The way one looks at the world is heavily influenced by their cultural background and how they grew up. In the memoir, By Any Other Name, by Santha Rama Rau, she showed how her sister and her were put in a new school. The girl’s mother is a big part of their lives. With the mother's direction the girls always seem to do what she says. The mom is very protective and likes to follow traditional Indian ways. For example, the lunch the girls brought to school were thin wheat chapatis, and vegetable curry, and all the other kids had sandwiches. …show more content…
Although there are times when it does not as well. An example of a time where it does not affect people's views can be found in Robert Lake’s (Medicine Grizzlybear’s) Essay An Indian Father's Plea. “Yesterday, for the third time in two weeks, he came home crying and said he wanted to have his hair cut. He said he doesn't have any friends at school because they make fun of his long hair.”(Lake 78) is a quote that shows that culture does not always have an impact on people's views and actions. The kids that make fun of Mr.Lake's son do it not because their cultural background is affecting their views, but because he is simply different. One could argue that this happens because he is part of a different culture, but this kind of bullying would happen to anyone who was significantly different from their classmates and refused to stand up for themselves. On the other hand culture can influence a person's views. In Bharati Mukherjee's essay Two Ways to Belong in America, she tells the story of her sister, Mira, and herself living in the United States. The quote “...we probably pitied one another. She, for the lack of structure in my life, the erasure of Indianness, the absence of an unvarying daily core. I, for the narrowness of her perspective, her uninvolvement with the mythic depths or the superficial pop culture of this society.”(Mukherjee 70) this quote shows the ways that each of the sisters views have been affected by their respective cultures. Bharati Mukherjee views her sister as being austere and lacking freedom. Meanwhile her sister views her uninhibited and without structure. These two sisters are an example of how culture can differ from person to