Cultural Influence on Perspective

Khalid Alowdi

Professor Congrove

English 10A

28 November 2016

Cultural Influence on Perspective

Culture plays a major role in how we view the world and how we interpret things around us. This can mean the way you were raised, the music you listen to or the people you come in contact with. Culture is the thing that allows people to perceive things differently because we all see things from a different perspective.

Many things have occurred which show that culture does change the way we view things. One example is in the passage “An Indian Father's Plea” where Robert Lake says, “ If you ask him how many months there are in a year, he will probably tell you 13. He will respond this way, not because he doesn't know how to count but because he had been taught by our traditional people that there are 13 full moons in a year….” ( page 91, ¶ 11 ) This quote shows that culture affects the way we view things because clearly the young indian boy is not used to the practices that the western world is used to doing since he grew up and was raised in his traditional Indian culture. The western world who were raised in a different culture viewed the boy as a slow learner since he wasn't used to their teachings and he was used to his his traditional indian culture.

The novel “Two Kinds” represents the way culture affects views of the world. This story is about a girl whose culture is different than her mothers and the girl does not want to do what her mother tells her to do. Amy Tan says, “ I didn't have to do what my mother said anymore. I wasn't her slave. This wasnt China...She's the stupid one. “ ( page 27 , ¶ 60 ) This quote shows that Amy grew up in a different culture than her