Cultural Baggage: How Does The Ethnic Heritage Influence One's Life?

Divine Maduike Prof: Kristin Vogt ENG 112 6 April 2018 Cultural Baggage 1. What is cultural baggage? Barbara Ehrenreich’s article responds to someone asking about her ethnic background. She finds the purpose of her essay in giving awareness to readers that ethnic background is never to be considered a background. Ehrenreich takes on an unusual viewpoint of herself because the majority of people are proud to tell others about their origin, instead of feeling ashamed of it. Therefore, Ehrenreich hides her ethnic background and does not claim her English, Scottish and Irish heritage. Traditions, beliefs and ethnic heritage form a cultural baggage which an individual is carrying during his/her lifetime. What are Barbara Ehrenreich’s thoughts about cultural baggage? In the article “Cultural baggage” Barbara Ehrenreich is thinking about the importance and influence of the ethnic heritage on her life. However, Ehrenreich is thinking about the importance and influence of the ethnic heritage on her life. She has mixed Scottish, English and Irish roots, but in her family not much attention is paid to the traditions. At one time, Ehrenreich felt jealous of people who were proud with their roots and started to think there may be something wrong with her attitude about this topic. This question has become too important for her and she thought about giving the worthful ethnic genes to her own descendants by marrying a man of Eastern European-Jewish ancestry. After a long time, her children told her that no ethnic heritage matters to them, and Barbara came to the idea that people who do not follow their family traditions and concentrate on their roots. It does not automatically mean they did something wrong because she herself believes that the traditions of one’s ethnic background should not be followed all the time. A person has the freedom to make their own decisions and live the lifestyle they want. 2. How does the ethnic heritage influence one’s life? In the article, Ehrenreich said that: “In fact, this may have been the ideal cultural heritage for my particular ethnic strain – bounced as it was from the Highlands of Scotland across the sea, out to the Rockies, down into the mines and finally spewed out into high-tech, Suburban America.” (1st line, paragraph 10). By saying this, there is an implication of the unimportance of heritage to Ehrenreich because she is still contemplating on other possibilities of her origin. Ethnic heritage is a kind of social order that in many aspects determines the way of our behavior. It influences our appearance, language and beliefs, at least. It also determines the place on the Earth where we start our life and socialization. As for me, Barbara’s thought about the ethnic heritage does not impact our life and it does not sound convincing. I don’t think our lives are completely independent of our past. No matter how much Ehrenreich denies her ethnic background, it still influences her appearance, language and beliefs. It has also determined her place on Ea...