Culture and Identity Essay -- Cultural Identity Essays

Culture and Identity Culture and identity could have many different definitions. Culture to me is what made you the person that you are today. The background and history of a person that is the reason of who they are and what they stand for. Identity to me is the certain characteristics that belong to a person that makes them different from everyone else on this planet. The world with no culture or a lack of identity would be a rather boring place. Identity and culture are what makes this world an interesting place, there is a distinct relationship between identity and culture and one without the other they could not exists. In the essay "Real Indians Eat Jell-O" by Laurie Carlson, it seems that she has trouble finding her own identity and culture. Carlson a native american living in a trailer park in Montana wants to know more of her culture to try to give herself an identity. Carlson states "Indian kids are supposed to live in wide open spaces, in deserts or forests. They have horses and coyotes and wise grandparents" (Carlson par. 2). Instead of making her own identity and learning about her culture now, she wants have the identity of someone else, she wants the identity of Indians from hundreds and hundreds of years ago. She looks to her grandmother for culture and does not like what her grandmother has to say, Carlson wants to hear stories of beadwork and tales of coyotes while her grandmother while her grandmother taps her "primrose passion" colored nails to the song on the radio and tells her "Honey, be yourself"(Carlson par. 7). Personally that is the best answer anyone could give a child who is looking to make an identity for themselves, because an identity is who you are and who you are is everything. Also Carls... ...more successful than my parents just like they were more successful then my grandparents and like my grandparents were more successful then my great-grandparents. My community culture growing up has given me the hardworking, go getting attitude that I need in life to grow up to be a successful person in this world. Culture and identity have a very close knit relationship between them. A persons culture helps them to determine their identity in life. Without knowing your own culture, weather it be a poor indian growing up in a trailer park or a rich white boy growing up in a huge house, your identity would be very hard to determine. A persons culture is the main part of a persons identity, and without knowing your culture it would be hard to figure out ones identity. Works Cited Carlson, Laurie. "Real Indians Eat Jell-O". Northern Lights. (Spring 1993).