Cultural Identities Displayed Through Living Environments

Page |1

Cultural Identities Displayed Through Living Environments Steve Moore ENGL-108 DeVry university

Cultural Identities Displayed Through Living Environments

Page |2

America, the melting pot of the world, didn't just procure that name by accident. Today, an American citizen can experience of any culture without ever stepping foot outside of the country. That is because the population in the US is comprised of people from all over the world bringing their art, literature, cuisine and many other things with them. But how does a person establish themselves through their own unique culture. To the untrained eye, it may be difficult for someone to distinguish between different south American cultures or maybe between different eastern traditions without knowing what to look for in how they present themselves and their living space. In the texts Westbury Court by Edwidge Danticat, They All Just Went Away by Joyce Carol Oates, and Silent Dancing by Judith Ortiz Cofer the reader gets a good look at three radically different cultures and how they establish themselves in their living space. In Westbury Court Danticat is an African American girl living in a six-story apartment building in Brooklyn N.Y. The building is described as dilapidated, with the elevator not always working as well as the hot water and heat often broken as well. From this detail we can speculate that Danticat's family is most likely poorer and therefore lower class. Aside from the building itself, another example of the type of environment she lives in is when she describes some of the many crimes that occur during the course of the story. In one instance a man is shot outside, in another a burglar comes through the window and steals her father's camera. Given all this data the reader can speculate further that she may be lower class because why would someone of more than modest means choose to live in such a dangerous environment. Unfortunately, Danticat's environment does not give the reader a lot of room to understand what her families culture is like due to the fact that she only describes the apartment as having run of the mill things like televisions and regular furniture.

Cultural Identities Displayed Through Living Environments

Page |3

Conversely , Joyce Carol Oates story "They all just went away" gives the reader a bit more insight into her families social status and culture. She describes it as a farm in the country area of New York. After reading the story the reader can come to the conclusion that she is from a more traditional American background. Her father goes out to work while her mother stayed home and took care of the house. She came from a big family consisting of her father, mother, younger brother, grandfather, and grandmother who all lived on the farm with her. Her family is more reminiscent of the typical post World War II "American Dream" type sans the white picket fence. It is also easy for the reader to speculate at her families social status because aside from having the farm, her father also worked for General Motors therefore most likely having enough of an income to get by and then some. Finally, The story "Silent Dancing by Judith Ortiz Cofer offers detailed insight into her families social status and culture. Cofer is a Puerto Rican brought to this country by her father in 1955. During that time America wasn't as tolerant as it is today and therefore her father had a very difficult time finding a place to live. Finally he found an apartment complex that would except them that already had many Puerto Rican families living there. Even though they were now in America, the Puerto Ricans of her building brought their culture with them as she describes "She felt surrounded by her language: The walls were thin, and voices speaking and arguing in Spanish could be heard all day. Salsas blasted out of radios, turned on early in the morning and left on for company. Women seemed to cook rice and beans perpetually -- the strong aroma of boiling red kidney beans permeated the hallways." The tenants even dubbed the complex "El Building" to distinguish it as a place they called home as they claimed it one apartment at a time from the Jewish families that lived there prior.

Cultural Identities Displayed Through Living Environments

Page |4

Like Danticat, Cofer describes the shortcomings of the building when she describes the thin walls and noisy heater pipes below her room telling the reader that she too is a lower class citizen. Unlike Danticat, Cofers culture is expressed through the layout of her apartment. There is a table set up for the men to play dominoes and the furniture is described as the "typical Puerto Rican decor of the time: The sofa and chairs are square and hard- looking, upholstered in bright colors (blue and yellow in this instance), and covered with the transparent plastic that furniture salesmen then were so adept at convincing women to buy". The story focuses around a video taken when the author was very young of a party at her uncle's apartment. The furniture in the video is also set up to coincide with the culture. There is a place for men to gather and play dominoes, a Puerto Rican tradition and a lot of places for people to dance and sit to talk to one another. This is important because Spanish cultures are knows to be very close to their family and this video alone is an example of that being as all of the guests were members of the same family.

These stories, although differing from each other, represent a small part of the broad scope of different cultures and social classes in America. With enough experience, a person could use the environment of another person to learn many things about them before either of them ever even open their mouths. People of a lower social class may have just their living space furnished just with what they need to get by and live with their very immediate family because that is all they can support. While a richer person may have unnecessary frivolities and be able to support a larger family as well as themselves. A person with a bigger cultural influences living space will be much easier to distinguish from someone not as connected with their heritage because it will contain unorthodox items and furniture that differs from the run of the mill

Cultural Identities Displayed Through Living Environments

Page |5

American household. A good understanding of culture and social standing can offer many new insights into a another's mindset provided one just knows what to keep an eye out for.