Culture And Tradition In The Whale Rider

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The whale rider illustrates that culture and tradition can be both a positive and negative thing in people’s lives. Do you agree?

Each person has a different view on culture and tradition. Some people look at culture and tradition as something that plays a significant role in their lives, while some don’t see them playing an important part of their lives. In my opinion, I do not think that culture and tradition are important roles that affect our lives. And so I am going to be discussing the positive and negative features of culture and tradition.

“The Whale Rider” focused on many different subjects - family, society, poverty, loss, gender discrimination etc… But the main focus was Koro’s attitude towards Kahu. Despite Kahu repeatedly showing her capability and leadership qualities, Koro still ignores her because he thinks that she should not take a role that was …show more content…

Traditionally, respect must be shown to men by women and children, and this was shown in the novel. Also, not only is respect shown to men, it is also shown to God, people at higher ranks and ancestors. In “The Whale Rider”, Koro was showing respect to the Maori traditional custom by refusing to accept Kahu as a leader, even though she had the qualities to lead the tribe. If he had let Kahu to learn and lead the tribe, he would not be respecting the Maori traditional culture. As Shakespeare once said “All the world 's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.”Personally, I think respect to women is also as important as respect to traditional culture because there is no reason why men are better than women, men have their advantages and strengths while women also have their own. The reason that there are both men and women is so they could support each other, live together and

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