Personal Essay: Two Ways To Belong In America

Culture is the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively as defined by google search engine, however, culture can be interpreted as the cultivations of heritages and traditions passed down from generation to generation. Additionally, the impactions that culture can have upon one’s views of the world can be shown in many works and articles that we have read these past few weeks. One such article being An Indian Father’s Plea by Robert Lake, in which a father writes to a teacher of his perspectives. Another reading, By Any Other Name by Santha Rama Rau, where two children went to an oppressive school that made them second guess everything they believed in. Finally, the Personal Essay, Two ways to Belong

In the story, Baharati and Mira come from India as college students and started off as nearly the same person in all likes, they had the same goals, same perspectives, same clothing preferences, however this soon changed as they entered university and fell in love with different people and different cultures. Baharati accepted and welcomed the American culture and decided that she would hang up the traditional Indian attire and pick up the jeans and t-shirts of the American culture. Accordingly, Mira decided to maintain true to her roots and remained an avid portrayal of Indian culture, keeping her Indian citizenship and remaining with the same beliefs. Later in the story, the American Immigration laws are altered and it is revealed how starkly different the two girls feel about the change. Baharati, who has accepted American culture views the new laws as a magnificent opportunity and an amazing feat that such a numerous amount of people are now applying for citizenship. On the other hand, Mira views the changes as America playing, ‘The Game’ and decides that she shall accept American Immigration laws for now, however, at the earliest opportunity, seize an Indian citizenship again and return to her home. This comes to show that whatever culture you accept, you view the changes of the world with different magnitudes and alternate