Final Essay
Today, equality and diversity in race, gender, and social class seem to be two things that society makes important when comparing others, but many old traditions and stereotypes prevent them from actually occurring. Two works that support this argument are My Two Lives by Jhumpa Lahiri (pg. 672) and Facts About 1930s (pg. 732). Equality is often dismissed today because of old stereotypes in gender, race, and social standing assumptions.
My Two Lives is Jhumpa Lahiri’s personal account of what it is like to be raised in more than one culture and be expected to adhere to traditions of both. The general point made by Lahiri in her work My Two Lives is that today, many people who are multicultural are expected to live in one culture or another but that they should be able to in both. More specifically, Lahiri is saying that people of more than one ethnic or cultural background shouldn’t be pressured to choose one over the other. She writes, “While I am American by virtue of the fact that I was raised in this country, I am Indian thanks to the efforts of two individuals.” (pg 673) In this passage, Lahiri is explaining that she is American because of where she lives and what she believes but that she is Indian because of traditions she was raised in. In conclusion, it is Lahiri’s belief that people should be able to practice traditions of more than one culture.
I believe that Lahiri is right because people ought to be able to practice any traditions that mean something to them. Nobody should tell people how to live. For example, there are many cultural groups that promote learning about others’ traditions and tying them to American life. Although Lahiri might object that many people aren’t open to learning new traditions or accepting things they aren’t used to, I maintain that people should be able to practice more than one culture’s traditions. Therefore, I conclude that Lahiri’s is right in saying that it is good to practice many cultural traditions.
I related to Lahiri’s work because my family celebrates American traditions as well as a lot of Dutch traditions because my dad is Dutch. We especially practice a lot of Dutch traditions around this holiday season. For example, December 6th is the holiday of Sinterklaas in the Netherlands. This is a lot like Christmas in America. Sinterklaas (Santa Claus) comes on his horse and leaves presents in the wooden clogs of the good kids but will leave a bundle of sticks for those who were bad.
Facts About 1930s is a list of 16 facts that describe what American life was like in the 1930s. It compares what life was like then to how life is now and what more is happening, returning America to a depressive state. The general made in the work Facts About 1930s is that America is continually driving itself back to what it was like during the Great Depression era of the late 1920s and the 1930s. More specifically, the work lists points that argue America is headed back into the economical and financial state it was in in the 1930s. One fact the work lists is, “At the beginning top 1% of the population controlled 44% of all wealth [today it is once again over 40%]” (pg. 732). In this passage, it shows that, again, 1% of the country’s population controls nearly 50% of the wealth, comparing today to the 1930s. In conclusion, the main argument in Facts About 1930s is that America is heading down the same path that took it into the Great Depression.
In my opinion, the argument in Facts About 1930s is right because America is headed towards more economical collapse. For example, 1% of our country now controls nearly 50% of the money, just like what was going on in the 1930s. This is why many citizens of the country have joined in the “Occupy” movement which protests the power of the 1% who control so much for the other 90%. Although some may argue that America is better off in many ways than it was in the 1930s, I maintain that it is headed down a bad road. Therefore, I conclude that if things don’t change in the country, things will end up just like they did, or worse, during the 1930s.
I connected to Facts About 1930s through the Occupy Protest movement and issues that has been influencing our country lately. The facts about the unemployment and wealth rates in the 1930s made me think about theses problems that are back, today.
Others argue that everyone is equal nowadays and that there is no form of inequality in the United States when it comes to gender, ethnic and racial background, or one’s standing in the American social classes. The Melting Pot by Dudley Randall (pg. 602) argues that people are now seen completely equal in America. He says, “There is a magic melting pot where any girl or man can step in Czech or Greek or Scot, step out American.” (pg. 602).
The theme of equality or diversity can relate to the theme of freedom and responsibility. In the freedom and responsibility section is the passage Civilian Exclusion Order No. 5 which is the order that was made after the attack on Pearl Harbor instructing all people of Japanese descent living in California to leave their homes and report to Assembly Centers. This relates to the theme of equality because these people of Japanese descent were not being seen as equals, they were seen as lesser than other American’s because of the actions the Japanese took in attacking Pearl Harbor.
Another medium that I really connected to that has to do with this theme was the Two Lives Intertwined painting by Julie Lueders. The painting consists of three trees, two trees on either side of one in the middle. The tree on the left side has a blue, cold, background and the tree on the right side has a red, warm, background. However, in the middle where these two trees meet with the third tree are many colors like red, green, blue, orange, and yellow. This shows that the two trees that are different can meet in the middle and intertwine, becoming equal to one another.
EXTRA VISUAL:
The sculpture “Demand Management” by Olga Koumoundrouros uses everyday items covered in newspaper pieces from various states and cities to symbolize to chaos of the country. Koumoundrouros designed the sculpture to be a pie chart representing the 1% of the country which, when the piece was made in 2009, controlled 34% of the nation’s wealth.
