An Indian Father's Plea By Robert Lake And Bharati Mukherjee

A popular conservative columnist, Jonah Goldberg, writes: Cultures grow on the vine of tradition. What this means is that the fruits of our culture are largely based on tradition and like a Fiddler on the Roof, every culture’s social classes: mother, father, priest, beggar, and matchmaker have traditional roles to play, in order to keep society functioning smoothly as the world around them changes. However, a person’s paraticular culture greatly affects the way he or she views others and their world. Three authors whose articles support my thesis are Samantha Rama Raw, Robert Lake, and Bharati Mukherjee. In these authors’ narratives, they explain how one's culture can affect their way of life and how they view their world, based on the

differences of their culture.
In the short story, “An Indian Father’s Plea” by Robert Lake, the Native American Indian author writes a letter to his five year old son’s teacher, regarding his son Wind-Wolf being labeled a “slow learner” in a white man’s school.

The father reveals in his letter that Wind-Wolf may be slow at grasping the learning styles of a white man’s classroom because of how he was brought up in a Native American culture, where he studied with all of his five senses and explored the world around him as an integral part of the Natural order. This story dramatically displays that a person's culture greatly affects how we see our world and others in it, through the different perspectives of Wind-Wolf, demonstrated by his teacher and his dad. The teacher feels Wind-Wolf is slow because he is unable to grasp the methods and tools that they are using in the classroom, which is aimed at his white peers. In his white teacher's culture being able to understand the things in the classroom that white people value and find important is what is considered smart and since Wind-Wolf is unable to do so yet, he is considered slow in that culture. The dad sees Wind-Wolf as someone who isn't slow, but knows different things and learns in different ways. In some Native American Indian cultures, they go to many ceremonies and bondings, they know a lot about the land they live on, and they understand the many different cultures and languages of their neighboring tribes. All of which Wind-Wolf has

learned well, if not his multiplication tables! His father believes that Wind-Wolf isn't culturally “disadvantaged” but culturally “different” from his higher performing peers. For example, in the article it states that, “If you ask him how many months are in a year, he will probably tell you thirteen.” The father explains that he responds this way not because he's slow and cannot count, but because he was taught by tradition and the tribal calendar that there are 13 full moons in a year. The teacher and Wind-Wolf's dad both come from different cultures and were brought up with different values, so they both view and have different perspectives on Wind-Wolf. The teacher calls him slow for not learning white man’s cultural way of learning in the classroom and Wind-Wolf's father believes that he is not slow, but from a different culture and is, in fact, a very bright student.
In the story “Everyday Use” written by Alice Walker, the author speaks about a black mother and her two children dealing with the struggles of growing up poor on a farm in the rural South. As the story progresses we learn how Dee ran off to the big city, while Maggie and her Mom stayed home on the farm. In the story, when Dee shows up on the farm to present her new Big City beau, she asks her mom if she can have the traditional quilt comforter, to hang up as a decoration in her new home, instead of giving it to Maggie. After some conflict, Maggie ends up with the quilt and Dee begins to leave, but tells Maggie before entering the car “You ought to try to 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 it.” This shows that culture changed their perspectives because Maggie, who stayed on the farm, views the quilt as something comforting and of her roots and wants to use it in the traditional way and keep it in the family and close to her heart, while Dee just saw the quilt as a representation of something she managed to escape from, after moving to the city and experiencing a whole new culture there.
In Bharati Murkerjee’s “Two Ways to belong in America” the author explains how two sisters from India come to live in the United States, for 35 years.

One marries another Indian and acquires labor certification and stays close to her culture, while the other marries an American and bypasses the traditional route. In the story, Mira the sister who married the Indian man states: “I feel used...I feel manipulated and discarded. This is such an unfair way to treat a person who was invited to stay and work here because of her talent.” This feeling demonstrates that because of her cultural background and immigrant status, she and the other immigrants out there, regardless of following all the rules and contributing many things in society are treated harshly. She feels betrayed that America changes its rules in midstream and now views America and immigrants becoming citizens as a negative, due to how she was treated because of where she was

born.
In conclusion, your culture truly has much to do with who you are, how you develop and are seen as an individual. Culture is a big part of who you are and will show in your thoughts, decisions, and actions. Some people and cultures may treat you differently because of it, but it's always important to know that your culture is often your strength and you can grow more as a person from accepting your experiences immersing yourself in your culture. People in different cultures will have different views and opinions because they grew up with entirely different traditions and values, so what they see may be something completely different from what we may see through our own eyes.