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Culture In Alice Walker's Everyday Use

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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 influences 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.

"An Indian Father's Plea," an essay by Robert Lake, explains the ways in which a difference in culture can affect someone's …show more content…

The narrator says "but that is a mistake. I know even before I wake up. Who ever knew a Johnson with a quick tongue? Who can even imagine me looking a strange white man in the eye? It seems to me I have talked to them always with one foot raised in flight with my head turned in whichever way is farthest from them" (Walker). The narrator seems to think that the way she interacts with people is set in stone, that because she's a Johnson, she cannot change the way she speaks, or the bravery she has. She has limited herself and the same can be assumed for past generations. Her oldest child, Dee, seems to be break this template for that same reason. The story explains how Dee changed her name to Wangero, not wanting to be named after her oppressors. Her mother then explains that the name "Dee" has been passed down from past generations of Johnson's. The narrator of the story let her culture define her, not change her unlike her daughter who used her culture to better …show more content…

The memoir starts off by the author recalling her first day of school, where the teacher immediately changes the names of the author and her sister to make things easier for herself, and replaced the names with what she calls "pretty English names". In doing that the teacher had belittled the entirety of their culture, with no intent to apologize for doing so. The author states "the headmistress had been in India, I suppose, fifteen years or so, but she still smiled her helpless inability to cope with Indian names" (Rama Rau). The author's sister, Premila, eventually decided to take her sister and herself out of that school due to racist comments and actions that her teacher made. She said, "we had our test today, and she made me and the other Indians sit at the back of the room with a desk between each one. She said it was because Indians cheat" (Rama Rau). Santha and Premila's culture affected the the opinions of their teachers and because of that, it also affected the way they were

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