Cultural Identity Essay: Understand Ourselves

Cultural Identity Essay

Directions: Using your knowledge on writing MLA formatted essays, write the cultural identity synthesis essay below.

Understand Ourselves “One of the most basic types of identity is ethnic identity, which entails an awareness of one’s membership in a social group that has a common culture.”(Trumbull and Pacheco 10). People should examine their culture in order to better understand how it affects their identity and perceptions. In order to understand one’s cultural identity, he or she needs to understand what the term means. According to one source, cultural identity can be defined as “how a person identifies with their culture and how that relationship, in turn, impacts their lives.” (Trumbull and Pacheco 10).Various aspects of a person’s life may determine his or her own cultural identity. After analyzing several texts, the reader recognizes that three important elements of a person’s cultural identity include food, language, religion, and family. One important element of a person’s cultural identity is food. The writer explains that food is based on cultural identity. The book says, “When he cooked, which is not often, the results are distinctly southern” (Williams 13). Her father only cooks southern style food. She explains how food connects

Provides us the information how family plays a role in developing cultural identity. The writer says, “Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes. Eyesight her sister with a mixture of envy and awe” (Walker 76). Maggie is afraid of her sister and that her beliefs that her sister started the fire. Mother said, “Sometime I dream a dream in which Dee and I are suddenly brought together on a tv program of this sort. Then we are on stage, and Dee is embracing me with tears in her eyes” (Walker 77). The mother and Dee are not close to each other at all and they have different styles. Family is one of the most important in cultural