literature and society term paper
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American Cultural Beliefs: Whitman and Otsuka
America has been criticized and lauded as having one of the most individualistic systems of cultural beliefs in the world, instead of any cohesive system of nationwide ethics. This is certainly partly a result of America’s position as a land of migrants. However , simply because America is a great individualistic region, and made from many peoples and methods of life does not mean that the American government and populace have not acted in a racially distinctive and oppressive manner, at times, such as the circumstance of the internment of Japanese-Americans during Ww ii.
The poet Walt Whitman embodies the individualistic, idealized system of American values in the verse, even though he oversaw the tragic consequences of yankee racism in his own lifetime, in the form of the civil battle. When but when Whitman the poet wrote that this individual sang of himself, this individual not only commemorated his personal individual personality, shorn of any particular references to his lineage or to the religious tradition he originates from, but he celebrated the individualism and plurality of America. Whitman expressed himself in long, winding stretches of totally free verse that seemed to speak against anything that is of the formulaic European tradition of literature. “Spontaneous me, Character, ” this individual cried. Being a poet, he stated, having been one with all that this individual saw, gentleman and girl, nature and man. (Whitman, “Spontaneous Myself, ” From Leaves of Grass) “I hear America singing, the assorted carols I hear… The delicious vocal singing of the mom – or perhaps of the young wife at work – or of the lady sewing or washing – Each vocal what belongs to her, and none of them else… (Whitman, “I Hear America singing, ” From Leaves of Grass)
Japan, as opposed, is noted for its collectivist system of ideals and its comparative uniformity of racial and cultural character. When the Emperor was Work, by Julie Otsuka, presents a securely knit Japanese-American family, containing inherited this tradition in a positive vogue. This friends and family does not tension individualism in its core approach to values, but rather a cohesive and obedient family dynamic. However , Otsuka also suggests in her tale, that by seeing all Japanese-Americans as as well, America broken its important creed of individualism, which means seeing every single human being like a unique person, regardless of the category, culture, or the creed they will belonged to, ahead of becoming part of the American textile. The Japanese were interned since they appeared to be different, racially, off their neighbors such as the Greeks.
The structure of Otsuka’s publication both validates the social cohesion of Japanese identity, yet manages to show
