Cultural identity is a dynamic and a complex feeling and sense of belonging to one or more ethnic groups. It defines the way an individual identifies or positions himself or herself in different cultural contexts. In our modern society we are experiencing contact with different cultures like never before. As expressed in “If you are what you eat, then what am I” by Kothari, Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas, and Flight by Sherman Alexie. Kothari has her identity but tries to deviate around it with the type of cuisine she was eating, but only to find out that it was an impossible task for Kothari. Piri has his identity also, but going through different environments and cultures has completely puzzled and influenced Piri’s identity which …show more content…
later on leads him in jail. Furthermore, Zits identity is influenced from birth due to the loss of his parents, he was raised in foster homes, but Zits didn’t react very well to them and soon just like Piri the theft and violent identity lead him to jail. All the three characters experience a change for the better or the worse in there identity due to the there surroundings and what they experience around their surroundings. Culture is something that surrounds all of us and progress to shape our lives everyday. But the real question is, what is culture? What is identity? How can it influence us? How does it outline us as human beings? Identity is illustrated as the state of mind in which someone or something distinguishes their own character traits that leads to determining who they really are, what they represent. As of today, with the brisk increase in intercommunication and international travel, the people of today are experiencing inter-cultural contact that has never been accomplished before. That’s the reason why the research of culture and identity has risen a lot during the past couple of years. One way too view this research has been to observe how newcomers to foreign lands adapt to new cultural surroundings. Similarly, the study of Piri and Kothari when the they move to foreign lands and they have to adapt to the new cultural surroundings. They both divert from their real identity and become someone or something that they are not. In “If you are what you eat, then what am I” by Kothari, she is in search for her true identity, but her identity is influenced just because of the type of food she chooses to eat.
Kothari illustrates her struggles in true finding her identity. As Kothari mentions “…my mother buys the tuna hoping to satisfy my longing for American food Indians, of course, do not eat such things.” (923) This quote illustrates ethos as she is being influenced from her origin identity into someone or seething else that she is not, and the symbol to her influence is the tuna. This is one of many examples of Kothari being influenced by her surroundings. Indians do not eat such foods due to the religion. Many of them are vegetarians. Kothari explains that she is not from an American culture so her family doesn’t know what tuna looks like or what it is eaten with. If they were American they would have known. Kothari’s choice of food influences who she really is and what she will become, although this doesn't last very long for Kothari. Her nature, culture, and influence while growing up brings her taste for Indian food and her true identity back. As many people would argue that there is no better feeling than retuning to the source of serenity, in this case returning to her Indian origin and
cuisine. Everyday foods often vary across cultures and play a major role in defining culture as well as identity. Each any every culture regularly observes their day by day foods as ordinary, yet these foods don’t frequently give us knowledge into a specific culture, but its rather how the outsiders view that culture specifically. Cultures can either influence or can be influenced by the foods they eat and the foods they consider to be mast; plus, everyday food can influence how the outside cultures picture that culture. Kotahri’s identity is influenced by the food she eats. When she eats American food, she feels and acts like an American as opposed to when she eats Indian she acts and feels like an Indian women. “A “pinch” means choosing not to draw attention to ourselves as outsiders, impolite visitors who won’t eat what their host serves.” Kothari proves to the reader that her and her sister basically have no choice when it comes to there identities. In order for Kothari to fit in she must eat the hosts food, therefore this slowly causing her to influence her true identity. Piri’s identity and culture are influenced by his surroundings, and as well as the people he’s around with. His childhood years were spent in the Spanish Harlem, that’s where his violent perception is garnered from. His constant shift in location did affect his identity in many different instances such as racism and prejudice, the drug deals, the bloody fights all have shaped Piri’s identity. Piri explains to us the environment he is surrounded by as “I sure missed 111th Street, where everybody acted, walked, and talked like me. But on 114th Street everything went all right for a while.” (24) This quote clarifies that Piri’s identity is somewhat already shaped from street 111th. All the trouble and mischief Piri had learned from 111th Street has already swayed to an aggressive and a criminal identity. Piri’s identity can fluctuate very differentially when he is on the streets contributing to unconstitutional actions and very differently when he is at home with his family.
The main character in Behind The Bedroom Wall was Korinna. At first Korinna was a pure anti Jew. She was anti semitic because the people in her youth group brainwashed her to think that Jews caused all the problems in Germany. When Korena found out her parents were hiding Jews, at first she was horrified. But she on grew to love the Jews. This happened because Korinna’s kitten crawled behind the bedroom wall to the Jewish family, the Krugmann's, Korinna didn't like that the kitten was with the Jews so she grabbed the kitten and acted hurtful toward the Jews. Later that day she realized she was wrong and gave back the kitten and said sorry. Another way that Korinna changed is that Korinna now felt sorry for Rachel (the
Elijah Anderson’s Code of the Street book depicts two opposite communities within Philadelphia, the poor inner city black community and the residential middle class community. The majority of the book revolves around describing how the inner city functions on a ‘code of the street’ mentality, respect and toughness. Crime, violence and poverty run high in the inner city and following the code is a way to survive. Having a decent family or a street family greatly influences the path an adolescent will take involving delinquency. Anderson divides the book up into different themes and explores each one my not only giving factual information, but he also incorporates real life stories of various people who survived the inner city life style. Some of the themes include territory, survival by any means necessary, toughness, separate set of norms, campaign of respect and the mating game. Some criminological theories are also noticeable that take place in the inner city community.
In Fish Cheeks, I Want to Be Miss America, and An Indian Father’s Plea shows that people struggle to accept their culture when they are faced with people that have different beliefs. People that don't understand their culture and do not appreciate it. Feeling no other way to escape from the torment of others they try to convert to the beliefs/cultures around them.
Reading Catfish and Mandala reminded me of my cultural closeness through food. Due to being bi-ethnic I learned how to cook food from both my ethnicities, however there were times when I found myself acting like a foreigner towards certain dishes. A prime example was when I had Chitlins or pig intestines. I had eaten menudo, thanks to my Hispanic mother and this was the first time I had Chitlins, an African American dish via my paternal grandmother. Unlike Menudo, which to me has an appetizing smell and taste, Chitlins were a gray stringy putrid smelling dish. Remembering the utter dislike I obtained from that African American dish, reminded me of Pham’s experience with Vietnamese food. While there are some dishes people can’t stand, most usually embrace a dish from their culture and that helps ease some of the pain or discomfort.
Identity is 'how you view yourself and your life.'; (p. 12 Knots in a String.) Your identity helps you determine where you think you fit in, in your life. It is 'a rich complexity of images, ideas and associations.';(p. 12 Knots in a String.) It is given that as we go through our lives and encounter different experiences our identity of yourselves and where we belong may change. As this happens we may gain or relinquish new values and from this identity and image our influenced. 'A bad self-image and low self-esteem may form part of identity?but often the cause is not a loss of identity itself so much as a loss of belonging.'; Social psychologists suggest that identity is closely related to our culture. Native people today have been faced with this challenge against their identity as they are increasingly faced with a non-native society. I will prove that the play The Rez Sisters showed this loss of identity and loss of belonging. When a native person leaves the reservation to go and start a new life in a city they are forced to adapt to a lifestyle they are not accustomed to. They do not feel as though they fit in or belong to any particular culture. They are faced with extreme racism and stereotypes from other people in the nonreservational society.
In Chang Rae Lee’s essay “Coming Home Again," he uses food as a way to remember the connection he had with his mother. Food was their bond. As a child, he always wanted to spend time in the kitchen with his mother and learn how to cook. Much later, when his mother became sick, he became the cook for the family. “My mother would gently set herself down in her customary chair near the stove. I sat across from her, my father and sister to my left and right, and crammed in the center was all the food I had made - a spicy codfish stew, say, or a casserole of gingery beef, dishes that in my youth she had prepared for us a hundred times” (164). He made the food like his mother did and it was the lessons that his mother was able to pass onto him. These lessons of cooking were like lesson he learned in life. He recalls the times where growing up, he rejected the Korean food that his mother made for American food that was provided for him, which his father later told him, hurt his mother. After that experience, he then remembers how he came back to Korean food and how he loved it so much that he was willing to get sick from eating it, establishing a reconnection to who he was before he became a rebellious teenager. Kalbi, a dish he describes that includes various phases to make, was like his bond with his mother, and like the kalbi needs the bones nearby to borrow its richness, Lee borrowed his mother’s richness to develop a stronger bond with her.
She compares India to “a silk cocoon frozen in time where we are sheltered by family and friends” (Kothari). The metaphor gives the reader a descriptive image of a haven that Kothari’s parents experience when visiting their homeland. She describes the cocoon to represent something safe and familiar (Kothari). Kothari also uses symbolism to describe American students. When she speaks of the “tuna eaters,” she is representing the American children, creating a separation between herself as a non-tuna eater (Kothari). Kothari goes on further to show her differences from the American students by ironically stating: “The tuna smells fishy” (Kothari). She makes it clear that tuna is a foreign food for her, though it is the representative food of the American students (Kothari). Kothari employs rhetorical devices and strengthen the depiction of her struggles with her identity by using different symbolic and figurative techniques. For readers to understand Kothari’s purpose through these devices, her main points are effectively strengthened since there is a level of analysis added to her piece that forces reader to think
Culture and identity are two very strange ideas. They are received at a very young age, yet they are very hard to give to someone else. They will affect you for the rest or your life, yet for the most part you are born into them. However, they soon become very important to us and we cannot, no matter what we do, live without them. They are a part of us, and a vital aspect of society. However, it took me a very long time to recognize that I had an identity and a little while after that before I knew what it was.
“The fish in the sink is dying slowly.” (Paragraph 19 line 1). After immigrating in Canada Malaysia’s culture in author’s family is fading away like fish dying slowly in the sink “‘I don’t like the eyeball there. It looks sick.’” (Paragraph 34) Why do we have to eat fish?” (Paragraph 31 line1). Which represents son’s resistance of Malaysian culture “My father reaches in with his bare hands. He lifts the fish out by the tail and lays it gently on the counter. While holding it steady with one hand, he hits the head with the flat of the cleaver.” (Paragraph 22 line 1-3). Since son’s rejection in dinner and reluctance of remembrance of Malaysian, father choose traditional way to teach son like treat fish. TV show serves as soil for their cultural tree to derive nutrient, make sure the tree has struck roots. “He loved cooking shows. We watched Wok with Yan, my father passing judgments on Yan’s methods. You don’t have to be genius to do that.” Narrator’s father keens on watching Asian television show, television is a bridge for father talked about the Asian country culture with narrator and is also a vehicle to transmit relevant Asian culture message. Nametag symbolizes new identity in new country, “her nametag is still clipped to her blouse” (paragraph 35 line 1) mother immigrates in Canada, all life is new for her, she is a new immigrant who needs time to eliminate cultural
Unpopular opinion time. In my review policy, I specifically state that I am going to be honest with my reviewing – and this is going to be one of those times when it hurts. You know the pain when you’re excited for something and then it lets you down faster than you partners in a group project ever could? Yea, well, this was one of those times. I had such high hopes for Tonight the Streets Are Ours, the cover is gorgeous, the synopsis was intriguing, and there was some serious marketing going on before this book was released – but the book itself failed on epic proportions. I hate giving bad reviews, I have this inadvertent need to love every single book, so when I can’t make myself like it – tolerate it even – no matter how hard I try, it
In “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?” Geeta Kothari kicks off her writing with a memory embodying her mother and her as they pop open a fresh can of very potent fishy smelling tuna, which her mother buys to satisfy Kothari’s yearning for what she calls “American food” (922). Since Kothari’s family is part of the Indian culture, she is restricted from eating certain kinds of foods. For Kothari, this is a constant struggle throughout her childhood. She wants the freedom to eat what her classmates and cousins do. Deeper into her story she comments on how she marries a man who eats those same American foods she used to crave when younger, and is feeling concerned that her husband might choose another wife who eats similar foods. Finally, to accompany her concerns she has trouble recreating dishes from her own culture in her adulthood.
Over the course of the novel, The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri, Gogol is constantly moving, and by the time he is in his late twenties, he has already lived in five different homes, while his mother, Ashima has lived in only five houses her entire life. Each time Gogol moves, he travels farther away from his childhood home on Pemberton Road, symbolizing his search for identity and his desire to further himself from his family and Bengali culture. Alternatively, Ashima’s change of homes happens in order to become closer to family, representing her kinship with Bengali culture. Ashima has always had difficulty with doing things on her own, but by the end of the story she ultimately decides to travel around both India and the States without a real home as a result of the evolution of her independence and the breaking of her boundaries; in contrast, Gogol finally realizes that he has always stayed close to home, despite his yearning for escape, and settles into his newly discovered identity - the one that he possessed all along.
The chef in the Indian family, Hassan Kadam, has certain ways to handle the food and present it. The Indian culture uses many herbs and spices which is how he finds the perfect taste in every dish. He strives to make every dish a warm and delightful feeling which is very important to Hassan’s culture. Most of the food he served had bread with it, mostly a certain type called naan. The families who were eating, use the bread as utensils because that is proper etiquette within their beliefs. They would also eat in certain orders in the ranking of the family No matter what food was made in the Indian kitchen, there was also something unique about the dish.
"Personal Identity" can be expressed as an exploration and interpretation of my cultural identity trapped between two varying societies. These societies that reside in both the past and present express the ideas and systems that have laid a major impact on the world to shape it as it is today.
I have discovered that the three main causes of the loss of cultural identity are immigration, industrialization, and globalization. When people migrate to a new country, they often have to assimilate to the culture. They strive to fit in to the host culture, and then they start to lose their own culture. With industrialization, the rise of industry and growth of population is causing an outward expansion of cities. More and more land is needed for the cities and industrialized areas. It has become a growing problem that smaller cities and villages are being destroyed by this expansion. Globalization is becoming more and more of a problem with the rise of technology. Areas all over the world are getting to view the cultures and customs of other countries. As dominant countries and cultures arise, other countries are striving to become like these countries, whether economically or