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How culture affects identity
Importance of cultural understanding
Culture vs identity
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More handpicked essays just for you.
How culture affects identity
Importance of cultural understanding
Culture vs identity
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: How culture affects identity
Tandoori Angel wakes up to blaring sirens. Police knock on her door, they inform her that her parents that are upstairs, are dead. Tandy sees her parents, Malcom and Maud, dead in their bedroom, concluding that they were murdered by poison. None of her siblings cry when they hear the news because most of them are sociopaths. The murder suspects are: Hugo Angel, 10, Harrison (Harry) Angel, 16, Samantha Peck, Maud 's personal assistant, Tandoori (Tandy) Angel, 16, and Matthew Angel, oldest sibling, NFL star.
Sacajawea was a strong and courageous woman who made a difference in American History. Her knowledge of the land and people around her became incredibly useful to the foreign explorers. Sacajawea was a young, Indian woman who helped lead the Corps of Discovery across the Louisiana territory. Her Help enabled the United States to expand its territory.
Her desire to only interact with the culture for a story to tell others shows the lack of interest the general public has in understanding communities they are not a part of. This contributes to the formation of negative stereotypes, as people do not take the time to see if stereotypes are accurate, instead allowing derogatory stereotypes define entire
Cultural differences is something important to the author herself that somehow helps her to become what she is really today. In the beginning of the novel, there are many traumas deal with cultural differences that the author undertaken. One of the traumas she experienced is when she 's in the United States living with Melvin and his mother, she felt like "she doesn 't want to wear American dress" (Le 16,17). This is understandable when a six-year-old girl wanted to keep her Vietnamese traditional culture. And because she is young,
Culture and Women In “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid and “ How to date a Brown girl, Black girl, White girl or Halfie “ by Junot Diaz, both authors elaborate on culture and how it shapes outlook on women. In Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” a mother enforces her culture’s strong beliefs on her daughter. As the result, she displays her parental authority with a sequence of short commands influenced by her culture. A sense of judgment can be seen in the young girl, after questioning her mothers’ request.
American- Born-Confused-Desi as they call us, is the label we carry, resulting in people like me feeling disconnected from the country we were born in and grew up in, and an even greater disconnect from the country that our culture, heritage, and ethnicity is from. We are foreigners in both places always trying to fit in, but never quite succeeding. Wilkerson astutely articulates this feeling stating, “None of us are ourselves” (pg 53). Her ability to explain that we are all impressions, interactions, and pieces of every person that comes through our lives, expresses how we are so influenced by the actions of others.
The film Monsoon Wedding (2001) directed by Mira Nair has been my favorite film so far. What makes the film so interesting to me is that Mira Nair put her own twist on the film by mixing an expected traditional Indian Bollywood film and adding modern Hollywood styles to the film. After doing research on Mira Nair and the film for my presentation, I can see why this is incorporated in the film since she spent time here in the United States studying acting and film at one of the top ivy league university’s Harvard University where she got influenced by modern ethics. The film shows this by the individuality of each character, music, and emphasis on camera angles.
At first I wrestled with where my identity lay. The strong values and traditions of the Indian culture sometimes made it difficult to fit in with the crowd. As I grew older, I began to understand that I was not part of an individual culture, but a fusion of two rich and colorful histories. I recognized that there is remarkably more to an individual than where she comes from, and more to her than where she currently lives. Importantly, being from two cultures allows me to incorporate the best qualities of both.
Culture is easily influenced and is constantly shifting as it passes through various racial and ethnic interactions and exchanges. “With your liberal minds, you patronize our culture, scanning the surface like vultures, with your tourist mentality, we’re still the natives. You’re multicultural, but we’re anti-racist. We ain’t ethnic, exotic or eclectic” (Prashad, 56). This refers to when cultures are commodified and picked apart without taking both the negatives with the perceived positives.
The clashes between tradition and modernity within the South Asian diaspora results in their "home" being situated in the Western world. This results in the otherness that is prevalent, as the those living in the West feel a sense of "us" and "them," where the "us "can be seen as the West with their Eurocentric attitude and "them" being the Indian population. As evident from these clips, Kiran and Mr Kohli represent Westerised Indians in the diaspora who live comfortably in their host country and feel superior to those living in their motherland. Their wealth and upper-class status propel them to believe that those in India only desire to form relationships with them because of their wealth. Mr Kohli and Kiran embody the image of the upper class who struggle to relate themselves too closely to people
Now she will return to India with an American passport. She will return to a world where she will not single handedly throw parties for dozens of people...” (p276) When living in America, she doesn’t feel her belonging. When she’s back in India, she doesn’t feel her belonging neither. She completely lost her sense of belonging for she is culturally displaced, and this is what Immigrants face.
Culture is the building block for life. It sets society's standards, it sets our own standards, and everything we know is all because of our culture. Culture is a way of thinking, a way of behaving and learning. We express our opinions based upon our beliefs, and define ourselves by what aspects of our culture we choose to show. Culture's impact on someone's perspective of others and the world is greater than its other influencers because it can change how you interact with people, your ability to change, and your opinions of the world.
Bharati was settling for “fluidity, self-invention, blue jeans, and T-shirts”(268). Bharati decided to be a part of a new community by marrying someone of a different community and living an American lifestyle. Unlike Mira, Bharati has adapted to the American community and has become a part of it. However, like Mira, she too has not felt welcomed in a community. Bharati compares Mira’s situation in America to one that she faced in Canada, where the government turned against the immigrants.
In chapter two “Radha Aunty”, Arjie instantly develops a connection to his aunt Radha who encouraged Arjie to be himself, “...allowing [him] to play with her makeup and jewelry…” (Selvadurai 49). The special connect Arjie shares with Radha Aunty inspires him join her in the performance of The King and I. Selvadurai foreshadows Radha Aunty’s faith through the story of The King and I as Arjie’s curiously asks his mother if the king marries the governess in the end. Arjie’s mother replies, “You must be mad.