Culture Clash

My Grandma always tells me that I talk way to fast. I explain that she probably talked just as fast when she was younger, but she insists that its my generation that is in such a hurry we cannot even articulate ourselves slowly enough for anyone to hear. I always took this opinion as my Grandma’s aging and semi senile attribute. Talking to fast? I don’t even live in the city. The entire side of my Moms’ family is from Cresco Iowa. Cresco is literally in the middle of nowhere. Cresco is a conservative farming town where everyone is proud of their Irish farmer decent. I never saw a correlation between the traditions of my ancestors and those of my Moms side. However, after reading “A Bedtime Story” by Mitsuye Yamada, “The Path to the Milky Way Leads through Los Angeles” by Joy Harjo and “A Father” by Bharai Mukherjee I began to reflect on how possibly my heritages’ cultures has changed through the generations.
Yamada’s “A Bedtime Story” is a poem that illustrates a story that a father tells his child. There is no rhyme pattern and the rhythm is very choppy when reading aloud. There are slant rhymes such as “rest” (line 16) and “breath” (line 18) that are at the end of certain stanzas. Other than those however there is not a rhyme scheme. The tone changes a few times in the poem. The first stanza is an introduction to the bedtime story the child is about to receive, the middle stanzas explain the story, and the end has a playful tone. The middle stanzas read as though they are a bedtime story. It tells a Chinese tale about an old woman who tries to find a place to sleep in a town, and after being turned down she realizes that nature is where the real beauty lies. The end, however, is very humorous as the speaker states to the dad, “ ‘That’s the end? ‘ “ (Line 45). At first one cannot help but laugh. Upon further examining the poem though the reader realizes Yamanda is attempting to teach the reader another more important moral lesson. The speaker states that they lived in a, “home in Seattle” (line 41) showing that this family is Chinese American. The bedtime story was one past down from generation to generation but I doubt the story will be carried on after this speaker. The poem is trying to show how as a result of Americas’ constant need to industrialize and have the best, they forget and look down upon their own heritages. In the United States there is “The American Dream” to get rich, have nice things and have a family. Our culture is fast paced and we are not afraid to state that we are the best. We begin to miss the principle ideals that make up our ancestors’ and even our own history.
Harjos’ poem “The Path to the Milky Way Leads through Los Angeles” is told from a Native American who is reflecting on her past history and the future. The title is very strange, and immediately one thinks about what it means. Our solar system is in the Milky Way galaxy so its impossible to actually get there. Los Angeles is not some sort of highway that leads to anything other than an ocean. There is no rhyme scheme and the rhythm is choppy, almost sounding like a rant when read aloud. It really sounds like there is a clear point to be made. Los Angeles when described has many important images and symbols associated to it. A ‘god” is referred to numerous times and because it is not capitalized one assumes the speaker is unsure of a true religion or higher power. This is further seen when Harjo writes, “We must matter to the strange god” (Line 11). Showing that the speaker does not feel a connection to this god at all. Through out the poem many strange elements are pointed out, such as “This city named for angels appears naked and stripped of anything resembling” (Line 3) and “Everyone knows you can’t buy love but you can still sell your soul for less than a song to a stranger who will sell it to someone else for a profit” (Lines 19-20). The speaker clearly has certain bitterness toward the industrial and commercial age in which we live in. There are also many references to Native American culture such as the crow introduced towards the end of the poem. The crow, resembling a homeless person, explains that there is meaning out of all of this and we just have to wait and see what that something is. Overall I think Harjo is trying to explain how humans today view their place in the world. We take on the role of god to such an extent that it isn’t clear if there is one or if we even need one. In trying to become closer to heaven we destroy the natural environment. Los Angeles is a city that represents falsehoods. Movies are made about false stories and false people in order to convey messages while gaining a profit. The “crow” or the Native American people were most likely closer to the ideal heaven and the natural state than what humans have created today. It also critiques on how we blend and sometimes murder cultures to form a strange one that doesn’t make any sense.
Intermixing of cultures and ages is more closely examined in “A Father” by Bharati Mukherjee. The story explains the difference of opinion and morals between an Indian family whose daughter is pregnant out of marriage. The narrator, Mr. Bhowmick, tires to understand how a multicultural family can coexist with such different understanding of the way “things should be”. Although his daughters’ generation understands having a child out of marriage is not a good thing it is non the less tolerable. He attempts to learn how to live in a new culture where the views of life are more liberal. He takes out his anger on his family and puts blame specifically on his wife. But ultimately the reader realizes there is no one person to blame. There is no one answer. As the world becomes smaller with the growing amount of communication, technology, and transportation cultures will clash.
One of the main concerns I had with Jesuit education was that it was going to clash with my way of life. I grew up going to Catholic Sunday School, but other than that I went to a public school with a more liberal outlook. But what I learned is Jesuit education is not about forcing certain ideas into people, but understanding how and why people are they way they are. It’s about learning the differences to hopefully embrace them. Although I speak too quickly to my Grandma, and that is in nowhere close to the seriousness of abortion, it shows me that on the smallest scale cultures clash. I grew up near a city and around people with different religious and racial backgrounds. My mother, growing up in Cresco, didn’t meet a Jewish person until she was 25 years old. Eventually cultures clash and traditions change. I don’t think there is an underlying answer found in all three pieces. But what I do realize is its important to remember and acknowledge the past. In Baltimore there is obviously a clash of cultures. However, I think if we stop trying to make quick fixes and really just actively try to understand one another better things could change for the better.