Conflicts Between 'Two Kinds And Ethnic Hash'

“You could be anything you wanted to be in America”. In different places people have different perspectives and ways of life due to their unique cultural identities. Your culture is composed of your values, beliefs, customs, language, etc. These different perceptions of culture can cause conflict between family members, friends, strangers, and even yourself. In the articles “Two Kinds”, by Amy Tan, “Everyday Use”, by Alice Walker, and “Ethnic Hash”, by Patricia J Williams, the authors illustrate their experiences with conflicts created by differing opinions/ideas on culture. First, in “Two Kinds” on page 60 Amy Tan shows that the mother and daughter had conflicting ideas on culture by including the quote; “I didn’t have to do what mother said anymore…this wasn’t China”. Jing-Mei was born in America so she believes that she can do whatever she wants, her mother can’t tell her what to do, and she feels this way because she is influenced by American culture. Jing-Mei’s mom feels …show more content…
Patricia J Williams shows how her differing perceptions created conflict on page 13 when she says, “Bring a hors d’oeuvre representing your ethnic heritage…Do I even have an ethnicity?” The author is told to bring in something that represents her ethnicity which causes her to realize she doesn’t know her ethnicity or what makes up her cultural identity. This creates conflict in her life because she has to figure out an object to bring that represents her culture. Also on page 13 she expresses her confusion on her cultural identity through the statement, “what were the flavors, accents, and linguistic trills that were passed down to me over the ages?” This is just another quote that shows how her cultural identity lead to a difficult internal situation in her life. She doesn’t know what her ethnicity is but she has to figure it out so she can bring a hors