Norma Gonzales Beyond Culture

In this story “Norma” by Sonia Sanchez it describes the experience of a character named Sonia. Sonia is a girl who attends George Washington High school and is described to be a shy, and conspicuous girl. Sonia usually is a shy girl who talks with her head down and is kind of quiet. All Sonia wants is to learn how to to the factor equation so she can do her homework. Norma is what Sonia and others call a genius. Norma Went to go help Sonia with her math, Sonia got the problem and was ready to start her homework.

In the short story Norma by Sonia Sanchez, Sonia is in middle school. She does not have a very good math teacher, Mr. Castor, who does not really help his students. Sonia loves french class, but one day Norma snapped at the teacher and left the room. Sonia kind of look up to Norma, so after she did not like french, Sonia started to dislike french class. Which is sad because that was one of Norma’s favorite classes. They have now started high school and and Sonia does not really pay much attention to Norma, until one day in the cafeteria and everyone was talking about how Norma got pregnant and expelled. Years have gone by and Sonia sees Norma for the first time since freshman year. She has four kids, but is also doing drugs.They catch up

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. Without the knowledge of what culture is and does, we as a society would be lost.

In the haunting short story entitled “Norma” written by author Sonia Sanchez, Sonia draws the story to a powerful end by vowing “never to agree again”. At a cursory glance, it appears that she is vowing never to meet Norma again. However, a deeper examination reveals that she makes this promise in order to affirm that she will never again agree to the rigged system that transformed an intelligent and promising young woman into a drug-addled mother of four.

Human tendency to categorize others extends to simple instinct. From the moment a baby is born, the first question already categorizes the baby: boy or girl. In Richard Rodriguez’s Brown: The Last Discovery of America, he addresses these ideals of categorizations, untangling arduous inner conflicts in the process. Due to his diversity, Rodriguez feels unwanted and omitted in his day-to-day life. Feeling uncategorized, Rodriguez journeys to discover new parts of himself and embrace them, as well as question societal norms. This complex work leads to conflicting feelings between the reader and Rodriguez. Rodriguez discusses categories which leads to his personal creation for all the misfits.

Isabel Gonzalez was a Puerto Rican activist who helped make the way for Hispanic/Latinos(Spanish) to have civil rights. She’s famous for pursuing the citizenship for Puerto Ricans. Gonzaléz has fought many cases in court, in honor of her family, to ensure the citizenship for all Puerto Ricans. Through her zestful efforts, Puerto Ricans are official United States citizens and has the same rights as any other American.

In the book “Norma” by Sonia Sanchez is about two teenage girls named Norma and Sonia. Sonia attends George Washington Highschool. She is a character who is really shy and really works hard. She is regular student who has to work hard to understand what is happening in school or what she is learning. She mentions that her and her sister have to study nightly.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides discusses and combines a crisis in gender identity with the complex and changing American identity. In particular, Eugenides uses Cal’s (as Calliope) experience at Baker & Inglis to illuminate the social tensions of identity and power Americans deal with. After Calliope’s field hockey game, she goes to the girls’ locker room and feels uncomfortable. Feeling like an outsider, Calliope describes the atmosphere of the locker room. As the narrator, Cal states, “My classmates were as unastonished by their extravagant traits as a blowfish is by its quills. They seemed to be a different species” (297). Calliope thoroughly notices that she does not have similar parts as the other

Today we live in a world filled with millions of commodities; therefore it is important that the commodities stand out from one another (Goldman & Papson, 1998:6). According to Polanyi (1968:33) “all commodities are goods which are produced to be sold”. Making a commodity stand out from another commodity allows for the commodity to sell to large amount of consumers, creating a profit for the company which created the commodity. Commodities possess their own significant sense of Culture (Williams, 79: 79). Culture is not one dimensional and has transformed significantly over time (Smith, 2001: 10). Culture has been defined as the intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development of individuals, groups or societies; in addition culture is defined

I decided to express my Sociological Perspective based on Race and Ethnicity. Being born in the United States I was taught in school; men and women have equal rights and opportunity. Even though this is correct; as a Latina, social patterns taught me differently. As a Latin American woman it’s strange to admit how traditionally, I was raised to be a mom and wife first than anything. Being that both my parents moved to United States to gain equal opportunities, this chapter explained to me how society shapes what we think and do in pattern ways. Take my personal experience as an example; I was a teenage mother at the age of 17. When I became pregnant, I moved in with my husband and his “Latin” family (Mother, Grandmother, Sister, and Stepfather).

How you ever had a disagreement with someone and can’t see how they have that point of view? Well a person’s culture can inform the way they think because their culture has instilled ideas into their mind about what’s right and what’s wrong. In which this can influences their ideas. Some people chose to follow and some people start their own culture/traditions. In excerpts “Two Kinds”, “Multi-Culturalism Explained in One Word: Hapa” and “Everyday Use” there is an example of cultural identity and how it effects the decision in the characters life.

This reading is centered around Kimberle Crenshaw’s idea of intersectionality and how we often are a part of multiple social identities at one time. Her idea of these multiple identities contribute to her argument that society often treats people according to a specific social group versus all the groups in which they belong. Crenshaw gave the example of the Hispanic mother that was a victim of domestic violence and was not able to adequately convey her claims because of the language barrier between her and her crisis counselor. The son of the woman would have been able to translate but the counselor declined saying that would further disempower her. The claim of the counselor was valid but what mattered more at the time? The feeling of empowerment by the mother or the safety of that mother and her son? The author argues that this is how many of us go about helping one another. Instead of helping because it is right, we often try help people based on their positions and social identities which in-turn often places this help on a conditional bases.

Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a certain group of people. Culture is not only defined as language, religion, cuisine, behavior, but also described through social habits, artifacts, music and art. I was born and raised in Viet Nam, so culture plays a big part in my everyday interactions. For instance, I show respect to the house's owners, who are renting me one of his rooms, by greetings them whenever I leave or come back home. I do so because it is our culture to greet the elders when you see them. Vietnamese rarely shows affection to each other in everyday life. For example, I find it is awkward to hug someone for saying goodbye because we do not that as part of our culture.

Being that America is a huge melting pot for a number of different cultures, establishing a sense of cultural awareness is even more important now, than it has been in past years. America is one of the most diverse countries overall. Being culturally aware will allow for an individual to be sensitive to the needs and requirements to respect individuals that may be of a different race, culture, or religion. In order to be culturally aware you must first know what culture is defined as. One may find that there are a number definitions of culture, so it is not limited to this given definition. “In sociology and anthropology, the way of life of a particular society or group of people, including patterns of thought,

Just as a cover does not fully reveal the text of its book, the ambiguousness of my physical appearance has never truly represented the cultural diversity and experiences of my life. People have inquired about my nationality and guessed countries from the sunny shores of Samoa to the mango orchards of India. In the sunshine and heat of the summer, a person wouldn't likely guess, from the melanin in my skin and salty ringlet curls that crown my head, that I fluently speak Croatian and love the Croatian folk dance “kolo.” However, weeks into winter that same person would not guess from my pale tan and straightened hair that I experience the prejudice of bearing the label “Black.” The diversity of my background continues when a person asks me where I am from, to which I recite the following: “My dad is an African-American soldier from