Identity In Humera Fadiman's 'All The Disappearing Islands'

Place of Identity How we identify and understand ourselves as people can be directly brought back to our connection with our identity and place. Afridi, Whitty, and Fadiman all talk about culture and what it means to each person community in each of their articles. A personal story written by Humera Afridi talks about a life experience and how this relates her back to her own identity and place. A different story, but similar key idea written by Julia Whitty, visits the islands of Tuvalu and discovers what could potentially happen to the people’s culture if the islands were to submerge into the sea, forcing the Tuvaluans to flee. The final article about a unique culture written by Fadiman, discusses the birth culture of Laos family and how
Whitty was born in Bogota, Columbia and immigrated to the US at a young age and she also holds both US and Australian citizenships. She went to the islands of Tuvalu, located about halfway between Hawaii and Australia, in 2003. She explores the effects of the rising sea levels on the people of Tuvalu and how it will change the culture of the people. One of the important problems Whitty learned about was involving the coral reefs. She states, “Below them, the thicket of what obviously was once a spectacular coral world is now choked in velvety algae and aswarm with the herbivorous species of parrotfishes, surgeon fishes, rabbitfishes, blennies, damselfish, mollusks, and sea urchins” (Whitty 67). To put in another way, Whitty uses compelling research the describe the effects that global warming is having on the coral reefs and the disasters they bring. On the other hand, some people are still reluctant to believe in the idea that the ocean levels are rising. From another interview Whitty did, “The Tuvaluans are building everywhere, he says, and he has personally seen no signs of rising waters…” (Whitty 70). Whitty proposes the question on what could happen to a unique culture like the Tuvaluans if they are forced to leave their home land. The author Whitty brings up a
Where does ones identity and place belong and what defines it? Afridi claims that she feels a certain connection back home to her original home country of Pakistan and that when she hears the stories from her parents, she gains a sensibility. She doesn’t remember her home country very well, but when she thinks of it, she feels like a different person and that her identity and place are something totally different. Whitty proposes that the culture of the Tuvaluans is unique and once they leave the islands, they will have a difficult time keeping that identity with them. The idea that a person’s deep connection to a place during their lifetime shapes how they understand and identify is what is mainly being projected in these articles. Fadiman talks specifically of a Laos family’s customs and traditions and how they are shaped when they move away from their place of identity. Customs and traditions are greatly shaped by where a person is in their life, whether they are in the same place of their culture or have moved away from it and struggle to keep it alive. Although some readers may object that this has nothing to do with globalization, I would answer that with a strong objection. The act of globalization is strongly mused in these three articles because in all three, people are leaving their home country and going elsewhere. These people or cultures are leaving their home place and essentially