Student Question

How has culture and family background influenced your worldview?

Quick answer:

Although this is a personal question, a good way to approach it, suggested by Amy Tan's "Two Kinds," is to compare your own worldview with those of people from different cultures and backgrounds.

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In Amy Tan's "Two Kinds," the influences of culture and family background are emphasized by the clash of cultures and generations. Jing-mei Woo is both American and Chinese, and this dual identity increases the usual misunderstandings and conflicts that take place between parents and children.

If your parents are originally from another culture, you may be able to identify directly with the experiences of Jing-mei or other daughters who feature in The Joy Luck Club. However, even if your family has lived in America for many generations, it is still helpful to think about the immigrant experience when identifying how your culture and family background have influenced your worldview. Your morals, values, social and political attitudes, and the way you think about such topics as success and failure, freedom, and relationships are all profoundly affected by your background. Comparing your mindset with those of people from other cultures is an excellent way to question your assumptions.

One way to approach this comparison would be to compare your answers to some fundamental questions about life with the answers given by people from other cultures. Attached below is a well-known selection of such questions called the Proust Questionnaire, after the French novelist who popularized it. You could compare your answers with those of people from other cultures to draw your conclusions about what in your mindset is culturally specific. These other respondents might be people you know, or they might be some of the many people from other cultures who have completed the questionnaire, such as the Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar, whose answers are also attached below.

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