Two Ways To Belong In America Summary

Words: 528
Pages: 3

In the passage “Two Ways to belong in America”, the two Indian sisters are living in America. One Assimilates to the American culture, while the other one remains with the Indian culture. We see that same thing in “Everyday Use”, where Dee (Wangero) Assimilates to the American Culture while Maggie stays with her birth culture. The impact your culture has on your life is dependant on what you want to do with your life, your personal thought process, and the amount of respect you have for your culture.
One influence on culture is the amount of respect you have for it. In “Two Ways to Belong in America”, Bharti didn’t want to have the same culture as her sister and family. Bharti respected her culture when she was younger but grew out of it as an adult. She turned from her Indian culture and married someone out of heritage. “I’ll become a U.S. citizen for now, then change back to Indian when
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For example, in “Everyday Use”, Maggie was the character that was greatly influenced by her culture. She loved who she was and wouldn’t change it for anything. Maggie was a great example for someone who was greatly influenced by her culture. Maggie loved the southern farming life that she grew up in. The farming, southern foods, the house were all a major part of her life. Mama describes Maggie’s walking “chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle” (Walker page 59). Maggie wore simple clothes that got dirty easily when she did farm work. She would use the quilt for “Everyday Use”. “Maggie would put them on the bed and in five years they’d be in rags.” (Walker page 64) It stated how Dee (Wangero) sees Maggie using the old quilts. Dee (Wangero) wants to use the quilts as decoration as a reminder of how she used to live when she was younger. She viewed the quilts as valuable antiques as opposed to her sisters view of cultural artifacts. These characters prove that your culture is influenced by your