Cultural Baggage free essay sample

M. Venegas English Composition Professor Christine Redman-Waldeyer 11th week assignment Word count; 228/272 Summary of â€Å"Cultural Baggage† In the article â€Å"Cultural Baggage† published at The New York Times magazine on May 3, 1992, the author Barbara Ehrenreich assess and weighs hers and other people’s cultural and religious background. By listening to an exciting friend about her cultural legacy, Mrs. Ehrenreich abruptly understood that she hasn’t defined one. However, she impliedly denotes some English heritage. In the 60’s and 70’s era, she witnessed ethnical and cultural awakening.These celebrations carried on her some guiltiness about her Anglo-Saxon roots. While as a child, she ate ethnic foods that didn’t represent her owns, but her mother encouraged her to â€Å"Try new things†. She liked the idea of being Irish descendant, but displeased of their ancestral savage behavior. As motherhood arrived, she wanted to married a man with Yiddish roots in order to provide their children with a solid heritage. We will write a custom essay sample on Cultural Baggage or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Sadly, it did not work out because her kids knew that their grandparents did not honor their Jewish traditions either. Consequently, she realizes that nobody at home follows any religious line. She also remembers that her mother never mentioned any learned way to do house work. Nevertheless, she learned from her parents that anything new is better than the old ones. The aphorisms â€Å"Try new things, Think for yourself and Always ask why† were her only heritage, and thus passed along to her children. She calls this lacking of heritage the race of â€Å"none†. Venegas2 Reaction to â€Å"Cultural Baggage† In the article â€Å"Cultural Baggage† the author Barbara Ehrenreich philosophizes about her meager heritage and the heritage of others in America. We all came from descendants from any point in history and the world.We just didn’t appear on earth from thin air. Civilization of â€Å"none† is a delusion, a chimera. It may be fine title for a blockbuster movie, but not in real life. What are we? If answer it by a physician, he would say that we are an organic subject made of flesh and bones down to cells and DNA formation, which will decompose within decades and die. A religion representative would say that we are a creation of an almighty entity that cares about our body, mind and soul. A psychologist would say everything that comes with us genetically and everything that we are environmentally influenced.Therefore, our genes make a race or ethnicity and the environmental and surround our culture. But only we can decide how deep those roots can go under and how high we can climb on our cultural legacy. Americans have a culture made by basic values that locals and foreigners adopt as own. We proudly looked at Pilgrims and their devotion to create a nation that would be unique to the world. The man against wilderness and the rouged individualist made the American culture of inventiveness and â€Å"can do spirit† that the world have a high regard for.Despite the fact that some people don’t follow a religion; we all carry the protestant heritage of self-improvement, material success, hard work, self discipline and volunteerism in one way or another. Having an identity is part of the American culture and consolidating all these heritages into a strong one makes our culture. In other words, it is known as tolerance and respect for all. Being American is carrying all that cultural and historical baggage that most foreigners admire.