Noone can force you to see what you don’t want to see! Culture sometimes influences the way a person views the world because some people can just leave their culture behind and some could be all about it. “Ethnic Hash” : Patricia J. William, “Do I even have an ethnicity?” - She is saying that her ethnicity doesn’t define how she gets around life. “Two Ways To Belong In America” : Bharati Mukherjee, “I need to feel like a part of the community I have adopted.” - She is talking about how she feels like she needs to fit in with the community she lives in, in order to understand where she lives now. “Self-Portrait On The Borderline” : Frida Kahlo, “I paint my own reality.” - Frida paints what she sees within herself, her own point of view
Before Bridal dies, she paints a portrait of herself to affirm her own existence. She boldly uses the portrait to validate her emotions, an act of defiance against
One's Cultural Identity Everyone's culture differs, it is one way that distinguishes one from others. It is acquired, everyone is raised from it, and it determines the way one view the world and others. Imagine being in place with others that have different perspective of culture. Culture greatly informs the way one views the world and others.
She is under pressure to conform to American beauty standards while rejecting her Iranian ancestry. For instance, she says, "My whole life, my mom and aunts had praised me for how American I looked. It was a virtue to have paler skin than most Iranians…” (Saedi 43). This shows the transformed pressure of cultural assimilation and how it can cause people to reject their cultural identity.
An author by the name of Gloria Jahoda describes how an Indian population dropped and how the responsible ones for this action due to the whites. Johoda make all Indians to be an image of defenseless as she states in her readings. I believe that she felt that excuses for Indians because they were not fighting for what was rightfully theirs. Indians did not know how to stand up for themselves, and instead let the whites bully them. Unfortunately citizenship was granted with and exception to the Choctaws not living their everyday life style and due to this fact under citizenship, the tribal government was abolished.
In Self-Portrait the images on both sides of the border can be understood as the ideological tools of national propaganda. Kahlo keeps the history alive as she portrays a true vision of Mexico. Frida celebrates the cross-cultural identity that Mexico embraced after the turmoil of the revolution - a heritage of, Indian, American, Spanish, and British to just name a few. Her paintings became a connecting thread of Mexico’s history as she did not neglect tying the time in which she lived to the Aztec past (pbs.org). Victor Zamaudio-Taylor, an art historian, states that she has become "a model for Mexican Americans and Hispanics in the United States because she nurtures a sense of who [we] are and of a long history and of continuities."
The ways our culture inform the world are very diverse and bold. Because all cultures are important to each and every one of us, thus our culture heavily influences each and everyone and every culture around us. Culture is all around us no matter where you go, it will always with you. It has a massive impact on each and every one of us. Our culture influences our view of almost everything we see and hear in the world.
The short story Two Ways to Belong in America revolves around two Indian immigrant sisters who migrated to America and the author, Mukherjee shares their experiences as immigrants. The author desires to comply with American culture while her sister fervently believes in connecting with her homeland and keeping true to her cultural beliefs and identity. Mukherjee later is able to sympathize with her sister’s sense of betrayal from the government as she lives in Canada. The author delves into living as an immigrant in America and the emotional toll that comes with it. The author first describes their similar upbringing and later shifts the focus to their divergent paths and dreams.
When I was six years old, living in Ethiopia, my dad won an American green card visa lottery among 53,000 people. Although it was exciting news, family members were discouraged because my dad could not afford the visa processing and traveling expense. However, he found a sponsor in Seattle, which allowed him to settle in America. As soon as he found a good house and a stable job, he started the process for me and my family. Multiple errors and obstacles delayed our processing for five years.
Life Changing Positions Immigration can be a controversial topic that many governments are feuding over today. As politicians argue, the real battle occurs as each individual immigrant determines how they will approach their new country. Immigrants must choose if they will assimilate to the new countries values, languages and traditions or maintain their home country’s customs. In the article, “Two Ways To Belong In America,” the author, Bharati Mukherjee, contrasts her and her sister Mira’s experiences along with millions of other American immigrants as they face betrayal, racism, and hardship.
Culture is very important and it tells you where you came from more than race does. People feel that their ethnicity defines who they are and this is true (Henslin,
A person's view on culture heavily influence how one sees and views the world around them. People are influenced by the cultures surrounding them as well as where they live. In the personal essay Two Ways to Belong in America ,written by Bharati Mukherjee, Bharati and her sister Mira were both born in Calcutta, India , but later moved to the United States. Bharati loved America and said "I am an American citizen and she is not" speaking to how she had embraced and been influenced by her surroundings but her sister had not.
The simple and easy answer is, a chance at having a better life. I sometimes ask students why they came to The United States. For instance one young lady was from China. She had a bachelor’s degree, worked in an office, had her own car, and I got the impression her family was fairly well-off. When I asked her why she left her friends, family, culture, and what sounded like a comfortable and satisfying way of life she replied, “Safety, security.”
In the essay “Two Ways to Belong in America,” from 50 essays, Bharati Mukherjee contrasts the different views of the United States from two Indian sisters. The author distinguishes her American lifestyle to her sister’s traditional Indian lifestyle. Both sisters grew up in Calcutta, India, moved to America in search of education and work. Bharati adjusts to the American society very quickly, where her sister Mira clings to her Indian traditions more strongly. Despite both sisters living in America, only Bharati is an American citizen, while her sister Mira is not.
In the Two Fridas, we see two different characteristics of the same person, eventhough they represent two different people. The Frida on the left illustrates herself in a traditional European dress with a cut exposing her broken heart. On the right side, Frida is in a Mexican attire dress with a full beating heart and is holding a picture of her now ex-husband Diego Rivera. Frida choice of colors for this painting are dark and creates a sense of yearning for someone.
The way our societies view other cultures and spread the perceptions regarding them is an unfair practice. It causes discrimination and judgment to foster in the mind of the coming generations and they in turn spread these views even more and thus strengthen those perceptions. While I viewed culture as a part of one’s identity or genetics, I feel like I was rather apathetic to reality. Pride is a fault common in all human beings. We simply refuse to admit our mistakes when proven wrong.