“Cultural Baggage” by Barbara Ehrenreich explains the author’s views on traditional values that come from family ancestry. Ehrenreich’s motivation to write about this subject came from the way she was raised and challenged. She grew up finding new things to try and not to succumb to the mindset of accepting something because it’s always been that way. Ehrenreich’s father said in the essay, ‘“think for yourself’ and ‘always ask why’” (Ehrenreich, 04 Apr. 1992).
“Perhaps someone here has seen my son?” He had lost his son in the commotion. He searched for him among the dying,to no avail. Then he had dug through the snow to find his body in vain.” (90).
The tenderness and compassion that the members of this Native American community had shown Teofolio and his family following his death is indicative of a close bond that these people share. For instance, when Leon and his brother-in-law Ken found Teofolio dead under the cottonwood tree, they ritualistically tied a gray feather into the old man’s hair, sprinkled corn meal and pollen into the win and then painted his face with a traditional white steak across his forehead, a blue streak across his cheekbones, a yellow streak under his nose and a green one across his chin. Once this was completed, they wrapped the corpse in a blanket and drove it back to Teofolio’s home where they redressed it in a brown flannel shirt and a new pair of jeans. Once Ken had left to seek out gravediggers for the burial, neighbors and clanspeople brought sustenance to the home so that the gravediggers would have something to eat after they had performed their task. The neighbors were also there to show the family some support by embracing them in silence as a way to honor the deceased.
His death represents a rejection of the oppressive Catholic beliefs that Mama Chona instilled in her family, and an embracement of a pre-colonization belief system in which shame and guilt do not factor into the
In Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, transformation is portrayed as a way to heal Tayo’s inner demons. Within the novel, Tayo faces the horrific symptoms of PTSD, while trying to simultaneously assimilate to both Native American and white culture and therefore accept his true self. Similarly, throughout his journey and transformation Tayo learns that individuals and society as a whole must adapt and include different life perspectives in order to thrive together. In Ceremony, Tayo begins the novel as a confused young man suffering from PTSD, unable to reconcile his white upbringings and with his traditional Native culture, however with Ceremony displays how Tayo’s emotional development brings him closer to his native culture through traditional
His biggest fear was to lose his father because of the bond that they had built. He gave up many things for his father like food and some opportunities. On page 107 it states, “In my father’s place lay another invalid.” This is when his father died. After his father died, it was almost a relief, but he was sad because he didn’t say his final goodbyes.
Everything in its Path is an award winning novel written by Kai T. Erikson about the destruction of a community after the Buffalo Creek Flood in West Virginia in February 1972. In the early hours of February 26th the largest of a makeshift mining- company dam gave way, allowing one hundred and thirty- two million gallons of muddy waste water to rush through the town of Buffalo Creek. The water rushed through thirteen miles of the town for about three hours, destroying homes, bridges, and roads. This destruction caused one hundred and five deaths, one thousand one hundred and twenty one injuries, and left four thousand people homeless (Sewell 2012). The Buffalo Creek flood was a complete destruction of a community.
Piedad Molina Professor Ana Hernandez LIT 2480 October 7, 2015 Culture is the set of traditions, beliefs, and values, which are characteristic of a certain population. Each country or region has different parameters to determine their culture. The predominant values in the population, the language spoken, religious beliefs, and the way they dress; all these manners influence in the creation of a culture and what is autonomous of its region. Within a country we can find different cultures or ethnicities, social status, education and region make a population differ from another. The exchange of cultural ideas, beliefs, and values with the youngest members of the community make it possible for a culture to survive and to keep the legacy.
Every day we use our culture. Whether it be to argue claims, express opinions, or make decisions, culture plays a part in each area. Culture is who we are, one’s identity, its extent is enormous over our views and actions. A person grows up surrounded with culture at a young age. This can affect how they learn and what they learn.
Without the knowledge of what culture is and does, we as a society would be lost. In the essay, “An Indian Father’s Plea” by Robert Lake, the author takes to explain to his audience that your culture can greatly impact your perspective of others. For example, when the teacher Wind-Wolf a slow learner, the father writes a letter explaining why wind-wolf is not, but in fact the opposite. The author said “If you ask him how many months there are in a year he will probably tell you 13. He will respond this way not because he does not know how to count, but because he was taught by our traditional people.”
In the opening scene of Paul’s Case, the author notes the vibrant, red carnation that Paul wears to his disciplinary meeting and the teacher’s distaste of what they believe the flower symbolizes referring to it as a, “scandalous red carnation” and how, “his whole attitude was symbolized by...his flippantly red carnation flower” (114). A defiant student, shown by his disrespect toward his teachers, Paul seems unfazed to the fact that he is in a disciplinary meeting and choses to act indifferent to what his teachers say about him. He is arrogant and holds himself to a higher status than his teachers thus causing him to feel entitled. The red carnation symbolizes his idealistic view of society in which he had hopes and dreams to elevate himself and achieve the higher status that he believes that he deserves. Paul’s world comes crumbling down though when he realizes that he could not pretend to be part of the world that he wanted to be in.
This was bitter irony since everyone thought Louise died from being excited to see her husband when she really died from not wanting to see him. “She thought of Leonce and the children. They were part of her life. But they need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul. ”(Chopin 137).