Takaki Summary

Different Mirror by Takaki, talks about American history of the exploration age with Christopher Columbus as he encountered the native people of Caribbean, riots by L.A and the relationship of multiculturalism with the American society. The book has a unique aspect in that Takaki uses his major ethnic character as Caliban and also uses Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Although he uses literature as the background of history, it shows in the real what experiences and situations most of the immigrants go through as they try to survive in the world.
Multiculturalism is a term which in general is used to refer to applied ideas of ethnic, cultural and racial diversity within an area of a specific place mostly at the level of an organization for example neighborhood, business, school, nation or city. Several nations have official multiculturalism policies which are aimed at maintaining, celebrating and recognizing the different number of cultures in the specific society in order to encourage social cohesion; this means that multiculturalism is meant to equate the different religious groups and cultures such no single culture predominates. In the US, multiculturalism has not been instituted as a policy at the Government’s level but it is occasionally linked with Spanish- English bilingualism and also in California where drivers can take exams in several languages. in the United States has faced criticism due to the fact that it is associated with increase in ethnic- identity politics and political correctness most of the criticisms come from the liberal individualism perspective of the American conservatives who are concerned with values and also from the perspective of the national unity. Multiculturalism is therefore both good and bad in the sense that it inhibits some cultures from being superior to others while at the same time it reduces national unity due to division in to different cultural groups.
Takaki, has contributed so much to the formation of the American