Comparison Between 'Where Worlds Collide And' An Indian Father's

Cultural Views There are millions of cultures all over the world that change the way people are perceived. Culture is a large part of how people view the world and how the world views people of a certain culture. Differences in culture can be viewed in multiple short stories, and excerpts from novels. The authors of “An Indian Father’s Plea”, “Where Worlds Collide”, and “Everyday Use” use culture to show how people can react to others based on their way of life. Culture can create conflict between people and cause differences in how certain groups perceive each other. Peoples’ culture can change the way that they view the world and how the world views them. For example, in “An Indian Father’s Plea”, the narrator is writing a letter to his son’s school saying that his son has been mislabeled as a “’slow learner’” (Lake 75). Lake, the narrator, is explaining that the school doesn’t understand how his son learns, and that his son learns in different ways than the
other children as a result of his culture. This is showing how someone’s culture can change the way the world views them, since Lake says that his son is just as smart if not smarter, than the other children. Some other people in his school may say that he is a slow learner because he can’t learn at the speeds that theirs kids learn at. On the other hand, his child is advanced in many other ways that their kids are not, so in some aspects their kids would be slow learners too. His culture is the only reason that his fellow classmates and teachers believe he isn’t as smart, or advanced as the other kids. Also, in the story “Where Worlds Collide”, the author clearly shows how someone’s culture can change the way they perceive the world.
One example of this is in the first paragraph, “They come out, blinking, into the bleached, forgetful sunshine… with maps their cousins have drawn out for them…dazed, disoriented, heads still partly in the clouds…” (Iyer 50). This excerpt is showing that immigrants from all over the world are coming to Los Angles with expectations giver to them by their family and friends, but when they finally arrive in the city, they see it as less than impressive and that their family and friends fabricated some details of their stories. Some people may say that the reason they think it is less impressive is because they haven’t seen all of the city yet, or are still dazed from the flight; however, the real reason they aren’t impressed is because they have been filled with false images of a beautiful and elegant city, and when they arrive their hopes are too high so they are let
down. Lastly, the story “Everyday Use” shows how culture can affect how people view each other. For example, when Dee returns home after 6 years, she expects her family to accept the culture that she has adopted from Hakim-a-barber. When her family becomes aware that she has changed, and that she doesn’t value her past culture like Maggie does, the mother begins to become frustrated with Dee; however, Dee doesn’t understand why they are frustrated, and don’t accept her new way of life. For example, Mama says, “What happened to Dee?” Dee says “She’s dead… I couldn’t bear it anymore, being named after the people who oppress me” (Walker 62). One belief is that Mama is angry with Dee because of her new “friend” or the fact that she hasn’t visited in a long time. On the contrary, Mama is angry with Dee because she has been getting active in movements to preserve her culture, although she doesn’t really understand the value of her culture. Also, Dee when Dee comes back she begins to ask Mama for things like the butter churn and the quilts, and when Mama tells Dee that the quilts are for Maggie, Dee is unhappy and doesn’t understand why Mama would give them to someone who would put them to “everyday use”. Mama and Dee come to an argument about who should receive the quilts, and Mama decides that Dee doesn’t want the quilts because she respects her culture, but because she wants other people to think she does. In conclusion, culture is an extremely important part of how people view the world, and how the world views them. While some people might argue that it isn’t culture itself that manipulates how people view the world, but it is actually certain aspects of someone’s culture, such as their religion, language, traditions, food, etc. On the other hand, since culture contains all of those aspects, it is actually culture that changes the way people view the world. The stories: “Everyday Use”, “An Indian Father’s Plea”, and “Where Worlds Collide” successfully demonstrate how culture can change the way people view the world and how the world views them. All in all, differences in culture can cause barriers between different groups of people, and can alter the way people perceive their surroundings and also how other people perceive them.