“Strength lies in differences, not in similarities”, said Stephen R. Covey, an American author. In the novel Children of the River by Linda Crew, Sundara, a Khmer refugee and Jonathan, an American boy from different cultures meet in a high school. They undergo a lot of difficulties due to their varied cultures and finally become friends. Sundara and Jonathan’s relationship might strengthen as they experience extreme cultural differences, but also remarkably important similarities. Sundara and Jonathan come from extremely different cultures. Western people think of “life like a road”; whereas Khmer think of “life like a river” (146).In western culture, you could do anything you want to do in your life; however in Khmer culture …show more content…
First of all, Sundara loves her family; similarly Jonathan loves his parents. Sundara remembers her family back in Cambodia .she has reminiscent memories of Cambodia and her family. She also cares for her aunt’s family. Either of them cares for their relatives’ .Next, they have the same feelings for each other; therefore, they are attracted to each other. They have similar personalities by sharing their feelings and thoughts. Furthermore, Jonathan is an impartial person therefore he likes Sundara. He does not care about Sundara race or religion; he just likes how Sundara looks. Likewise, Sundara likes Jonathan not caring about his race or ethnicity. They are honest to each other. Neither Sundara nor Jonathan lies. Sundara is respectful to everyone. In the same way, Jonathan respects others too. Either one has good manners. Both are really hard working and have tough personalities. They do not care about being popular or cool. They both want to help others, especially Sundara who has experienced war so she knows how life is. Influenced by his father, Jonathan also wants to help people. Consequently, Sundara and Jonathan have many similarities. They overcome their obstacles of cultures; moreover they succeed in attaining their goals and staying
Alice demonstrates to the reader the problems and issues this cultural divide presents for her and those around her and how such differences create
Ethan ReinhartMrs. Murry English 909 February 2017The Deadly walk to Safety Having to survive through animals, Living in America and getting used to the changes, and the hardships of traveling through deserts and to refugee camps. Salva Dut definitely proved that he was a survivor. This Paper is from the book “A long Walk to Water” written by Linda Sue Parks.
Sundara has entered into a new culture. This is an essay on a girl named Sundara from Oregon that is staying with her extended family. The way the author develops her character, what she has learned, and how she knows what’s going on. The way the author develops Sundaras character is when the story had began like she was living with her extended family and she only saw football on tv, and she really didn’t know anything about it. One of her friends told her how football goes and the main idea.
Joe Rantz’s character arc helps him develop over the course of The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. Towards the beginning of the book, Joe is very independent and goal oriented. After being abandoned by his dad for the second time 15 year old Joe knew that to be able to feed himself he would need to take every opportunity he could to stay ahead of The Great Depression. “In all all this Joe grew continually stronger and ever more self reliant. Through it all he stayed in school and earned good grades” (Brown 62).
“Themes in literature tend to recur because human beings are more similar than different, no matter what the culture.” (Sato, 77)
Lessons from the Culture Every year we see family emigrate to other countries, and they face many challenges. The stories “Sweet, Sour, and Resentful”, by Firoozeh Dumas, and from “Fish Cheeks”, by Amy Tan, share similar cultures and really interesting stories. Also, both families from the essay share several challenges that they are face when they move to the United States of America. The two families share many similarities; however, they differ in to keeping their culture, showing openness, and teaching a lesson from their culture to others.
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,
Throughout a person’s lifetime, he or she will undoubtedly encounter many challenges, and each person can choose to overcome each challenge or let it defeat him or her. For Joe Rantz, the main character in The Boys In The Boat and one of the eight boys who won the 1936 Olympics in rowing, his underlying challenge that arose was living through the Great Depression. In response to this, Joe and Washington’s crew, along with many other people throughout America, made an effort to confront these challenges. This exertion resulted in helping them to grow into stronger people, who could then set the example for the many people around them to follow suit and face their own trials. Although the challenges life presents can be difficult to overcome,
Imagine yourself caught between two vastly different cultures in America- one you only see at home with your family and the other you see at school and in most other aspects of your life. Would you be able to pick just one culture? You know that choosing one would turn your back against your family, but the other would make you stand out in a crowd. How would you handle this dilemma? Jhumpha Lahiri, author of The Namesake, describes the journey of a Bengali family- mainly focusing on Gogol- who recently moved to America.
Two Worlds, One Girl There are many different cultures around the world, but you never really know what is like being between two different cultures, until you are experiencing it yourself. While growing up, I had the privilege and misfortune of becoming familiar with two different cultures: my family’s culture, from their birth country, Guatemala, and the culture of the United States of America. I say misfortune not because it was a disaster, catastrophe, or bad luck; I say it because sometimes you get so used to being in one culture that you start to forget about your family’s origin. Sometimes you even like something in one culture better than the other, and you feel guilty for having a preference.
Although the cultural collision challenges both Okonkwo’s and Nwoye’s identity, Nwoye’s outcome is an example of being successful in cultural collision is being flexible and able to adjust to the opponent’s culture while Okonkwo’s outcome, suicide, shows resiting to a different culture can bring a catastrophe. Achebe’s two main character’s responses enhance the overall message of the novel by displaying how these main characters changed when two cultures collide one another. It is crucial to be open-minded and adjustable in cultural collision in order to be
Elia Kazan’s award-winning film On the Waterfront and Arthur Miller’s tragic play The Crucible both explore the impact of fear on both individuals and communities and the consequences that may arise due to the chaos caused by fear. Both texts contain centres of power which instil fear in the community and ultimately result in the untimely demise of numerous characters. Additionally, both texts depict the different acts of self-preservation an individual may exhibit when confronted by fear-induced hardships. Furthermore, despite main characters from both texts – John Proctor and Terry Malloy- illustrating acts of heroism in their final scenes, only Malloy’s attempt for redemption is seen to result in a resolution to the corruption caused by
Taking a gander at how every story experiences love, marriage and suicide will successfully look at the stories. These are questions that many have asked since the beginning of time to which no one has ever really adequately answered. This satiating of an intense desire for another result in a varying of consequential results based on freedom, suicide and betrayal. Freedom in the Love Suicide at Amijima involves the double love triangles involving love in one story can mean loathe in another. In the story, The Love Suicides at Amijima, the characters Jihei and Osan, are cousins who wed not for themselves but rather for their family.
In the novel Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya, it deals with the protagonist Antonio Marez, having to go through cultural conflict. Both of his parents grew up with a different background, and they each want him to become someone that
In the story Krik? Krak!, author Edwidge Danticat provides insight into the everyday lives of Haitians living during a tumultuous time period. Danticat, a Haitian native, understands the struggles that nearly all individuals endured passed on from generation to generation. Through the description of one's struggles, Danticat wants the reader to understand the dangerous power that hope entails. Hope is a powerful tool that can provide a false sense of reality for one, which can result in harmful consequences.