Blog 9

Joy Harjo’s “The Path to the Miljy Way Leads through Los Angeles”, Mitsuye Yamada’s “A Bedtime Story”, and Bharati Mukherjee’s “A Father” all have similar themes of the clashing of cultural values between traditional and modern. Each author makes a statement about the American culture and gives readers a different perspective on our culture.
In Joy Harjo’s “The Path to the Milky Way Leads through Los Angeles” we see the author’s view on American culture. She mocks a lot of our culture and has obvious negative feelings towards our values. When talking about Los Angeles she writes, “This city named for angels appears naked and stripped of anything/resembling the shaking of turtle shells…”(Lines 2-4) This bold observation the author makes shows how she views LA. She says American culture is lacking the values she sees necessary and filling the void with obsessions for fast food and celebrities. “You can’t buy love but you can sell your soul for less/than a song to a stranger.” (Lines 17-18) The author is saying we don’t have morals, our society is driven by money and status, and most people would sell their soul for a quick buck to satisfy the American dream. Harjo’s Native American heritage is shown when using nature in her poetry. In this poem she used a metaphor of a crow to compare American culture. Crows are known for being scavengers who pick through trash, which is not an ideal image in most American minds. The fact she used this animal to talk about our culture says a lot on how she feels. This poem offended me at first, but made me open my eyes and not take it so personal. The author is just noting what is different from her culture. If I was in a different cultural setting I would probably have the same tone. We do obsess about such irrelevant and unhealthy topics, like celebrity and fast food, and by doing so we lose some of our morals as a society. I see we should worry about such things like education and helping others. However there are many parts of our culture that should be celebrated.
Mitsuye Yamada’s “A Bedtime Story” is about a Japanese legend a father is telling his son. The tale is that an old woman was seeking shelter in a local town. After being rejected by everyone she decides to lay down up a hill. As she relaxed and caught her breath she saw a full moon over the town. To me this poem was about how fast paced our culture is, and how we are all so busily wrapped in our own lives we are “blinded”. The old woman was busily trying to find some shelter, but everyone was too involved in their own life that they didn’t want to or couldn’t help her; the whole while no one noticed the full moon. Then after the woman is rejected and she takes a moment to sit back rest and look away from her own situation, she is able to see the moon. The author used the moon metaphor to tell the readers that life is happening all around us whether we are watching or not. You have to stop being so self-involved and look around you to see it, and sometimes you may be forced to stop thinking about yourself like the woman in the story. The last line of the poem is the most significant to me. “That’s the end?” (Line 45) The child didn’t understand the father’s story which represents most people. We are all expecting something better. We never satisfy our desires. Like the child was expecting a better ending and didn’t understand the beauty of the story, we are expecting our life to keep getting better when we aren’t really grateful for what we have right now.
The final piece of writing Bharati Mukherjee’s “A Father” is about the complex relationship the Indian born family has with American culture. Mr. Bhowmick is the father who still has kept many of his traditional Indian customs. He still prays several times a day, he fears and respects many gods, and doesn’t really assimilate to the American culture. Meanwhile his daughter, Babli, has thrown herself into the American lifestyle and has pretty much thrown away all Indian culture. Mrs. Bhowmick seems more level and balanced between the two. The whole story it seems she has traded her Indian values for American, but in the end we see she still holds onto some beliefs. When she finds out her daughter has gotten pregnant after going to a sperm clinic she loses it; where for other Americans it is slightly more common for this to happen. The author made several references to American culture by mentioning Rolex, Slim Fast, Buick, and K-Mart. These are all things he thinks are American icons. It was interesting to see how differently he reacted to things than I did. For instance when he said his daughter was drinking Slim Fast for breakfast and then vomiting several minutes later, I immediately thought the daughter was bulimic because of my own experiences. He instantly thought the daughter was pregnant. I also liked how Mr. Bhowmick didn’t know if his neighbor had legs because he had never seen him outside of his car. This made me think of how many people these days who don’t even know their own neighbors. I also found it interesting how the author referred to the main character as Mr. Bhowmick. I felt by not referring to him by his first name the author was saying Americans don’t get friendly with their neighbors, and that they aren’t as welcoming to people as they should be; especially foreign ones. The story was mainly about an Indian father rooted in his traditional beliefs who was struggling with the fact his family has assimilated to the American traditions.
All three readings are about American culture. The authors give you their experience of the culture shock they went through. It was interesting to read other outsiders’ opinions on our culture, and really made readers open their eyes and be aware of our own culture as well as others.