Another way it is seen that culture influences one's views, is through moving. When one moves to a new place their cultural identity impacts the way they view their new surroundings. In the essay “Where Worlds Collide” author Pico Iyer portrays this idea of how cultural identity influences perspectives of those who move. In this essay as foreigners come to LA, it is said that they find the snack bar where a “piece of pizza cost $3.19 (18 quetzals they think in horror, or 35,009 dong)” (62). Because the foreigners come from a place with a completely different culture, to them pizza that costs $3.19 is extremely expensive. This is a good representation of how when moved, people view the world and their new surroundings based off of their culture. While in American culture, $3.19 for pizza …show more content…
Some may say that people can adapt to a new place and completely let go of their culture; thus they are saying that cultural identity does not continually inform the way one views the world. This however, is not accurate. While people can adapt to a new place and adapt to parts of a new places culture, they cannot completely let go of their cultural identity. It will always impact the way one views the world. Take for example Bharati, the author of the personal essay “Two ways to belong in America”. While Bharti's sister Mira chose to hold on to every aspect of their indian heritage; Bharati wanted to feel like she belonged fully in America. When talking about her sister she says “She is happier to live in America as expatriate Indian than as an immigrant American I need to feel like a part of the community I have adopted”(85). Bharati needs to feel like she belongs, and though she may have broadened her culture; her perception of the world and others is still influenced by her indian cultural
I am not a child of immigrants, but maintaining one’s culture is a universal struggle in a land far from one’s ethnic origins. Lahiri suggests that without cultural connections such as family and friends, one’s culture can simply vanish if they are not in the land of ethnic origin. I have found this to be true within my own
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.
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.
For this study, researcher classified the cultural identity of the participants as traditional, assimilated, bicultural, or marginalized by how they identified with highly with Indian values, highly with white values, ewally with both, or with none.
“Our own culture is often hidden from us, and we frequently describe it as “the way things are.”” People do not even realize their own cultural identity, so then how do people know what shapes it? A person’s identity is shaped by cultural experiences that make them into the person they are today. Some of these experiences include someone’s parents, the media, and where they grew up.
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.
“Cultural identity is a broader term: people from multiple ethnic backgrounds may identify as belonging to the same culture” (Elise Trumbull and Maria Pacheco). Though people may identify themselves with a certain culture, their beliefs and actions varies and adjust to their experiences. “…We do not consciously pick and choose attributes from the total set; rather, the conditions and events in our individual lives…” (Elise Trumbull and Maria Pacheco). A person is easily influenced by their culture which also makes an impact on their beliefs as well as their view of the world which can cause conflict with another person.
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.
“As we journey through life, identity and belonging must be consistently renegotiated.” Each person’s identity goes through a process of stages in order to be fully developed and be a whole identity. Some people needs more time than others to attain a full, whole identity. There are many factors which play a role in sharpens people’s identity such as the environment that the people love in and the experiences that they went through. Undoubtedly, immigrants, especially those form two different cultures, need more time to achieve a stable and whole identity as they become trapped between two cultures, unable to categorize themselves with a particular one. For instance, it is very hard for Asian Americans, especially the first and second generations, to assimilate and adjust in America as they have different culture, traditions and features. This paper will depict how Obaachan in Silver like dust and Pearl in Shanghai Girls defines their identity and belonging during their lives’ journeys.
Belonging to the native culture has a positive and negative effect. In the article "Two Ways to Belong in America" by Baharati Mukherjee and "A Battle of Cultures" by K. Cannie Kang, both articles deals with the main idea that some of the immigrant accept their new life. In addition, some of immigrant like to stay in their cultures even when they move to another country. How immigrant interact with a new country, and how that reflects on them. In the article "Two Ways to Belong in America" Baharati Mukherjee explains that there are two ways to belong in America. The first one to belong legally and obtained the citizenship. Furthermore, to live and work and feel part of the country. Baharati came from India
At some point in our lives we experience a culture as an outsider by moving from one culture to another.In the world today there are so many different cultures and not one of them is found to be the same.Instead they all have something that makes them unique, whether its language or even the clothes they wear and their behavior as well.The differences they have is what separates them from one another and who ever joins that particular culture must get accustomed to their way of life.In the society today we have many people immigrating to the United States to start a new and better life but what they soon begin to realize is that it’s a whole new world out there and in order to survive they have to get accustomed to the new way of life which is much different from their lives before.
To conclude, cultures are a major part of our lives and they constitute the image we see the world in. cultures can sometimes influence us, even in ways we don’t expect. Sometimes we find ourselves forced in cultures with negative stereotypes but that does not mean we should be ashamed of those cultural groups but rather embrace our culture and stray from the negative characteristics of that
It’s funny, when I read “Real Indians Eat Jell-O” by Laurie Carlson it reminded me of all those times I sat in the library wondering and analyzing other people’s behaviors. I agree with the message Carlson is portraying in her essay that it is a good thing to belong to a different culture however you should always have room to grow in you. What I think she means is that each culture can be as different from one another as it can be interesting. There are a lot of good things to be picked up from it and not so many good things that should not. We, as individuals will always have our culture to reflect back on, however we are who we are and never be ashamed of that.
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
In the article “America the Promised Land,” Oskar, argues that even though America is the land where a person will be free to work out his/her destiny as he/she chooses, but people still lose their cultural identity. In addition, Oskar states, “The consumerist society flashes us with announcements everywhere, telling us to be somebody other than ourselves. We end up believing we need to adopt those false appearances to be accepted and to finally feel as if we belong.” There are a lot of people who agree with Oskar, and they believe that people do lose their cultural identity in America because they experienced these situations, but some people totally disagree with Oskar, and they do not believe that people lose their identity. I agree with