “The sport is gaining in popularity, and attendance and bets are growing.” Christopher then says that the word illegal has a particular meaning in Afghanistan. This example is specific to Afghanistan, but many cultures also provide perfect examples of how the essence of so called “illegal” activities are part of the core culture which people practice. In Colombia for example, it is illegal for people to use gun powder and or firecrackers during the festivity seasons, yet people still continue to do it because it is tied to tradition. Part of that tradition in Colombia is also the launching of self propelled hot air balloons with designs called “globos.” They are now illegal, yet people still launch them in December for the tradition it ties of the gathering of the neighborhoods where music and food is shared at the
Mark Atwood Lawrence’s The Vietnam War: A Concise International History shows readers an international affair involving many nations and how the conflict progressed throughout its rather large existence. Lawrence starts his book in a time before America was involved in the war. It starts out with the French trying to colonize the nation of Vietnam. Soon the United States gets involved and struggles to get its point across in the jungles of Indo-China. Much of the book focuses on the American participation in helping South Vietnam vie for freedom to combine the country as a whole not under Communist rule. Without seeing many results, the war drug on for quite some time with neither side giving up. This resulted in problems in Vietnam and the U.S.
Tim O’Brien’s book, The Things They Carried, portrays stories of the Vietnam War. Though not one hundred percent accurate, the stories portray important historical events. The Things They Carried recovers Vietnam War history and portrays situations the American soldiers faced. The United States government represents a political power effect during the Vietnam War. The U. S. enters the war to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam. The U.S. government felt if communism spreads to South Vietnam, then it will spread elsewhere. Many Americans disapproved of their country’s involvement. Men traveled across the border to avoid the draft. The powerful United States government made the decision to enter the war, despite many Americans’ opposition. O’Brien’s The Things They Carried applies New Historicism elements, including Vietnam history recovery and the political power of the United States that affected history.
I carry the memories of the ghosts of a place called Vietnam-the people of Vietnam, my fellow soldiers- Tim O’Brien
In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the readers follow the Alpha Company’s experiences during the Vietnam War through the telling’s of the main character and narrator, Tim. At the beginning of the story, Tim describes the things that each character carries, also revealing certain aspects of the characters as can be interpreted by the audience. The book delineates what kind of person each character is throughout the chapters. As the novel progresses, the characters’ personalities change due to certain events of the war. The novel shows that due to these experiences during the Vietnam War, there is always a turning point for each soldier, especially as shown with Bob “Rat” Kiley and Azar. With this turning point also comes the loss of innocence for these soldiers. O’Brien covers certain stages of grief and self-blame associated with these events in these stories as well in order to articulate just how those involved felt so that the reader can imagine what the effects of these events would be like for them had they been a part of it.
Vietnam was a highly debated war among citizens of the United States. This war was like no other with regards to how it affected people on the home front. In past war’s the population of the United States mainly supported the war and admired soldiers for their courage. During the Vietnam War, citizens of the U.S. had a contradictory view then in the past. This dilemma of not having the support of the people originates from the culture and the time period. During this time period it would be the fourth time Americans went to war in that century which made it tough for Americans to give their supportS (Schlesinger 8). Most Americans did not know why the country was getting involved in Vietnam as well as what the United States’ agenda was. This dilemma ties into the short story, “On the Rainy River” which is a passage from Tim O’Brien’s book The Things They Carried.
Robert S. McNamara's book, In Retrospect, tells the story of one man's journey throughout the trials and tribulations of what seems to be the United States utmost fatality; the Vietnam War. McNamara's personal encounters gives an inside perspective never before heard of, and exposes the truth behind the administration.
Karnow, S., & Gropp, G. (1992). In Orange County's Little Saigon, Vietnamese try to bridge two worlds. Smithsonian, 23(5), 28.
For some it was all about knowledge and enlightenment. For others it was the drive to show that they were not puppets under the marionette master. But for the masses, it was just what the other kids were doing. Yet, when it really all came down to it, regardless of what they were representing, the youth counter-culture of the 1970’s was quite powerful. Who would have thought that the youth who in all previous wars had heeded their parents call now rejected and abandoned their ideals and almost formed their own sect in the political spectrum? In order to give a just analysis, to give an examination of the Vietnam Counter-Culture, one would have to look to the preliminary causes, the debates and diplomacy of the youth themselves, and the reflection where this has influenced today’s youth.
The term “culture” elicits strong feelings within the Vietnamese community. The adults and elders would tell young people culture is a way of being that involves talking, acting, and following traditions. For second-generation Vietnamese adolescents, culture becomes an everyday battleground. A battleground that takes no prisoners leaving the field desolated. As a result, adolescents are left psychologically, emotionally, and mentally torn to pieces. They must navigate two cultural systems that contradict on another. The dominating American culture stresses individualistic idealism whereas Vietnamese culture stresses collectivistic idealism.
Of the lessons of this course, the distinction made between story and situation will be the most important legacy in my writing. I learned a great travel essay cannot be merely its situation: its place, time, and action. It requires a story, the reader’s internal “journey of discovery.” While the importance of establishing home, of balancing summary and scene, and other lessons impacted my writing, this assertion at least in my estimation the core argument of the course.
What is culture? Culture is such a complex concept that it is not defined by one simple thing. When studying the culture of a particular group of people we look at their beliefs, fashion, art, music and even food. By simply trying food from a particular culture we can learn much about its history and even geography. Recently I had the opportunity to try authentic Peruvian cuisine. Not only did I get to try new food and get to learn about a new culture, I also got to be able to compare it to my own Colombian culture.
...ce, although both writings are interesting in their own ways, the most interesting aspect of both writings together is that they both have a similar plot and theme. It is rare that two
Cultures are infinitely complex. Culture, as Spradley (1979) defines it, is "the acquired knowledge that people use to interpret experiences and generate social behavior" (p. 5). Spradley's emphasizes that culture involves the use of knowledge. While some aspects of culture can be neatly arranged into categories and quantified with numbers and statistics, much of culture is encoded in schema, or ways of thinking (Levinson & Ember, 1996, p. 418). In order to accurately understand a culture, one must apply the correct schema and make inferences which parallel those made my natives. Spradley suggests that culture is not merely a cognitive map of beliefs and behaviors that can be objectively charted; rather, it is a set of map-making skills through which cultural behaviors, customs, language, and artifacts must be plotted (p. 7). This definition of culture offers insight into ...
Vietnam was a struggle which, in all honesty, the United States should never have been involved in. North Vietnam was battling for ownership of South Vietnam, so that they would be a unified communist nation. To prevent the domino effect and the further spread of communism, the U.S. held on to the Truman Doctrine and stood behind the South Vietnamese leader, Diem.
Our world is full of hundreds of cultures, scattered all over the place, but when we can’t travel to every country on earth, how can we find out about these cultures. We can learn a tremendous amount about a culture, just through studying their literature. First of all, we can learn a great amount about their basic culture; their everyday life. We can also learn what kind of society they live in now, and what kind they did live in hundreds of years ago. And finally we can learn about their history simply from studying their culture. Culture isn’t only defined as a country’s history or what kind of society they live in, it’s also about simple things like what you eat, or what kind of bed you have, or what you believe in.