I am having a lot of trouble with this essay. Could I get some constructive criticism and possibly some help finishing the essay, or some Ideas to where I could take it?
Thank you in advance!!
here it is [so far].
Culture: What it Means to Me
I equate the definition of culture with that of love. Both can be shared with one person or a number of people, and both incredibly ambiguous. Everyone has a different definition, subjectively or objectively. Like love, some people experience culture liberally on a small scale, like watching Monday night football with one’s family, or the more antiquated cultural understanding of much larger scales, such as one’s national historical dance or foods. Much like love, everyone experiences culture daily without taking notice of it. Regrettably, for a long time I was one of those people. I sided with Maureen Dowd of the New York Times when she wrote, “Instead of multicultural tableau…we see mostly older and white [people].” Thinking of Middle class white Americans like myself brought no expression of culture to me. As a so-called ‘cracker’, my cultural affiliation (if you could call it that) was, to me, the ingredient in the melting pot that didn’t fit- like peanut butter fudge in chicken curry. Like love, culture was something I didn’t think I had. I saw it as a social club that you had to be born into, and I was soon to find out that I was mistaken. By analyzing the cultures present within Angela’s Ashes and Snow, I started noticing cultural nuances within places I had once thought were one culture in themselves. Instead of primary universal cultural themes like national origin, race, monetary class, or religious affiliation, I was noticing how much more particular themes such as politics, genes, accents, social cliques, education, moral views, and common knowledge can shape and divide a society into certain cultures and subcultures. Just like in a high school environment, everyone has the choice of what they do to occupy their time. This affects which social cliques they will associate with. Even though they are divided in that respect, they are still part of certain classes, lunches, and homerooms together, and are all ultimately a part of the school. With debunking my “social club” myth, it brought to my attention that, by my choices, I have a part in deciding how the word culture applies to me.
Thank you in advance!!
here it is [so far].
Culture: What it Means to Me
I equate the definition of culture with that of love. Both can be shared with one person or a number of people, and both incredibly ambiguous. Everyone has a different definition, subjectively or objectively. Like love, some people experience culture liberally on a small scale, like watching Monday night football with one’s family, or the more antiquated cultural understanding of much larger scales, such as one’s national historical dance or foods. Much like love, everyone experiences culture daily without taking notice of it. Regrettably, for a long time I was one of those people. I sided with Maureen Dowd of the New York Times when she wrote, “Instead of multicultural tableau…we see mostly older and white [people].” Thinking of Middle class white Americans like myself brought no expression of culture to me. As a so-called ‘cracker’, my cultural affiliation (if you could call it that) was, to me, the ingredient in the melting pot that didn’t fit- like peanut butter fudge in chicken curry. Like love, culture was something I didn’t think I had. I saw it as a social club that you had to be born into, and I was soon to find out that I was mistaken. By analyzing the cultures present within Angela’s Ashes and Snow, I started noticing cultural nuances within places I had once thought were one culture in themselves. Instead of primary universal cultural themes like national origin, race, monetary class, or religious affiliation, I was noticing how much more particular themes such as politics, genes, accents, social cliques, education, moral views, and common knowledge can shape and divide a society into certain cultures and subcultures. Just like in a high school environment, everyone has the choice of what they do to occupy their time. This affects which social cliques they will associate with. Even though they are divided in that respect, they are still part of certain classes, lunches, and homerooms together, and are all ultimately a part of the school. With debunking my “social club” myth, it brought to my attention that, by my choices, I have a part in deciding how the word culture applies to me.