Barba Nikos
Learning Never Ends
Education can happen at any time by anyone. People get knowledge from teachers in school; learn the lifestyle from their parents at home; know the friendship from friends around them. There are countless of ways to learn new things. In “The Kitchen” written by Alfred Kazin, the author gets the lesson from his mother in their kitchen which lets Kazin build a sense of make a living is not easy. “Barba Nikos” written by Harry Mark Petrakis, tells of a Greek boy, Harry Petrakis who attacks a Greek grocer, Barba Nikos and gains the lesson from the grocer about the culture and Greek traditional food. Both of them get lessons from people who have a significant influence on their whole life. Sometimes, food and meal can be used as a teaching tool to give someone a lesson about life and culture.
Environmental and cultural background are always the most important factors that affect one’s initial personality and guide people what life might be like before touching the real society. In Kazin’s mind, the kitchen is almost the whole part of his home. His mother works in it, he lives in it, and even does his homework in it. Kazin describes “The kitchen held our lives together. My mother worked in it all day long, we ate in it almost all meals except the Passover seder, I did my homework and first writing at the kitchen table and in I often had a bed made up for me on three kitchen chairs near the stove” (Kazin 146). These words indicate the important place that the kitchen plays in Kazin’s family that is not only the living space, but also the bridge that connects his family members together. In addition, Kazin’s mother is a hard-working “home” dressmaker. This kind of personality influences Kazin a lot and educates him in many ways. However, Petrakis has a quite different environment from Kazin. Before Petrakis meets Barba Nikos, he dislikes Greek culture and tries his best to hide the fact that he is Greek. Petrakis does many things to show he is really an
Education can happen at any time by anyone. People get knowledge from teachers in school; learn the lifestyle from their parents at home; know the friendship from friends around them. There are countless of ways to learn new things. In “The Kitchen” written by Alfred Kazin, the author gets the lesson from his mother in their kitchen which lets Kazin build a sense of make a living is not easy. “Barba Nikos” written by Harry Mark Petrakis, tells of a Greek boy, Harry Petrakis who attacks a Greek grocer, Barba Nikos and gains the lesson from the grocer about the culture and Greek traditional food. Both of them get lessons from people who have a significant influence on their whole life. Sometimes, food and meal can be used as a teaching tool to give someone a lesson about life and culture.
Environmental and cultural background are always the most important factors that affect one’s initial personality and guide people what life might be like before touching the real society. In Kazin’s mind, the kitchen is almost the whole part of his home. His mother works in it, he lives in it, and even does his homework in it. Kazin describes “The kitchen held our lives together. My mother worked in it all day long, we ate in it almost all meals except the Passover seder, I did my homework and first writing at the kitchen table and in I often had a bed made up for me on three kitchen chairs near the stove” (Kazin 146). These words indicate the important place that the kitchen plays in Kazin’s family that is not only the living space, but also the bridge that connects his family members together. In addition, Kazin’s mother is a hard-working “home” dressmaker. This kind of personality influences Kazin a lot and educates him in many ways. However, Petrakis has a quite different environment from Kazin. Before Petrakis meets Barba Nikos, he dislikes Greek culture and tries his best to hide the fact that he is Greek. Petrakis does many things to show he is really an