Analysis Of Barbara Ehrenreich Cultural Baggage

In ‘Cultural baggage’, Barbara Ehrenreich described her personal experience and opinion about ethnic and religious heritage. Barbara was born in an immigrant family, With all the information she got, Barbara was unable to find her own ethnic identity. While been frustrated and embarrassed for her incapability of locating her own root, she eventually come to realize that she belongs to the race of “none”, those who think for themselves and try new things, and the race of “none” marches on.
A very important (also interesting) binary opposition is eyes gleaming with enthusiasm versus I was blushing by this time, describing the emotion of author and acquaintance when they each talked about their ethnic background. This binary opposition not only shows that people are interested in ethnic background and are proud to know their own ethnic identity but also highlight the frustration and embarrassment the author experienced

when she can’t figure out her own ethnic identity. Another binary opposition, stand up and proudly reclaim their roots versus sank back ever deeper in to my seat, also contribute to the same effect as the earlier one did.
The repetition of new (or new things) is interesting.

It conveys a strong admiration for new things and the importance of trying new things. Also, since “Try new things” is a motto to author’s mother, the repetition of new thing may imply that the author is greatly influenced by her parents. Another very interesting binary opposition is “old” versus “new”. Here, the author regard religion and ethnic tradition as old things (some ritual had been performed in the past). The author connects old with poverty, superstition and grief to emphasis the bad nature of old things, and connects trying new things with skepticism, curiosity and wide-eyed ecumenical tolerance (human traditions that she appraised). This sharp contrast causes the writer to make her interpretive lead, that the new things were better than old. One strange thing here is that, although the author has made very strong thesis with those repetition and binary opposition we mentioned, the thesis itself actually come from the author’s parents and are not yet adopted by the author until

later.
The children part in the last two paragraphs is an anomaly in the whole article that focus on the author’s experience of ethnic identity. The author wants to nourish her children with a full ethnic identity that she personally lacked. But later, through her interaction with her children, the author realize the belief that her parents hold: the race of “none” marches on. The anomaly actually completes the last piece of this article. As the author educated her own children, she finally solved her own puzzle.

Personally speaking, I am disagreed with the author. I believe that ethnic identity is one of the most important identities that define who we are. The question about where we came from has always been the most important question in our species. There is an old saying in Chinese: Fallen leaves return to the roots. No matter where you are now, the place you came from still matters. On the other hand, culture, religion, and ethnic tradition are precious heritage from our ancestors. It is everyone’s responsibility to preserve their own cultural heritage.