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

primitive or old fashioned. Dee also sees the quilts, the butter churn, and the butter dish from her grandmother as her past culture while Mama and Maggie just see them as everyday items.
As well as the personal essay, “Two Ways to Belong in America”, by Bharati Mukherjee, which also give evidence as to how culture helps to mold the views that an individual has on the world.

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

U.S.
More evidence that culture effects the way an individual views the world is found in the essay by Robert Lake, “An Indian Fathers Plea”. In the essay Robert Lake mentioned how his son may not have been the smartest when it came to the new tools and methods when he stated, “So I realize he may be slow in grasping the methods and tools that you are now using in your classroom, ones quite familiar to his white peers, but I hope you will be patient with him. It takes time to adjust to a new cultural system and learn new things.”(10). Because of the culture that Wind-Wolf grew up in, his capability of using these new methods and tools, which Robert Lake mentioned, are not as high as his white peers. This is because he was not exposed to these methods and tools in his early life, in which he was exposed to his Native American culture.
The way that an individual views the world is consistently effected by the culture that they are exposed to. The different attributes in life that an individual is exposed to on a daily basis is what makes up their culture. These things that an individual is exposed to daily effects their views on the world. In conclusion, it is quite evident that culture has a consistent effect on an individual’s views on the world around them.