Two Ways To Belong In America

An individual’s culture can be effected by many different things, including the actions, ways of thinking and ways of doing things that the individual does. These attributes of culture can affect how an individual views the world. An individual’s culture has a consistent effect on the way that an individual views others and the world around them. One example of culture effecting an individual’s views would be in Alice Walker’s short story, “Everyday Use”. In the short story Dee seems to see her mother and sister as lesser people because of the way they are still living, this can be seen when Dee says to Maggie, “You ought to try and make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It’s really a new day for us. But from the way you and mama still live, you’d never know.”(80). This evidence from the text shows how Dee’s views of her own culture has changed. After being exposed to a different culture than the one she grew up in she conformed to the new culture. Because of this she sees the way that Mama and Maggie live as being

In her personal essay Mukherjee shows how culture effects someone’s views on the world when she says, “I’ll become a U.S. citizen for now, then change back to Indian when I’m ready to go home. I feel some kind of irrational attachment to India that I don’t to America. Until all this hysteria against illegal immigrants, I was totally happy. Having my green card meant I could visit any place in the world I wanted to and then come back to a job that’s satisfying and that I do very well.”(10). Since Mukherjee was originally from her home of India, the culture she was exposed to followed with her to the U.S. That is the reason for her “irrational attachment” to India and not the U.S., where she had spent most of her life. Her views made her favor India over the