Cultures Negative Effects

Culture can have a positive or negative influence on people depending on how it is presented. Culture is presented as a negative influence on the characters' behavior in each of these stories by their amounts of freedom. In "Museum Indians," "Hello Kitty Packs Heat," and Things Fall Apart a certain group of people are singled out by having little freedom. In "Museum Indians" by Susan Power, the modern Indians have the least amount of freedom. In "Hello Kitty Packs Heat," Tina Lee, the author, has the least amount of freedom. In the story, "Museum Indians," the modern Indians have the least amount of freedom portrayed by how they refer them to only being a part of the past, not so much the present or future. "When Mom is down, we go to see the mummies at the Field Museum of Natural History," writes Susan Power. "Before we leave this place we always visit my great-grandmother's buckskin dress. We mount the stairs and walk through the museum's main hall - past the dinosaur bones all strung together, and the stuffed elephants lifting their trunks in a mute trumpet." Basically, Susan Power is saying the Indian culture is placed by mummies and dinosaurs. showing they refer to Indians as something that's nonexistent any more. Simalar to how Susan Power shows that culture can have a negative influence on behaviors, Tina Lee shows how culture can also keep you from being yourself. Tina Lee's use of a metaphor in "Hello Kitty Packs Heat" shows how she does not meet Chinese-American cultural expectations when she states, "In all honesty, I have never been the quiet demure Asian lotus flower of which male fantasies are made" (22). The author uses this metaphor because she is referring herself to the non-average "cute" and "nice" Asian girl that everyone - even her family - expects her out to be. For example, her Aunt Susan saying, "You know, Tina, you've scared David. He's very shy. Chinese boys like quieter and gentler girls, so if you want a Chinese boyfriend, you're going to have to tone it down. You have to at least pretend to be docile and let them think they're in control until you get them" (26). This is a negative influence because society is basically saying that Tina Lee shouldn't be herself, she needs to be what everyone expects her to. Tina solves this conflict by realizing that she doesn't need to change herself to be accepted, she just needs to find the right people who accept her. Just as well as Susan Power and Tina Lee did, Chinua Achebe also shows that culture can have a negative influence on behaviors by the Igbo culture's gender norms in the novel Things Fall Apart. The women in this culture have the least amount of freedom; they are not to be trusted, and cannot speak for themselves in court. Chinua mentions, "It was clear from the way the crowd stood or sat that the ceremony was for men. There were many women, but they looked on from the fringe like outsiders" (87). This is showing that the men had more of a say then the women, especially in court. Another example of women having least freedom, is when Chinua says, "These women never saw the inside of the hut. No woman ever did. They scrubbed and painted the outside walls under the supervision of men," proving how women could not be trusted in the Igbo culture.