What Does Literature Encourage Us For Other Cultures?

Islamic stereotypes are not new to Western culture. Problems can be traced back to the time of the Crusades, when Christians and Muslims were vying for control of Jerusalem. At

Stereotypes are a leading cause in the discrimination and prejudice against people with different religions. People assume what other religions believe, and they do not take the time to actually understand the other religion they are putting down. In the article Muslims Face More Bias In United States Compared To Other Religions it talks about how Americans are more likely to have prejudice against Muslims than they are about other religions. However, nearly two-thirds of American do not know anything about Islam. It mentions that because of

Chris Klassen pinpoints in his book that in popular culture, representation of Muslims (mostly people from Middle East) is limited in one or two types. This is called the essentialist identity. “All Arabs are the same; All Muslims are the same” (134) writes Klassen to explain how the term is used. For an example, all of the Arabs and Muslims are seen and represented in popular culture as ignorant, narrow-minded and primitive people who cannot learn or adapt. Another example is that Muslim women are either seen as exotic and mysterious (as belly dancers) or repressed by

What we see at first glance and our stereotypes only scratches the surface of who people truly are and the depth of their culture. Beneath the surface lies what most would define as the most significant attributes of an individual: their values, perspectives, and experiences. While stereotyping can be useful, we must always remember its detriments; by judging based off of only preconceived notions that may or may not be true, we overgeneralize a diverse group of people, therefore forfeiting our understanding of that group. Moreover, stereotyping can be immensely upsetting to a person. Seeing stereotypes based upon who I am has opened my eyes to the unfair judgement I may cast upon others on a day to day basis. Think about it: how would you feel if came to you and said, “You’re an American. All Americans are stupid, so you must be stupid too, right?” As someone who wants to go into a research based field, I can only imagine the embarrassment I would feel if a European colleague disregarded my findings based upon the fact that I am American; although this seems like an extreme example, unfortunately, things like this happen every day. Misunderstanding or not completely understanding a person’s culture has consequences, whether it be as small as offending them with a hand gesture or as big as ostracizing a skilled and competent person based on mere

Ever since the infamous day of September 11th Americans have been constantly stereotyping Muslims. Due to the fact that the attacks caused on the Twin Towers were caused by a group of Muslim extremists, it is now a popular stereotype that all Muslims must be extremists. Even Patel, who worked on making peaceful connections between religions, was categorized as a Muslim terrorist or an extremist on a series of Anti-Muslim blogs. I believe that most people aren’t well informed when it comes to Muslims and those who practice Islam and have just learned to associate those terms with terrible things. Most people portray Islam as an angry and violent religion while in reality it is quite the opposite. Many would be surprised to see the amount of similarities between the Qu’ ran and the Bible. Followers of Islam and Muslims are for the most part a peaceful group of

World literature provides us with representations of the human experience which can help us fix contemporary problems. Generally the main problems that exist in America are that citizens of this country are self concerned, overworked, and under-appreciated. To better understand the problems our country faces Americans should read John Robinson Jeffers “ Star Swirls”, which reveals the effects of Americans unawareness of global warming; Franz Kafka“The Metamorphosis”, which illustrates the negative effects of being overworked; and Gustave Flaubert’s “A Simple Heart”, which represents the under-appreciated poor class. Americans should read literature; Jeffers, Kafka and Flaubert truly represent how literature

The seventh grade was my first year back in the U.S after living overseas for three years. I looked forward to going to school again in the states; however, I encountered my first bullies on the bus. They made fun of me for wearing the hijab (headscarf) all the time; they even threatened me. All I did was cry after they got off the bus. I suspect that the reason why those boys did that to me was because they grew up with a negative connotation towards Muslims and Arabs. Why does the media use Muslims as a centerpiece in many of their over exaggerated stories? Being a Muslim teenager myself, I therefore know what is true and what is not in regards to the religion I choose to follow. So, I began to search for their motive behind doing so and

Before people can appreciate, respect, and diminish the fear of different cultures; the representation of stereotypical views needs to eject from the media's portrayal. Cultural groups in U.S. Society need to have an unambiguous perceptive of what stereotyping means and how it appears. Namely, history, the media, and movies demonstrate stereotyping, and over time, it becomes part of a narrative and anticipates negative perceptions of minorities. Various cultures categorize as being wrong, evil, untrustworthy and deviating from the norm of the dominant culture. The inclination continues in several areas with bigotry and prejudice leading to violence and discrimination. Stereotyping regularly comes about because of prompts, biases, and fanaticism.

Stereotypes exist everywhere. From styles of clothing to dishes of food, stereotypes exist because there is some truth in it. By social classifications and categorizations, people take small truths and instances from a small amount of people and generalize it into the broader population. The example given here shows that anyone that is Muslim or has a traditional Arab garb on can be considered a terrorist. This stereotype is taken from the event of 9/11. Since then, people have been calling anyone following the Muslim faith publically terrorists. In the video, one of the Jalal brothers throws a bag at people and they automatically assume it is a bomb. This presumption comes from the stereotype that all Muslims are terrorists. This creates a fear that would control one’s actions.

I believe that Culler means that we should not take everything that we read in literature to heart. These are stories and events that are made up but may have similarities to the life of the author or someone he may know. These are imaginary figures and are not historical people but these people are not limited to events. This allows us to experience several different perspectives of a story and doesn’t give us just one view point. This also allows us to know if they say “We are having dinner at eight would you like to join us?” we know we are not invited it is just part of the story, it’s fictional. Fictionality makes literature matter because this can help us understand symbolism and understand people. A piece of literature can show us

Stereotypes of different races and religions affect people in many ways. Long ago some races weren’t able to vote in the U.S. Luckily things have changed and now everyone can vote. People from Quebec have only been able to vote for the past 31 years 3. People make jokes about people’s race, religion, nationality, and gender all the time. People are put in categories as “popular”, “smart”, “dumb”, “athletic”, “not athletic”, and many more. People really don’t what’s going on with other people and they stereotype people based on their race, religion, etc. They don’t understand that stereotyping is a hateful thing and no one should do it. People don’t realize what their doing is wrong until it’s brought to their

Throughout history our cultures have affected the way we read literature. Culture can be defined as a particular group of people, which include their languages, cuisine, social habits, religion, music and arts. It is their way of life. Different groups of people have their own belief and ideology. Through culture, people develop a sense of belonging, personal growth and the ability to empathize and associate with others. According to Damrosch,

Culture is the most fundamental component that makes up a man's character and identity. Each individual has their own way of life established from the group they lived in and the family they grew up influencing the individual character to individuals have in the general society. Individual perspectives, parts of thinking and judgment and the general rationale thinking about an individual are influenced altogether by the way of life he or she has. Gladwell writes “We do owe something to parentage and patronage. The people who stand before kings may look like they did it all by themselves. But in fact they are invariably the beneficiaries so hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work

Countless stereotypes and negative representations exist about Islam by the Western media in specific the news. It is known that media is very powerful source that shapes people 's minds and opinions. For some people, the news is the only source they acquire their information through, especially when it comes to other cultures and populations.

Literature is an imitation of societal values and is thus a reflection of the human experience of a time period. Written works emphasize the elements of culture, by means of characters, particular events, setting and theme, specific to the time period in which it was composed. Furthermore, literature mirrors the troubles or hardships of society and projects the core values that define said society. Thus, as culture has changed over time, literature has remained a critical facet in representing time periods of the past. Essentially, the culture of a time period is manifested through writing in the projection of society’s values, symbolism of the center of community and literature itself.