Dominant White Culture Analysis

Dominant White culture can have a negative impact on those who have a different cultural identity. This is displayed in the short stories “Seventeen Syllables”, by Hisaye Yamamto, and “Dead Man’s Path”, by Chinua Achebe. The dominant White culture that exists in both of these stories negatively impacted the characters in causing them to abandon their own cultural identity in order to assimilate to the predominant culture that surrounds them in their everyday life. The effects of this can be detrimental as it causes conflict and hardships for those involved. In the short stories “Seventeen Syllables” and “Dead Man’s Path”, the negative effect of a dominant White culture is expressed, comparably, in both stories. A dominant White culture has negative …show more content…
Rosie does not understand Japanese culture as she has been greatly influenced by the American culture. This causes her to regard her mother’s habits, such as, haiku writing and permissive behaviour towards her husband, as peculiar. When visiting the Hayano family, the sudden departure of Rosie’s father is regarded as rude and Mrs. Hayashi apologizes for her husband. Rosie does not understand why her mother does this and she “felt a rush of hate for both-for her mother for begging, for her father for denying her mother.” She proceeds to “wish this old Ford would crash, right now”. Rosie does not understand that in a traditional Japanese household, even American, the wife is submissive to the husband. The inability to comprehend this leads to a conflict between Rosie and her mother. In “Dead Man’s Path”, Michael Obi has a conflict between himself and the villagers. Obi has removed the path leading to the burial grounds of the village as the religious ties that exist to this path are not recognized by the British culture he has been taught. When a woman passes during childbirth in the village, the villagers blame this on Obi’s blocking of the ancestral path. This leads to the climax of the conflict as