Embedded Assessment 2 - Period 2
Frida Kahlo: “Self Portrait”
Text / AnalysisPainting is split down the middle for the different cultures; Mexican and American. / Frida Kahlo is in between cultureswhich makes it difficult to view the world through one set of cultural eyes.
On the Mexican side; there are plants with deep roots planted into the ground. / This is a symbol that Frida is still deeply connected to her Mexican culture, and when she moved to America she never really Americanized her thoughts on the world.
The Mexican side is very authentic, whereas the American side is very industrialized. / Frida grew up with a very traditional Mexican heritage and when she came to America and saw no traditional aspects, which made her confused about how the rest of the people in the world, view the world.
Frida is holding a Mexican flag in one hand, facing the Mexican side of the picture. The other hand is holding a cigarette and it is facing the American side. / When Frida moves to America to work, she has hope that she can stay in touch with her Mexican heritage, but she is a having a hard time integrating the two cultures together and finding a balance between them.
Text: “Two Ways to Belong to America”
Text / Analysis“My books have often been read as unapologetic (and in some quarters overenthusiastic) texts for cultural and psychological “mongrelization”. It’s a word I celebrate” (Mukherjee 70) / BharatiMukerjee writes in her book how she views different aspects of the world and other people, to her nothing matters except her opinion.
“I asked her if she would follow the example of others who have decided to become citizens…And here, she surprised me. ‘If America wants to play the manipulative game, I’ll play it too” (Mukherjee 71). / Mira had two separate views of her Indian culture and compared and contrasted them. She described the trouble of immigration to America and how easy it was until the following years.
“America spoke to me – I married it – I embraced the demotion from expatriate aristocrat to immigrant nobody” (Mukherjee 71) / Mukherjee describes a connection that she feels with America and how she embraces it.
“I need to feel like a part of the community I have adopted (as I tried to feel in Canada as well). I need to put roots down to vote and make the difference that I can” (Mukherjee 73). / Mukherjee wants to have more of a connection with her Canadian husband’s culture and to see where she fits in.
Title: “Two Ways to Belong in America”
Text / Analysis“America spoke to me-I married it-I embraced the demotion from expatriate aristocrat to immigrant nobody, surrendering those thousands of years of “pure culture”, the saris, the delightfully accented English. She retained them all. Which of us is the freak?” (Mukherjee 71) / When Bharati came to America she was willing to change to fit in, her sister still embraced her Indian citizenship and heritage.
“Mira and I differ, however, in the ways in which we hope to interact with the country that we have chosen to live in. She is happier to live in America as an expatriate Indian, than as an immigrant American. I need to feel like a part of the community I have adopted” (Mukherjee 73) / Bharati and her sister have different perspectives and feelings about being an American citizen, Bharati is willing to change, but Mira wants to maintain her identity.
“For over 30 years, I’ve invested my creativity and professional skills into the improvement of this country’s pre-school system, I’ve obeyed all the rules, I’ve paid my taxes, I love my work, I love my students, I love the friends I’ve made. How dare America now change it’s rules in midstream? If America wants to make new rules curtailing benefits of legal immigrants, they should apply to only immigrants who arrive after those rules are already in place.” (71) / Mira came to America and was living there just fine until she was starting to get threatened differently due to her culture.
“My sister is an expatriate, professionally generous and creative, socially courteous and gracious and that how far as he Americanization can go. She is here to maintain an identity, not transform it.” (71) / Mira is still willing to live in America but she isn’t willing to change who she is because she is still embracing her Indian citizenship.
Title: “Where Worlds Collide”
Text / Analysis“And they step into the promised land” (Iyer 50) / The immigrants see America as a better place to be.
“No instructions not to take photographs at home; but there are civilian restrictions every bit as strict as in many police state” (Iyer 51) / The immigrants saw America as a completely free land and were a little surprised to find all the restrictions.
“They have arrived in the land of opportunity” (Iyer 51) / The immigrants see America as a place to get a good job and life.
“The city of Angels awaits them” (Iyer 51) / The immigrants see America as a haven.
Text: “My Mother Pieced Quilts”
Text / Analysis“How the thread darted in and out galloping along the frayed edges tucking them in/as you did us at night.” (Acosta 54) / This shows the relationship between the quilt (represented as the mother) and the author and how much the quilt means to her.
“You were the caravan master at the reins/ driving your thread needle artillery across the mosaic cloth bridges.” (Acosta 55) / This shows that the mother was the leader of the family and she expressed her culture and lifestyle to the rest of the family.
“How you shaped patterns square and oblong and round” (Acosta 54) / This explains how the mother has shaped the family and so the author is influenced by her mother's lifestyle.
“the quilt lives on” (Acosta 55) / This says that the author’s mother's legacy will live on. This shows that the culture will live on.
Title: “My Mother Pieced Quilts”
Text / Analysis“How you shaped patterns square and oblong and round positioned, balanced, then cemented them with your thread, a steel needle, a thimble.” (Acosta 54) / Her mother in the poem helped shape their families culture with the different shapes and then rooted them down by sewing a quilt to represent their culture.
“Oh how you stretched and turned and rearranged” (Acosta) / While her mother sewed or shaped the quilts or their culture. She twisted and turned and changed her culture that she grew up with and made her own with her children.
“You were the river current carrying the roaring notes…” / The author's mother shaped their families culture like the river current that is constantly moving and shaping the river walls and floor meaning that her mother shaped her culture and carried her traditions from her mother and passed them down to the author.
“Stretched out they lay armed/ready/shouting/celebrating, knotted with love, the quilts sing on” / The quilts or culture that the mother made for the family represent the daughters culture and what they will passion for generations. When she says the quilts sing on, she means the culture that her mother shaped will be passed on through her daughter and her quilts.
Title: “My Mother Pieced Quilts”
Text / Analysis“[H]ow the thread darted in and out galloping along frayed edges, tucking them in as you did us at night”(54). / The quilt represents the narrator's mother and culture. She uses a lot of description to allow others to understand how important her culture is and how it represents her life so exact through every aspect. Not only what is on the quilt represents her family and mother, but so does the way it was built.
“[S]ewn hard and taut to withstand the thrashings of twenty-five years”(55). / The narrator’s family is strong and close with each other. The quilt represents the relationship of the family’s culture.
Title: “What is Cultural Identity?”
Text / Analysis“We all have unique identities that we develop within our cultures, but these identities are not fixed or static.” / Our cultural identities are always changing. The way we live is based on our culture and when that changes, so does the way we see things/the world.
“In fact, it would be impossible for any one person to possess a society's entire cultural heritage; there are inevitably complex and contradictory values, beliefs, and ideas within that heritage, a result of the conditions and events that individuals and groups experience.” (Trumbull and Pachecoa). / How one chooses to live their life and use their experiences to help them learn who they really are.
“Cultural identity is a broader term: people from multiple ethnic backgrounds may identify as belonging to the same culture.” (8) / Defines what culture identity really is.
“The changing experience of work is shifting cultural attitudes towards family and marriage.” (10) / It shows how as culture changes and so does their everyday life.
Title: “Everyday Use”
Text / Analysis“ ‘Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!’ she said. ‘she’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use’ (Walker 64). / Because Dee found herself a new culture, a different perspective to life. Dee came back a new person.
“ ‘She’s dead,’ Wangero said. ‘I couldn't bear it any longer. being named after the people who oppress me’ “ (Walker 62). / Changing her name shows how far she is willing to go to disown her original culture.
“ ‘Hang them,’ she said. As if that was the only thing you could do with quilts” (Walker 64). / Compares the two cultures.
“ ‘your heritage,’ she said. And then she turned to Maggie, kissed her, and said, ‘you ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie’ “ (65). / Either culture she decides to choose, she needs to hold pride.
Title: “Everyday Use”
Text / AnalysisBut they're priceless!’” “‘I can' member Grandma Dee without the quilts’” Maggie stated showing how her family has impacted her culture. The grandma had a lasting impact on the grandchildren and even without the quilts of specific memories the Grandma Dee will always be remembered no matter how her culture is passed. / Dee says to explain how much the quilts mean to her on page 64. The quilts symbolize Dee’s culture which Dee finds irreplaceable. She sees her culture as something that needs to be remembered and honored which is why she would like to take them home and hang them on her walls.
“‘She’d probably...put them to everyday use’”(64). / Instead of hanging the quilts, another way of expressing culture would be through using the quilts everyday. This shows more love and comfort with the quilt and her culture.
“‘It was Grandma Dee and Big Dee who taught her how to quilt herself’”(65). / Culture was passed down through the family. Quilting has become a tradition for part of the family which is another way culture is kept.
Text: “Two Kinds”
Text / Analysis“In all of my imagining I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect: My mother and father would adore me. I would be beyond reproach” (Tan 19). / Jing-Mei believes the only way her mother would love her is by being perfect. Since her mom is Asian descend, she feels as if she should change her views and be more like her.
“America was where all my mother’s hopes lay… After losing everything in china… but she never looked back with regret” (Tan 18). / The way her mother in china, and what she went through affected the way she wanted her daughter to experience and view the world.
“I did pick up the basics pretty quickly, and I might have become a good pianist at the young age” (tan 21). / Jing-Mei is learning American culture by finding and enjoying piano playing. By playing piano it influences her to change her views on the world
“I didn’t buldge. And then I decided, I didn’t have to do what mother said anymore. I wasn’t her slave. This wasn’t China” (Tan 23) / Jing-mei is not following her mother’s orders. She believes she should have to since she does not live in China. Her culture is different from her mom so she feels like its okay to disobey her.