preview

Analysis: The Geography Of Bliss

Good Essays
Open Document

For years people have gone back and forth on what your identity means. Some say it is how you carry yourself and others say it is based on your cultural background. These two arguments are both valid, but is not giving the benefit of the doubt to the individual in which is being considered by their identity. Although most cultures are made up of languages and the traditions within we cannot limit an individual to be based off the language they speak. On the cultural aspect that does not apply necessarily because culture makes up only a part of your identity, whereas language is a source of communication. These are two factors people confuse each other with when thinking on the identity plane. Culture and identity are under the same umbrella …show more content…

Most of the values and conception of what is morally correct comes from the foundation of the culture. As children, we are forced all types of traditions and cultural aspects in our heads in which we are raised with. Before we were able to identify ourselves, our cultural had already done so, but as we grow we begin to find ourselves. As Weiner stated in his article The Geography of Bliss “Culture is what we inherit from our ancestors and either preserve or, more likely, squander.” Referring back to what I initially said, our culture is something we are born into, but as we make our way through life we can take the cultural pride with us or find ourselves. Although language and culture are linked to a certain extent we cannot connect the two to one another because the level of complexity they are at. One is surrounded around a way of life for a certain type of people, whereas language is nothing, but a mere source of communication between people to understand one another and this is how someone’s uniqueness in their identity is belittled. Depending on the culture and where you are in the world, we cannot see the language to be something special. America thinks itself to be better than the rest of the world by adding “American” when they refer to themselves and where they are from. For an example, African-American, Italian-American, and Asian-American, as Amy Tan refers to her own kind in Mother Tongue (210). …show more content…

In Amy Tan’s essay, Mother Tongue, she reflects how her mother’s language did not define who she was by stating “She reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads all of Shirley MacLaine's books with ease--all kinds of things I can't begin to understand. Yet some of my friends tell me they understand 50 percent of what my mother says” (207). Amy Tan's mother spoke bad English, but that didn’t undermine her knowledge. Although culture and identity are linked with a strong sense of pride, identity has a different branch in which expands more to a person such as their knowledge. The way someone dresses or the way they present themselves in general. Identity is a special trait or traits about you that no one else possesses, this is a prime example as to why language cannot be tied to identity. The two contrasts one another strongly because language is not something only one person possesses whereas someone’s style, for an example, can be duplicated, but not mastered. Identity is what makes a person who they are regarding all aspects of their

Get Access
Related
Get Access