Rhetorical Analysis Of Barbara Ehrenreich's Cultural Baggage

Ambition For Understanding One source once stated, “Children begin to develop a sense of identity as individuals and as members of groups from their earliest interactions with others” (Trumbull and Pacheco 9). This quote displays the importance of developing a strong sense of cultural identity, structure, and association from a very young age. Being a part of something bigger than one’s self gives meaning to life, conceives a favorable lifestyle, and influences significant life decisions. In order to understand one’s cultural identity, he or she needs to understand what the term means.

In Barbara Ehrenreich’s Cultural baggage, the topic of ethnic heritage is discussed as the author is responding to an acquaintance asking her what her ethnic background is. Ehrenreich finds her purpose for writing her essay in making readers aware that no ethnic background is in fact a background. She takes on a not so common viewpoint of herself as most people pride themselves in where they came from and the traditions of their culture, rather than feeling almost embarrassed to claim their background.

The family shows both continuity and changes which can be seen by looking at nuclear families and single parent families respectively. Before 1940s, marriage was considered an important part of society and thought to be a social institution essential for order. Divorce and single parent families were considered dreadful, sex outside marriage was not acceptable, it was a moral offense. The tempo of divorces was very low, but this social behavior soon ended in the post war era. By 1960s, this was no longer the case, as women started to work. They became much more independent, laws were changed and increase in divorces and cohabitation rates had shown that marriage was not compulsory in one’s life.

In today’s society, family is often attempted to be organized within a social structure. Within this structure family typically is consisted of mom, dad, daughter, and son. However, many families do not fit into this configuration. These families may include same sex couples, separated or divorced families, extended families, or even blended families. Even though these families may be happy and healthy, to many they are not considered real families. Going along with the topic of imperfect families, both Barbara Kingsolver and Richard Rodriguez try to break down the traditional family structure through their writing. While Kingsolver’s “Stone Soup” and Rodriguez’s “Family Values” explore the ideas of different family structures and traditional American values, “Stone Soup” breaks down what an actual family is like while “Family Values” expresses the value of family in different cultures.

In Barbara Ehrenreich's bold and honest book she tackles the issue of poverty in America head on, by becoming a low wage worker herself. Ehrenreich delves into the often unheard of issues relating to poverty and low wage work, providing her readers with a new perspective on America's working poor and manages to give her audience a stark emotional, yet logical and factual, look into the working class' poverty epidemic. She uses her own anecdotal evidence and supports it with statistics and facts, appeals to ethos by challenging the ethics of corporate America and it costs, finally she hits an emotional chord with readers by reminding them of what low wage workers must endure so that we can live in our America.

The emphasis on individualism has provoked a deeper inspection of one’s personal values and beliefs while feminism has opened the door for a new type of traditional family to emerge with new dynamics between parents, children and their roles within the home. These new dynamics merge right along with cultural values as the two merge. In America, life is varied from home to home with different culturally-influenced family values. While throughout other parts of the world, different countries have maintained a balance within a core value system that affects all families alike through religion and a national way of life. There is no doubt that the many varied factors of modern society, ethnic background and religion all play significant roles in forming family values that shape the life of an

A family consists of people with mutual respect, love, and passions for one another, conveys Barbara Kingsolver in her essay called the “Stone Soup”. She believes that a family isn’t necessarily bound by traditional concepts of happy marriages, rather she insists that this is a relatively new ideal in our society. A nuclear family is a representation of normal families; Kingsolver disagrees with this concept, and understands that today's norm are the non traditional families of the world. She writes this essay reminding non traditional families that there is nothing they need be ashamed of, ascertaining the parents that their families are complete

America has always been labeled the “melting pot” and the “land of the free,” but when one is analyzing the history and social norms of the country, these statements are far from true. America has thrived through the oppression of minority groups and social pressure towards these groups to conform to the majority culture. In any historical sense, from the near extermination of Native Americans to the racial profiling of Muslim individuals after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, minority groups have always been the victims and have always been viewed as different if they do not assimilate into the “typical” American culture. Numerous works of literature have successfully displayed the struggles that minorities face when attempting to conform. Two works in particular, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Alexie Sherman and When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka, tell stories of two different minority groups: Native Americans living in the 21st century and Japanese-Americans during World War II. While these stories are separated by several decades, it is clear that American culture has not changed, as each story exemplifies how difficult it truly is to leave old cultural norms behind in order to be accepted by the majority.

Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel, Ceremony, reveals how the crossing of cultures was feared, ridiculed, and shunned in various Native American tribes. The fear of change is a common and overwhelming fear everyone faces at some point in their life. The fear of the unknown, the fear of letting go, and the fear of forgetting all play a part in why people struggle with change. In Ceremony the crossing of cultures creates “half-breeds,” usually bringing disgrace to their family’s name. In Jodi Lundgren’s discourse, “Being a Half-breed”, is about how a girl who struggles with understanding what cultural group she fits into since she is a “half-breed.” Elizabeth Evasdaughter’s essay, “Leslie Marmon Silko’s “Ceremony”: Healing Ethnic Hatred by

Barbara Ehrenreich’s essay, “Longevity Crisis? Kill Grandma,” is a very effective piece in its clever usage of humor and truth. A sarcastic beginning aims to highlight the issues which the author deems important and relevant to the aforementioned ‘longevity crisis,’ and simultaneously places responsibility on a variety of different companies. A transition to a more straightforward tone partway through solidifies the author’s point of view by critiquing the governing bodies themselves. Ehrenreich suggests that an outright pro-death policy might be better phrased as “a way of encouraging turnover … rather than death” (par. 10). She continues to argue that since the government is already effectively killing the older generations, the adoption

In her essay, Cultural Baggage, Barbara Ehrenreich talks about her feelings towards heritage, and if it is important to know your family heritage or not. At the beginning of her essay she shares a conversation she had with her friend who just found out some information about her family heritage, and was interested in finding out about Ehrenreich’s. She replied “none” when asked what her heritage was (pg. 43). She felt as if she didn’t have enough of a certain heritage to rightfully represent that heritage. For example, she said that she was Irish, but didn’t think she was enough Irish to wear a “Kiss me I’m Irish” button (pg.43). She also explains that as a child she felt the pressure to find out what her family heritage was. Whenever she found

In “Cultural Baggage”, Barbara Ehrenreich talks about her feelings regarding her ethnic background. She starts her paper with sharing a conversation that she had with her friend who just found her family heritage. When her friend asked what her heritage was, she replied: “none” ( ??). she mentions that she is Irish but she never raised up with an ethical background. And She explains that as a child she suffered and could not find her ethnical identity. Furthermore, she says that she learned a little about her ethnical background from her grandmother. in addition, she says that she tried to get back to the ethnic gene she wants for her children by marrying a European man. Ehrenreich states that her older child made a statement “you don’t

This paper will discuss the differences between families from the 1960’s and the families of today. There are many differences between the different times. I have focused on the parentage portion of the families. I explained what the ideal family is and how it is different today. I’ve also included ways that will help these families of today become stronger as a family.

A religious family in the story Why I am a Pagan by Zitkala-sa, talks about how this little girl was taught certain things that her family has always gone by. What she was taught, she now holds close to her life dearly, while also relying on it every moment of the day. Her life shows us a different view on cultural identity, how she was taught something important not only to her, but in everyone else’s as well. By showing her what the kind of men in her life mean the most to her. She says something about her religion, how it reflects her past, present, and future, along with what she stands for. She says, “I was taught long years ago by kind missionaries to read the holy book, these godly men taught me also the folly of our old beliefs.” (Zitkala-sa 2) In her culture, and

In the 21 century, traditional family structure is facing many challenges. In my opinion, the only solution is change. Every member should change their original mindset to meet the changing society.