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Importance of cultural diversity
How does culture impact identity
Cultural influences on self identity
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In the personal essay “Two Ways to Belong in America” by Bharati Mukherjee, Bharati and her sister,Mira, have very different views on how culture affects life. Mira thinks it is very important while Bharati does not think it is very important. Bharati becomes an American citizen while Mira does not ever want to. Mira still wears clothes from India but Bharati changed to jeans and t-shirts. Mira believes that she should not be forced to become an american citizen because she wants to move back to India after retirement. Bharati loves being an american citizen and does not want to move back to India. Mira married a man from her own culture while Bharati married a Canadian-American man. Mira still likes to speak in her native language but Bharati
The story is about two sister who currently lives in America. It has to deal with moving to the United States in the 1960’s. Both sisters moved to the United States in hope to pursue their dreams and to achieve they goals with college and further education. Both having similarities in appearance and religious values. Both Bharati and her sister Mira had planned to move back to their homeland India after their education. This story relates to our point of culture having a major impact on how people judge each other because it has a huge impact on how people view the world differently because, in this example, 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” it is basically stating on how even immigrants (like the sisters themselves) who have come into the U.S., are sometimes given fewer benefits and rights than everyone else and that they feel discluded from being able to express themselves if they wanted to, or to have good thoughts that America is as good as people has said it was, with all this freedom. The last example is, I feel some kind of irrational attachment to India that I don’t to America. Until all this hysteria against immigrants, I was totally happy.” This demonstrates that it isn’t the country itself that makes people unsafe or unsure, it’s the people running it who try to put limitations
Something that has always fascinated me is the confrontation with a completely different culture. We do not have to travel far to realize that people really lead different lives in other countries and that the saying "Home sweet home" often applies to most of us. What if we suddenly had to leave our homes and settle somewhere else, somewhere where other values and beliefs where common and where people spoke a different language? Would we still try to hang on to the 'old home' by speaking our mother tongue, practising our own religion and culture or would we give in to the new and exciting country and forget our past? And what would it be like for our children, and their children? In Identity Lessons - Contemporary Writing About Learning to Be American I found many different stories telling us what it is like to be "trapped" between two cultures. In this short essay I aim to show that belonging to two cultures can be very confusing.
She has never had to experience the idea of fitting in with her own culture. Being American is simply natural and a way of life for her. Traveling to another country, especially to one that was nothing like she expected it to be, helped to her stumble upon some important insights. She states being away from her own culture did not change her but made her able to realize what values and habits were the most important to her. In the other story, author Patricia was of Korean descent, but was born and raised here in America. Due to her Korean descent Patricia never really knew for sure where she belonged. She used a name to describe it, “hyphenated Americans,” because she looks like she is from another country but was born and raised here. People right on the streets of New York will ask her where she is from and compliment her on her good English skills. This makes it difficult to truly identify as an American. To really know what values and habits are her own. Traveling to Korea, visiting what they have called her homeland, taught Patricia some important insights of her own.
The immigrant’s journey to America, as depicted throughout history, transports culture, language, beliefs and unique lifestyles from one land to the other, but also requires one to undergo an adaptation process. The children of these immigrants, who are usually American-born, experience the complexity of a bicultural life, even without completely connecting to the two worlds to which they belong. Potentially resulting is the internal desire to claim a singular rather than dual identity, for simplicity, pride and a sense of acceptance. Jhumpa Lahiri, an Indian-American author and writer of “My Two Lives” could never classify herself as.
In America, it is a common misconception that all foreigners are similar; it is believed that they all have similar dreams and each of them end up chasing after the same jobs. However, this is not the case. Not only do immigrants from different countries hold different dreams, but those with a shared background even have varying hopes and dreams for the future. This is evidenced in Bharati Mukherjee’s essay, “Two Ways to Belong in America.” She utilizes several rhetorical strategies in order to show that immigrants have the ability to be assimilated into the American culture, but that they should not be deported if they choose not to conform to said culture.
When asked to define ones cultural identity people usually take the path that leads to their country of origin. They describe their beliefs and tradition which mirrors the values of people within that geographic location. But what about the people who are torn between two cultures? How would they define their cultural identity? This is the problem faced by Henry Park, the protagonist of the book Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee. Originally from Korea, he immigrated to the United States with his parents when he was little. However, his struggle of trying to find his acceptance into the American culture still continues. The book outlines his endless uncertainty of trying to define his cultural identity and his feelings as an outsider to the American Culture. Not being able to commit to either of the cultures leaves Henry confused regarding his true Cultural identity which Chang very artfully presents as a fuzzy line between the American and Korean Culture.
In the short story, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, a Chinese mother and daughter are at odds with each other. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy, while the daughter (like most children with immigrant parents) seeks to find herself in a world that demands her Americanization. This is the theme of the story, conflicting values. In a society that values individuality, the daughter sought to be an individual, while her mother demanded she do what was suggested. This is a conflict within itself. The daughter must deal with an internal and external conflict. Internally, she struggles to find herself. Externally, she struggles with the burden of failing to meet her mother’s expectations. Being a first-generation Asian American, I have faced the same issues that the daughter has been through in the story.
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
Mukherjee compares her experiences in Indian culture, Canadian culture, and finally American culture in her quest to describe “American.” In India, she was a part of a primarily “…Hindu, Bengali-speaking, a...
Identity n. the fact of being who or what a person or thing is, the characteristics determining who or what a thing is. We all have a set of characteristics we define ourselves by, be they cultural, social, religious, or physical. I am a blonde, blue eyed, formerly catholic, bisexual, American female of European descent. To take one of these things away would be to lose a fraction of my self conception, even if some of the items on my list are contradictory or outdated. In her essay, Two Ways to Belong in America, Bharati Mukherjee contrasts her sense of identity with her sister's. Bharati defines herself by where she is presently. In contrast, Mira has attached her identity to where she is from, India. Bharati writes of her sister, "She is here
The author of “My Two Lives” describes herself as Indian-American because she was obviously Indian with her heritage greatly defined in her house with her parents, but she describes herself as American because of life she lives outside of her home. She used examples saying that she could speak English without an accent, and things that her parents had little knowledge of, such as books and music, entered her life. She found herself becoming more and more American, but she also had the constant reminder that she wasn’t. The author said she felt neither Indian nor American because as an immigrant she felt like she needed to stay completely true to the culture of her family, but she also felt that she needed to adapt to the new world. She felt
This paper aims to study how Bharati Mukherjee has captured the chaos of the Melting Pot about the Indian immigrant experiences in America in her short stories and novels. The longing for the security of home and comfort of their own culture creates a conflict known only to those born in the third world, burdened with the choice of living in the West. While changing citizenship is easy, swapping culture is not.
In her novels Jasmine and Wife, Bharathi Mukherjee has shown a dual cultural shock. Jasmine and Dimple leave their respective countries in search of their dreams. This migration or “cultural transplant” leads to a crisis of identity and a final reconciliation to the choice. She has presented a fascinating study of
story of folk families over a period of eighteen months as a mother examines for a a suitable boy to marry her daughter. An Equal Music (1997) is about Michel, a practiced violinist, who is unable to forget his love for Julia, a pianist he met as a student in Vienna.
Her message on the different reasons why immigrants come to new countries and cultures is highly perceived in her story. Her use of rhetorical devices helps success her in her story. The usage of ethos, storytelling, word choice and structure played a major role in aiding her beliefs and illustrating them to her audience. Ethos helped her compare her and her sister’s beliefs on their culture and lifestyle in India and America. Storytelling made it possible for readers to connect with her thoughts and stay entertained throughout the paper. Her word choice and structure also helped the outline of the story and made her beliefs sound more