Starting from a young age, American’s idealize self-reliant individuals that grow into fame and fortune. Through this idealization, independence has swept the country making America one of the most independent cultures. Professor Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel brought this topic to awareness in her article called “The Young, the Rich, and the Famous”. In her article, Sponsel explains her experiences in her Thailand roots and compares them to customs she became acquainted to in America. She explains that in the United States, privacy is so natural that most Americans do not realize how unconventional that concept is to other cultures. In Thailand, it is completely acceptable to talk about income, personal relationships, or finances with strangers. While in America, those are private topics that are almost forbidden to discuss. Throughout her article she intertwines these points with connection to effects on youth. She argues that because individuality is implemented at such an early age. Sponsel is trying to bring awareness to readers on how individualism is spreading across American culture and its antithesis compared to other cultures. She uses rhetorical devices and personal experience to give insight on various aspects of American culture that most readers never thought of prior to the realizations created by article.
Sponsel focuses her article on how American cultural values differ from Thailand culture. A strong sense of ethos is important when creating an article with a
It is initially hard to distinguish which of these tangible or intangible factors are more important. Based on the cultural dimensions and values identified further in the report, it is clear that each has its own importance and merit. Understanding the cultural norms and expectations at play in the case study are critical to resolving the conflict at hand. Whilst Kelly believed she had adequate prior knowledge of the Japanese culture, it is clear that she is not as well versed as she thinks.
Only a couple of decades ago, hard work and determination guided people to obtain a piece of the opportunity America is all about. Lately there is a surge in having our fifteen minutes of fame and work less, buy more. There are Americans who feel that materialism is the way to obtain true American happiness. TV ads bombard the population with information on what is truly needed to be the best. All media outlets convey how to be more like the famous. Commercials inform on how this star uses this phone and this athlete buys this car. In trying to assimilate to others, some continue to spend even though they cannot afford it. In “Framing Class, Vicarious Living,
According to Tocqueville, the American social condition is eminently democratic, ultimately paving the way for the United States to become a society of equality. He interprets the topic of equality to be a negative element of democracy, as it has the tendency to deter individuals, who in a more aristocratic society, would become outstanding individuals, from reaching their highest potential. Although saddened by this fact, Tocqueville quickly notes that this is unfortunately inevitable. He introduces a new concept that arises from times of equality, individualism. Tocqueville defines individualism as, “a reflective and quiet sentiment that inclines each individual to distance himself from a crowd of peers and to draw apart with his own family and friends; in this way, he builds his own private world, willingly leaving the larger world to itself.” He warns of the dangers associated with individualism and how individualism can eventually merge into what he refers to as egoism. The autobiographies included in First Person Past emphasize the results of these individualistic motives through the lives of
Though generalization in nature excludes outliers and exceptions, it serves as a perfect method of exemplification in Rodriguez’s essay, as his argument involves not a specific situation or individual, but rather a national culture as a whole. Throughout the essay, Rodriguez states several themes of American society to support his idea that Americans have weak family values. The principle of departure from home is mentioned early in the essay. “The assurance of family–continuity, inevitably–is precisely what America encourages its children to overturn. Become your own man,” Rodriguez states (Rodriguez 310). Americans see dependence on family members as a terrible weakness. Therefore, committing an act like living with one’s parents during an economically difficult time, such as Rodriguez in fact committed, is frowned upon by society. Going away to study, and leaving one’s guardians is a sign of manhood and success. Ignoring the exceptions to this argument, such as the parents that persuade their children to study near home, or the children who come home with much enthusiasm, Rodriguez simply states what he thinks is dominant in American culture. He mentions particular examples that represent the weaknesses in American family life to make a generalization that allows his argument to appear much stronger. Later in the essay, he goes on to compare American values to those of the Chinese. A comment made by Rodriguez’s
This essay, The Myth of the Model American Family, is a discussion of the concept of an ideal family in the different perspective specifically social, cultural and economic. This is also an attempt to identify the structural changes in relation to the global development and the international economic crisis that immensely created impact on their lives. However, the discussion will limit itself on the different identifiable and observable transformations as manifested in the lifestyles, interrelationships and views of family members and will not seek to provide an assessment of their psycho-social and individual perceptions.
The disintegration of values in American families is shown through Connie’s family. The story introduces parents who do not play important roles in their children’s lives. In addition, the tradition of spending Sundays as a family has become obsolete in Connie’s family. These changes lead Connie to rely on popular love songs to guide her. Showing the effects of how this family operates makes readers aware of the shift in culture in American
"The Roaring Twenties”, "The Era of Wonderful Nonsense", "The Decade of the Dollar" , "The Period of the Psyche", "Dry Decade" and the age of "Alcohol and Al Capone”, these slogans are all ways to describe the 1920’s in just a few words. (The 1920s: Lifestyles and Social Trends: Overview) The 1920’s were a decade of parties, money, and extravagant lifestyles. The decade portrayed the American Dream of women, money, alcohol, music, and partying. In the twenties dresses were shorter, alcohol was illegal, and parties were a given. New fashion trends and music, infamous and dignified names, and unforgettable scandals are what remain of the extravagant post WWI decade. If you were alive
In the past, plenty of issues were concealed instead of confronting them, which is no longer the case nowadays. Coontz has noted, “There are plenty of stresses in modern family life, but one reason they seem worse is that we no longer sweep them under the rug” (96). We talk candidly about controversies now, no longer hiding issues. We straighten out the problem instead of hiding or ignoring it. There are two disputing narratives about American families. One
At the forefront of the argument is the societal ideology of the American people during the era, most of whom were trapped in a traditionalist mind-set, one that required them to disregard generations of social norms, which had been subconsciously spoon-fed to them through media advertisements such as billboards and magazines most notably Cosmopolitan and Woman’s Journal, that had set a psychologically restrictive standard about what was acceptable. Following the baby boom of the 1960’s with the birth of a massive seventy-six million children, the American people were clearly in a mind-set of traditional family
Families acquired a new form and with it a myth of the American family was created. The myth of the American family is one where “father knows best, mothers are never bored or irritated, and teenagers rush to the dinner table each night, eager to
In Rushkoff’s film, The Merchants of Cool, he rhetorically questions if “teenagers even have a culture to call distinctly their own.” In the late 1990’s when the documentary was made, the implication was that they do not. However, with the internet’s advancements and the accessibility of communication with massive amounts of people, teenagers today can form authentic cultures that are not contaminated by the corporate media.
While it has proven to be difficult to end poverty in America, Peter Edelman is optimistic. In his book So Rich, So Poor Edelman makes a call to action. There are four prominent ideas that underpin Edelman’s reasoning throughout the book: (1) More people must understand why poverty is still so prevalent in America; (2) extreme poverty must be taken into consideration as a shocking 6 million Americans’ sole income was food stamps in 2011. This fact alone creates a sense of urgency that drives Edelman; (3) increasing income inequality should be treated as a moral issue; and (4) bold political action will be required if substantive progress will be made in alleviating poverty.
It is not easy to define culture because culture is too broad a concept, can be both abstract and specific. However, what is agreed is culture covers all faces of our life as well as direct the way we behave, interact and communicate. (Liu et al., 2011). One popular definition is that “Culture is the total way of life of a group of people, comprising of the deposit of knowledge, experience, belief, values, traditions, religion, and notion of time, roles, spatial relations, worldviews, material objects and geographic territory”. (Liu et al., 2011, p.57). In this essay, I will analyse components and characteristics of culture, and based on that grounds, I will reflect on my own culture-being a Vietnamese. Dodd (1998) considered that culture is made up by three layers which consist of the core layer, the intermediate layer and the outer layer. I will examine what values and beliefs are considered important in my culture. Those are components of the inner core. Then, I will take some examples of the intermediate layer (expression of cultural activities by manifestation) such as communication patterns, customs and festivals.
As there are many aspects of cultures that can be studied and described about the two cultures, only few major aspects of cultural values will be discussed in this paper. One of the major cultural values that can be compared between the two cultures is the Malays rank honesty as first on their list of cultural values whereas the Indians find family as the important aspect in their cultural values.
With regard to the Thai culture, it can mention that Thai culture has influenced by various religion-based practices because the 95% of the country are following the “Theravada Buddhist” religious practices. These religious values and social believes has a greater impact over the day to day activities of the Thai people. Some of the major