Good Culture Ethnicity Struggles And Heritage Keeping Essay Example

America is considered as the land of the free. The integration of the various people in the America produced a different breed with mixed cultures. Part of the American culture is to gather the various histories of Americans, where the American heritage is recorded through quilts. The characteristics of Americans are highly exemplified in two literary artworks, “Grandma’s House” and “Child of the Americas” portraying the American lifestyle and culture implied through metaphors. “Grandma’s House” and “Child of America’s” reveal the stories about life in America, how they value their roots and ancestors and how they shape the entire human history. These poems can also relate to various nations such as Hongkong.
The poem “The Child of America” is about the different ethnicities that dwell in America. Most of the points are shown in metaphors stating her various identities from being a light skinned mestizo, Jew, Spanish, up to her African roots. Where most people in America are white, there are those who do not look American, but has the tongue that the other people from the land had.1 As the character of the poem stated, she felt like a part of different races but still considered as whole. The whole poem is a metaphor about the common struggle of immigrant in America. It is also a reflection of the real life the author.2 In the US, there are many issues of equality, racial discrimination, and prejudices. The state also recognizes those who are born in the land as Americans regardless of their races, colors, and tongue 3. This cross-breeding of
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1 Morales, AL. (1986) . “Child of the Americas”.
2 Morales is a mestizo that traced her roots from Puerto Rico. Lauter. (nd). “The health anthology of American Literature, 5th Edition
3 America: Peoples and Cultures of the US. Powerpoint Presentation Session 2
cultures and struggles between races and ethnicity are prevalent global issues. Hongkong is one of the nation experiencing this issue. There are many cross-breeds living in Hongkong that feels different from others despite their belongingness to the land.
“Grandmas House” is another poem that portrays the life in America in a typical day to day setting. The hardships of their everyday life are exemplified in the daily chores and activities they are doing revealed in metaphors such as the episodes of whining of pipes, the sores and pain from work, and so on painting the reality of poverty in the US. The picture of the house painted by the narrator of the poem made the house vulnerable and ready to crack using descriptive terminologies of walls buckling, whining metals, and other tearing parts of the house4. Despite the tedious lives they had, they still take time in doing their quilts. Quilting is an American heritage where families collect a fragment of their lives and patch them on quilts. Quilts are symbols of personal and family heritage.5 The heritage keeping of nations such as quilt making in America is also true to other places such as Hongkong.
Poems are literary works that mirrors society. The two great poems “Grandma’s House” and “The Child of Americas” are indeed mirrors of the American culture. There are symbolisms and metaphors in the lines of the poems that explicitly points out to the life in America, its cultures, and the origins of the people. Ethnicity and racial controversy has long been a part of American history due to the many immigrants and slaves that came to the land. The different stories of the
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4 Young, K. (2007). “Grandmas House”.
5 Quilting in America.(2009).
American life are also pictured and collected in quilts as part of the American heritage. In the same way, poems revealing the nature and culture of nations are true with other countries such as Hongkong. The two poems discussed in this paper portray cultures of America but is not limited to them. Other cultures such as Hongkong can relate to them since it is a country bred with various nations with major influence from Britain and China. Just like America, Hongkong had issues with ethnicity and have cultures that preserve their heritage.

References:

America: Peoples and Cultures of the US. Session 2. Powerpoint Presentation Session 2
Morales, AL. (1986) . “Child of the Americas”.
Lauter. (nd). “The health anthology of American Literature, 5th Edition. Cengage Learning.
Quilting in America. (2009). “Quilting in America: Past, Present, and Future”. Accessible
through http://www.quilting-in-america.com/
Young, K. (2007). “Grandmas House”. The Innisfree Poetry Journal.