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Essays on the effect of culture on self and personality
How culture influences development of self identity
How culture influences development of self identity
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Culture is a unique way to express the way one shows the world and others how different each one is. Culture affects the way one views the world and others. This is demonstrated in the stories “Ethnic Hash” by Patricia Williams, “Legal Alien” by Pat Mora, and “By Any Other Name” by Santha Rama Rau. These stories come together to show examples of how people of different cultures are viewed by others as different. Mora, Williams, and Rau all have very unique styles, and this is shown throughout the following quotes.
“Ethnic Hash,” a personal narrative by Patricia Williams, explains how being African-American affects the way others view the author and the authors culture. Patricia Williams was a quite person who did not speak one’s mind or stick
up for one’s self, so she did not want to be seen as a stereotypical black person. “Ethnic Hash” states the following quote, “The only time we used those goblets was to disguise watermelon, in case someone was peering idly through the windows, lurking about in racial judgement” (Williams 12). Williams is afraid to be seen as a stereotypical black person because of all of the racism she encounters on a day to day basis. Although many black people enjoy watermelon, different people throughout the world view all people within black culture as watermelon loving people. “Legal Alien,” a poem by Pat Mora, explains how people of Mexican heritage and people of American heritage view those of their mixed races. Mora is seen as an alien because she does not fit the image of a typical Mexican or a typical American. “Legal Alien” proceeds to state, “An American to Mexicans; a Mexican to American” (Mora 32). This quote explains how people of mixed races are seen among their ethnic groups. Neither Mexicans nor Americans want to “claim” them as a part of either ethnicity because they do not fit the ideal image of either ethnic group. “By Any Other Name,” a memoir by Santha Rama Rau, explains how being of Indian decent has people think the author cheats their way around things. Santha Rama Rau feels underappreciated because the teacher does not like Indians. “By Any Other Name” explains, “She said it was because all Indians cheat” (Rau 39). People who do not know the Indian culture view Indians as people who cheat to get what they want. The sisters, Santha and Premila, see people around the world as people who stereotype others before getting to know them. These quotes show how culture affects the way one views the world and others. The authors explain how they experienced the racial stereotyping going on within their cultures. The stores “Ethnic Hash,” “Legal Alien,” and “By Any Other Name” all have examples of the way culture affects the way one views the world and others. Every culture is different and unique, but that does not mean that one should put another down.
The two concepts are perhaps the most powerful writing of the sheer burden of African-American in our society. Ever though the story was written many decades ago, many African-American today reflect on how things haven’t changed much over time. Still today American will conceptualize what is “Black” and what is “American”.
No matter where one is from or where one finds themselves today, we carry with us in some way or another a specific heritage. Certain events and circumstances can lead to someone trying to forget their heritage or doing everything in their power to preserve that heritage. Alice Walker’s “EveryDay Use” was published in 1973, not long after the civil rights movement, and reflects the struggles of dealing with a heritage that one might not want to remember (Shmoop). Alice Walker is well known as a civil rights and women’s rights activist. Like many of her other works she uses “Everyday Use” to express her feelings on a subject; in this case African American heritage. Through “Everyday Use” it can be seen that Alice Walker has negative feelings about how many African Americans were trying to remove themselves from parts of their African American culture during the time of the short story’s publishment. This idea that Walker was opposed to this “deracinating” of African Americans coming out of the civil rights
America have a long history of black’s relationship with their fellow white citizens, there’s two authors that dedicated their whole life, fighting for equality for blacks in America. – Audre Lorde and Brent Staples. They both devoted their professional careers outlying their opinions, on how to reduce the hatred towards blacks and other colored. From their contributions they left a huge impression on many academic studies and Americans about the lack of awareness, on race issues that are towards African-American. There’s been countless, of critical evidence that these two prolific writers will always be synonymous to writing great academic papers, after reading and learning about their life experience, from their memoirs.
Cultural diversity is an important element. Often times we acknowledge cultural diversity but we don’t quite understand it simply because we do not live it. With this novel, readers can understand cultural
In this memoir, the meaning of language is intertwined with the search for self-identity. This book was focused on an experience of perusing her own heritage by the use of DNA and genomics. In Raquel’s instance, or Rachael as her friends refer to her as, language has become a force of conflict and discrimination. Raquel wants to fit in with her peers and uses language as a means to relate. “Rachael, if you call me nigga one more time, I’m going to have to fuck you up” (pg. 71). It is this conversation that causes racial tension between Raquel and her friends. She tries to explain that they are all women of color, regardless of how much darker their skin is than hers. Her friends can’t seem to understand why she likes all that “black shit” (pg. 71) referring to her like of hip hop music. Another issue regarding culture and ethnicity occurs with Raquel’s encounter with Simon, who uses discriminatory comments as a joke. Raquel, who finds great offense to it, takes this use of vulgar language personally. The role of language within this novel displays the hardships and struggles of growing up as an immigrant adolescent in the United States. It emphasizes the racial discrimination and adaptation aspect as well. However, despite all of the hatred and uncertainty Raquel possesses, she begins to develop resilience,
Without details, the words on a page would just simply be words, instead of gateways to a different time or place. Details help promote these obstacles, but the use of tone helps pull in personal feelings to the text, further helping develop the point of view. Point of view is developed through the story through descriptive details and tone, giving the reader insight to the lives of each author and personal experiences they work through and overcome. Issa Rae’s “The Struggle” fully emplefies the theme of misplaced expectations placed on African Americans, but includes a far more contemporary analysis than Staples. Rae grapples as a young African-American woman that also struggles to prove her “blackness” and herself to society’s standards, “I feel obligated to write about race...I slip in and out of my black consciousness...sometimes I’m so deep in my anger….I can’t see anything outside of my lens of race” (Rae, 174). The delicate balance between conformity and non-conformity in society is a battle fought daily, yet Rae maintains an upbeat, empowering solution, to find the strength to accept yourself before looking for society’s approval and to be happy in your own skin. With a conversational, authoritative, humorous, confident and self-deprecating tone, Rae explains “For the majority of my life, I cared too much about my blackness was perceived, but now?... I couldn’t care less. Call it maturation or denial or self-hatred- I give no f%^&s.” (Rae 176), and taking the point of view that you need to stand up to racism, and be who you want to be not who others want you to be by accepting yourself for who you are. Rae discusses strength and empowerment in her point of view so the tone is centered around that. Her details all contribute to the perspectives as well as describing specific examples of racism she has encountered and how she has learned from those
When handling a controversial subject, it is important to recognize the opinion of everyone, not just of oneself. If an author does not recognize, at least to some degree, the opinion of everyone in their audience, they risk losing the interest of readers whose opinions are different. African American writers must consider how it feels to be an African American to their audience; they must understand that there is no such thing as one identity for an entire race.
In conclusion, this book gave me a whole new view on life and how we can interact better with different people. The book emphasized that culture is key to understanding people. Sometimes it is hard to connect with others because they are indicated as different but in due time we can adjust. Every culture has their own traditions when it comes to what they eat, what to wear, dating, various ceremonies, holidays and more. Reading this book helped me become more accepting of who I am and where I come from.
Patricia Hill Collins focuses on marginalized groups in her theory of intersectionality. However, even individuals not subject to systems of oppression, such as Skylar in Good Will Hunting, can be understood using Hill Collins’ ideas of controlling images versus self-definition. Throughout the movie, Skylar is seen in a particular way by other characters, but her own view of herself is more complex and she resists being seen solely through the controlling images she is associated with. Skylar’s resistance supports Hill Collin’s call to use dialogue and focus on concrete lived experience as ways to understand social actors.
In conclusion, culture can shape one’s identity but also confuse people. The perfect balance of mixed culture can be found with just some guidance of an adult, song, or even a girlfriend. Culture is a very important and individual aspect of everyone’s
Ruth Benedict’s anthropological book, Patterns of Culture explores the dualism of culture and personality. Benedict studies different cultures such as the Zuni tribe and the Dobu Indians. Each culture she finds is so different and distinctive in relation to the norm of our society. Each difference is what makes it unique. Benedict compares the likenesses of culture and individuality, “A culture, like an individual, is a more or less consistent pattern of thought or action” (46), but note, they are not the same by use of the word, “like.” Benedict is saying that figuratively, cultures are like personalities. Culture and individuality are intertwined and dependent upon each other for survival.
We can take our own culture for granted as the natural and right way to behave or think and as a result, we fail to discover the existence of cultural differences. It is only when we are confronted with something different that we are able to see culture in operation. At times cultural differences are exaggerated and are used as a way of avoiding some types of conflicts. We often hear the phrase “It is a cultural issue” When in fact it may be something about power or lack of clarity about role. This is a way of not taking responsibility, an easy way out. Talking about culture, is difficult unless we are ready to look at the different cultural backgrounds whereas cultural intelligence gives us framework for understanding the different aspects of culture.
Culture is understood in many ways to many different kind of people. Growing up, not much time nor effort was placed into grasping the full understanding of what it is to be cultured, how many other cultures you could possibly belong to, or why culture is important for our present and future society. Being able to reflect on one’s own individual cultural identity as well as respect the understanding of others’, can be an up most powerful feeling. First, we must understand that the definition of culture goes beyond the society’s stereotype of what is race and ethnicity and how that defines what culture you belong to.
"Culture", as a word, fits with a group of words that do not have just one definition or meaning, but multiple. With a diverse population prevailing in the United States today, our country is a melting pot of diverse cultures, every distinctive in its own respect. Culture is distinguishing one social group from another, including beliefs, language, traditions, art, food, religion and economic systems. Through lifelong and ever altering processes of learning, and sharing, culture shapes our patterns of behavior and thinking. A culture’s significance is so philosophical that it touches almost every aspect of who and what we are. As Henslin once said “Culture becomes the lens through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us.” It becomes who we are and how we see things differently from the people of a different nationality. In Warren St. John’s Outcasts United, culture is an important aspect that plays a significant role throughout the book and challenges the refugees in their daily lives. Having a pluralistic society can influence the behavioral and thinking styles of the people living around them. Some of these people may learn from the diverse range of cultures to find faults in their own living styles and try to better improve them. The Liberian’s, the Middle Easterner’s and the African’s are some of the examples of how one’s culture can impact lives of the people living around them.
In this paper I will be describing three cultures that I identify with. The term culture is very broad and it can be applied in ways that one would have never thought. Many people can describe themselves using more than three cultures because of the many different social and ethnic groups that we belong to. These social and ethnic groups come in many shapes and forms but most importantly they are what helps make us feel like we belong. Culture provides us with a basic skeleton of how we are supposed to act and think (subjective elements) and also how we should dress and what we should like (objective elements). However, our own individual personality helps shape that skeleton into the people we truly are. Culture influences our psychological