Essay about Cultural Differences: Witness - Peter Weir: Into the World

The author uses tone and images throughout to compare and contrast the concepts of “black wealth” and a “hard life”. The author combines the use of images with blunt word combinations to make her point; for example, “you always remember things like living in Woodlawn with no inside toilet”. This image evokes the warmth of remembering a special community with the negative, have to use outdoor facilities. Another example of this combination of tone and imagery is “how good the water felt when you got your bath from one of those big tubs that folk in Chicago barbecue in”. Again the author’s positive memory is of feeling fresh after her bath combined with a negative, the fact that it was a barbecue drum.

The setting represents the physical aspect of isolation in the story. “ …. the long white miles of prairie landscape seemed a region strangely alien to life. [ ] the distant farmsteads she could see served only to intensify a sense of isolation.” (Ross 1) This is the tangible form that isolation

Everyone in Pleasantville had a routine which was strictly followed day to day. Everyone wore the same style of clothes. Even the houses were the same, with picket fences adorning houses and everyone having the same car. Ross uses mise-en-scene to contrast idealistic, conservative American views and reality. He highlights the fact that the people of Pleasantville like everything to be kept to a routine. Their world has little time for change and is a complete contrast to realistic America.

Anthropologists have always had their discrepancies with the word culture and its background significance. There have been numerous definitions that have filtered through the field, yet not one that everyone can accept or agree with. Franz Boas, an anthropologist in the early 20th Century, and his students, had a difficult time figuring out the objective of what culture is. Culture is about learning and shared ideas about behaviour. Although Boas and his students had a slightly different idea in mind. They ultimately reached a conclusion, a definition of culture in their view that is a contradiction in terms. Boas sates that, “ culture was expressed through the medium of language but was not reducible to it;

Daisy is a Buchanan, a family with enormous hereditary wealth, where Myrtle lives in the Valley of Ashes with an auto mechanic as a husband. Their differences become striking when we compare the first bits of information about them: where they reside. Whilst Daisy's home is described as a 'cheerful red-and-white Georgian colonial mansion'. This house not only connotes to wealth but also hereditary wealth through the premodifier 'Georgian'. The Buchanans couch is compared to an 'anchored balloon', that could be suggesting that wealth 'anchors' security in the society of 1922. Contrastingly, Myrtle's home in the valley of ashes is overlooked b the eyes of T.J Eckleberg. This could be an indication of how capitalism is hampering them as a less than wealthy couple. This idea of the wealthy hampering the poor is reinforced by Carraway ignorance to the way poor people live, implied when he assumes that the 'shadow of a garage must be a blind, and that sumptuous and romantic apartments were concealed overhead'. As he struggles to believe that people live in such conditions. This difference is all more evident when we consider how when Carraway is describing the Buchanans' home he uses colours like 'red', 'white', 'rose' and 'wine'; all of which connote to luxury. Whereas in describing the Wilsons' home, colours like 'whitewashed', 'blond' and 'light blue'. Colours that a very pale and

The Amish are people who believe in Christ but have strict rules in their style of living, which is quite different from the modern society today. They live in a city in Philadelphia called Lancaster County, it is a very country style due to the acres of land each house has, the barn houses, and the animals. The uniqueness of their lifestyle to me is how they live in the world where technology is practically taking over every aspect, but they continue to stick to their beliefs and not change anything. To me it’s difficult to comprehend due to the fact that you can’t live like that in a majority of the cities today since technology is widely known. This is part of the reason why they live in their city far away in the middle of Philadelphia and have kept all their traditional ways. Part of the Amish belief is their separation from electricity since electricity is part of the “outside” world. They are not able to watch tv, have any public utility line running to their houses, or operate automobiles. It just blew my mind sitting there listening to how they live and how they follow all these guidelines in their life. For me it was different, but it intrigued me for some odd reason, just the fact that they have family time with no interruption, and dinner time with no distractions. Those two aspects alone bring families much closer and to me all the families in the world have become detached from true family time. Seeing their lifestyle and hearing all the guidelines they follow make me think of life without technology and how it would change our

The life lived today in Colby compared with Grover’s Corners depicts several similarities as well as differences. Each person in the small town lives a simple life that meets their basic needs: working, their political philosophy and their religious affiliation. In Act I, the Lady in a Box quizzes Mr. Webb about the culture of the community. The playwright expresses this through Mr. Webb saying, “Well, ma’am, there ain’t much--not in the sense you mean” (Wilder 17). This means the townspeople don’t attend elaborate concerts, but enjoy simple pleasures such as the playing of a piano at local events. In our town, very rarely do big promoted concerts choose Colby as their venue, but citizens get to enjoy a lot of local talent. The population of Grover’s Corners consists of 3,149 people compared to Colby which has around 5,418 people. Furthermore, the

Using very informal language, “belly” and “Christopher’s ship” denotes a particularly non-impressive image unlike most depictions of his voyage in white histories. The use of the word “mob” conjures brutish connotations again often attributed to Native Americans. As well as depicting the encounter between Natives and white invaders, Armstrong also indicates the oncoming results of colonizing on the Natives’ land. “Pulling off furs” as well as literally graphically depicting the savage nature of the whites when hunting animals, also refers to the fur trade set up following colonization of Canada. The senseless barbarism continues with the shooting of buffalo as well as shooting of each other. The lack of definition between the two, and the casual nature of the lines highlights the whites animalistic and savage nature, as well as the lack of unity between the European settlers. In this stanza “Jeannette Armstrong conveys the violence of abstraction of “Colonialism” by telescoping it into a vivid caricature of mad physical activity”. In contrast to “History Lesson” where the whites are judged on their actions, in Roughing it in the Bush Moodie initially analyses the Natives appearance and common traits. Moodie states, “The men of this tribe are generally small of stature, with very coarse and repulsive features.” Following this wholly belittling description, there is a continuation of animal like comparisons “the observing faculties large, the intellectual ones scarcely

Though it is no mystery that John Grimes does not adore his home life, John’s disdain is more deeply rooted than initially perceived. His aversion to his family first exhibited on a Saturday in March of 1935, otherwise described to be John’s 14th birthday, which some would argue is the pinnacle of pubescence. John’s mother, Elizabeth, asks John to do some household chores. It is here that the narrator goes on to show how John Grimes perceives himself and his home. On Page 22 of the text, John describes his home as a place where “dirt was in every corner, angle, crevice of the monstrous stove and lived

The double meanings of the description of the physical setting illustrate the finer tuned details of the character. The narrator describes the "wild" garden behind his house containing a "central" apple-tree, perhaps suggesting that within the chaos in life some things remain central and focused. Amid the narrator's chaotic

For centuries, racism has become the universal epitome of culture, despite the efforts of various civilizations, such as the Western and European to combat these indifferences among people. A race is specific social group that can be differentiated through various ways, from facial features and hair textures, to social norms and habits that constitutes to that group. These differences contribute to our uniqueness and humanity. Because people can be grouped by any number of differences, Man, lead by his ignorance, perpetuated the issue once social-hierarchies began to develop, splitting society to its various groups. As a result, social disparity from one’s upbringing became the common tendency to look down, or look up at people of other

When comparing cultures, one must form a definition of what culture is. Culture can be easily defined as the social behavior and normality’s found in human societies. It can also be easily made up of a composed arrangement of educated conduct and thought designs. Culture is a sorted out framework since it includes many parts. Throughout the world, there are many cultures that are both very different and also very similar. "Culture encompasses religion, food, what we wear, how we wear it, our language, marriage, music, what we believe is right or wrong, how we sit at table, how we greet visitors, how we behave and one million other things." (Cristina De Rossi.)

I would like to consider my cultural heritage as diverse, but this is far from reality. Over the years as I matured through my teenage years, I was exposed to different cultures by life experiences and travel. I struggled to create both a personal and cultural identity while trying to adjust to my sight loss and with the support of my family I traveled overseas to experience other cultures for the first time. My family opened up their home to a foreign exchange program in turn allowing me the opportunity to travel over to Europe at the age of 16 years old. This opportunity started the slow progression of experiences that would open my mind to others who are unlike myself, especially traveling to a strange place and feeling different in

The importance of understanding cultural, ethnic and gender differences by managers and professionals in a business setting is essential to make the work environment comfortable. In every culture there are basic standards of thinking, and acting and these cultural differences strongly influence workplace values and communication. What may be considered acceptable and natural in the workplace for one person may be unacceptable for another person. People from diverse cultures bring new ways of thinking, creativity and language skills needed to survive in today’s work force. In many

If we look at the world today, there are millions of cultures centered everywhere. With this much cultures in the world, everyone is bound to believe that they’re all different. Even though they are different in some aspects, all of them are similar to each other in some way. So if this is the case, do we as human beings have the right to judge these cultures as ethically wrong or just a cultural difference? Cultural Relativism is the belief that we cannot judge the cultural practices of other societies and that we should let them do as they please. But if we cannot judge them, does it make it right when they threaten the lives of others? Through the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, we begin to have a deeper insight this idea of