By Any Other Name By Santha Rama Ru
How Culture Influences Us How much influence do you think culture has on all of us? It is all around us especially living in Hawai’i which is one of the country’s most multiracial states. Culture is the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively. In other ways, it is a paradigm; how we see and identify ourselves. Having a culture keeps us in order and sane because of the traditions it brought to us. Culture to some extent informs the way one views the world and others because some are brought up one way but sometimes do not agree with their family’s traditions, peer pressure in a community can change one’s thoughts on their culture and some believe that race/culture doesn't define who you are.
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Santha Rama Rau’s By Any Other Name is a prime example of peer pressuring to change one’s thought on their culture. In the story, the headmistress told these two young Indian girls, “Oh, my dears, those are much too hard for me. Suppose we give you pretty English names” (Rama Rau 35). These girls are not just forced to have two names, Indian and English, but also forced to have two personalities. At home is where they are Indian and at school is where they are English. But even at school, they didn’t fit in with the other English children. In the story, Santha stated, “Premila and I were the only ones who had Indian food” (Rama Rau 37). They felt divergent and felt like they need to start making sandwiches just so they could be like the other kids and feel …show more content…
In the essay Multi-Culturalism Explained In One Word: Hapa, Kristen Lee says, “From my appearance, people assume I am Asian, but how could a quarter measurement define who I am?” (Multi-Culturalism 41). Kristen Lee labels herself as “hapa” which is a Hawaiian slang for half Asian and half another race. Even though people assume her as Asian, specifically Chinese, she does not speak a Chinese dialect. Kristen Lee questions why do people want her to pick a label when really she is just “a hip-hop-loving piano-playing dancing diva who grew up on a ranch in rural Michigan with some horses, dogs and every kind of hand-sized pet imaginable” (Multi-Culturalism 41). The point is that ethnicities or cultures does not always identify
Santha Rama Rau’s By Any Other Name is a prime example of peer pressuring to change one’s thought on their culture. In the story, the headmistress told these two young Indian girls, “Oh, my dears, those are much too hard for me. Suppose we give you pretty English names” (Rama Rau 35). These girls are not just forced to have two names, Indian and English, but also forced to have two personalities. At home is where they are Indian and at school is where they are English. But even at school, they didn’t fit in with the other English children. In the story, Santha stated, “Premila and I were the only ones who had Indian food” (Rama Rau 37). They felt divergent and felt like they need to start making sandwiches just so they could be like the other kids and feel …show more content…
In the essay Multi-Culturalism Explained In One Word: Hapa, Kristen Lee says, “From my appearance, people assume I am Asian, but how could a quarter measurement define who I am?” (Multi-Culturalism 41). Kristen Lee labels herself as “hapa” which is a Hawaiian slang for half Asian and half another race. Even though people assume her as Asian, specifically Chinese, she does not speak a Chinese dialect. Kristen Lee questions why do people want her to pick a label when really she is just “a hip-hop-loving piano-playing dancing diva who grew up on a ranch in rural Michigan with some horses, dogs and every kind of hand-sized pet imaginable” (Multi-Culturalism 41). The point is that ethnicities or cultures does not always identify