Cathy Song's Lost Sister

When people come from different cultures, it's challenging to understand each other's cultural styles and communication techniques. In The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka and Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, the theme of otherness is shown through cultural identity. Both authors argue that cultural alienation is a huge problem amongst immigrants because it leads to feelings of isolation and disconnection. In the story The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka, the author shows multiple ways that immigrants experience cultural differences. Specifically, in this story, Japanese women immigrants show cultural alienation by becoming maids in white American households, which is causing them to begin to compare their culture to the Americans.

Well culture is very powerful,it affects our living standards and how we view the world . Our surroundings that we grew up with such as family, is the source on why we adapt beliefs ,languages ,food,aesthetics and ethnicity.In the novel,”Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, shows the conflict between a mother-daughter relationship in which the mother forces her daughter into activities so she can have an American dream.In the short story,”By Any Other Name”by Santha Ramu Rau refutes that two girls name shouldn’t matter and ethnicity shouldn’t be the reason why people should mistreat them. Bharati Mukherjee’s personal essay,”Two ways to belong in America “ is about two sisters

Is it better to settle with what you already have and know or branch out and strive for comfort elsewhere? This is the ongoing debate between sisters, Dee (Wangero) and Maggie in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” and sisters Bharati and Mira in Bharati Mukherjee’s “Two Ways to Belong in America”. In “Everyday Use” Maggie is a soft spoken homebody who has never found interest in straying from her mother while Dee on the other hand has moved on in life and uses her past as an image to prove how far she has made it in life, she even changed her birth name to cut all ties with her past. In “Two Ways to Belong in America” Bharati and Mira are Indian immigrants who both came to America with intentions of keeping their Indian heritage, but over time Bharati faded from her culture while Mira kept true. Although Maggie and Mira decided to stick to their roots, Dee and Bharati chose to immerse themselves in a new culture.

Recently, Jennifer Siebel Newson had found out that she was pregnant and was having a baby girl, but despite the happiness of the joyful news, she was worried on how her daughter could grow up to be emotionally healthy in the culture, which consisted of the misrepresentation of women in the media, that we have in the world today. She also worried about how she would make sure that her daughter didn’t fall into the trap that she had fallen into as a girl. When Newson was 7 years old, her older sister died causing her to blame herself for her sister’s death. This resulted in Newson trying to fill in as 2 daughters for her parents, leading her to vulnerably accept peer pressure. She then went through an eating disorder as a teenager because

In this day and age, society has built standards to how citizens should look, talk, wear, behave etc through social media, films, celebrities, friends and family. The youth has now taken place in this and now feel that if they did not meet society's standards, they aren’t beautiful or handsome. Some leaders and motivational speakers are good at telling others to love themselves and to accept how they look. Nevertheless there are still those who need to seek help and those who beat themselves up because of how they are. However is social conformity really the key to happiness? Social conformity is notoriously found in the book Uglies where turning 16 gives you the opportunity to undergo plastic surgery to change your appearance into a “pretty” look. Tally Youngblood is a rare example of a 16 year old girl who hasn’t undergo plastic surgery and was sent to the Smoke, a small town where those who don’t believe in plastic surgery or the society's ambitions go to live like the people of today. However Shay, a friends of Tally’s, is an example of an “ugly” who has a very strong opinion about the surgery, a very negative opinion about it.

While Mukherjee decided to embrace the new American culture, her sister decided to stick to her Indian roots. Mukherjee struggles to try and find where she belongs because she is always changing for others rather than for herself. Encountering differences is something she dealt with on her journey of creating her identity, she states, “Nearly 20 years ago, when I was living in my husband’s ancestral homeland of Canada, I was always well-employed but never allowed to feel part of the local Quebec or larger Canadian society” (Mukherjee 293). While changing herself to conform for others, we can all take a lesson from Mukherjee. In life, we go through many changes because we are growing up, becoming more mature, and finding things we like or dislike. We tend to change because of the people we surround ourselves with, like friends or coworkers in order to be accepted. However, she did not seem happy to be forced into a position where she had to conform to the way people would talk to her all for the sake of her husband. This takes away from building and developing one’s own identity because it does not represent who you really are. In society, we are sort of growing away from that in a sense people are taking pride in their identities. For instance, immigrants, women, and races are all

First, Pipher blames the low self respect of adolescent girls everything from parents to peers, but mainly faults our society as a whole. We are all guilty of getting caught up in the media, television, and magazines. “Have you seen Rosie? She has lost so much weight!” “Oprah gained all of her weight back and more!” These are just a few of the comments that are made after watching two of the most watched talk shows. I know these comments sound harmless, but to a young girl who is struggling with the perfect body image these comments reinforce the importance of appearance. Pipher also points out that intelligent girls are more prone to depression because they are more aware of their surroundings and therefore more aware of the new constraints they face as they leave childhood. Our society idealizes tall, dark

Is it better to settle with what you already have and know or branch out and strive for comfort elsewhere? This is the ongoing debate between sisters Dee (Wangero) and Maggie in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” and sisters Bharati and Mira in Bharati Mukherjee’s “Two Ways to Belong in America”. In “Everyday Use” Maggie is a soft spoken homebody who has never found interest in straying from her mother while Dee on the other hand has moved on in life and uses her past as an image to prove how far she has made it in life, she even changed her birth name to cut all ties with her past. In “Two Ways to Belong in America” Bharati and Mira are Indian immigrants who both came to America with intentions of keeping to their Indian heritage but over time Bharati faded from her culture while Mira kept true. While Maggie and Mira decided to stick to their roots, Dee and Bharati chose to immerse themselves in a new culture.

When the main characters of the stories decide that they are certain that they want their flaws removed, they do not hesitate to immediately remove their imperfections. These abrupt decisions go entirely wrong for both women in the end. After all of the pressure from their peers, they remove their flaws permanently. As the unwanted mark fades from Georgiana’s face, “the parting breath of the now perfect woman passed into the atmosphere” (Hawthorne 301). Her flaw finally leaves her face, but it unfortunately takes Georgiana’s life along with it. Similar to this situation, in “Barbie Doll” the main character decides to remove her flaws by simply cutting them off. She removes her nose and legs “and offered them up” (Piercy 771). Piercy writing that she is offering her flaws up, the author is unmistakably symbolizing

Like Georgiana in “The Birthmark”, women often find themselves striving to reach society’s expectation of beauty and perfection. In Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll”, a young girl is finally able to reach society’s version of beauty but she must die to do so. Piercy criticizes the ways “women are socialized into stereotypical feminine behavior” (“Overview: “Barbie Doll”, para. 1) in this poem and suggests that the pressure put on women to meet certain standards of beauty and behavior is destructive. The poem opens with the birth of a “girlchild” and all the “typical toys” that go along with it. When the girl hits puberty, her classmates begin to make fun of her big nose and fat legs. The girl is intelligent and healthy, but the other children only see the imperfections in her appearance. She is told she should behave “coy” and always wear a smile, but the teasing takes its’ toll. She cuts off her nose and legs and offers them up

In “Imagining Homelands” by Bharati Mukherjee the author makes an observation that when immigrants come from their countries they are forced to give up or suppress their home cultures because of the overwhelming amount of exposure of the “American culture”. Mukherjee is quoted in the text saying “The question I meant to raise was simply this: Which one of us is the freak? Someone who retains the food, the clothes, the accent of expatriation, or her T-shirted, blue-jeaned sister? The answer is by no means clear.” She poses the question of wither or not the suppressor or the expresser is the weirder one in the situation of being thrown

In puberty a classmate delivers a cruel blow by telling her "you have a great big nose and thick legs" (Piercy 223). Here we see the beginning of a conflict that will plague the young girl for the rest of her life. Although a girl can be healthy and intelligent, it is not expected for her to possess the physical qualities of "strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity" (Piercy 223). These traits typically being male, the young girl sees them as being unnatural and negative. The girl feels as if she owes society an apology for possessing these characteristics. Piercy drives the point home by writing, "everyone saw her fat nose on thick legs"

From the time they are born, girls are influenced by society as to who they should be, how they should look, and how they should act. Americans believe that women should be to a certain standard; pretty, feminine, and especially, thin. The pressures derive from family, media, and friends. Marge Piercy’s poem, “Barbie Doll” depicts a girl who was never recognized for her character and spent her life trying to be accepted for who she was, rather than how she looked.

“The Girl I Hate” by Mona Awad tackles the daily problems of a girl who struggles with her body image. From counting calories to enjoying food, as if it is a sin, Awad creates a realistic story that many can relate to. Awad wrote a successful short story due to her ability to appeal to young females emotions, also known as pathos. Awad makes the audience feel a wide array of emotions from guilt to joy. It is easy to both love and hate the nameless main character. The author is successful because she has a purpose for creating the emotions the reader feels. Not only is Awad’s story incredibly relatable, but it is an important story for this day and age when more people are struggling with body confidence than ever.