Discuss the idea of cultural schizophrenia in Bich Minh Nguyen’s “goodbye to my twinkie days”, Judith Ortiz-Cofer’s “the myth of the latin women”, and Shirley Jackson’s “the lottery”
In Bich Minh Nguyen’s story “Goodbye To My Twinkie Days” from her collection Stealing Buddha’s Dinner (2007), narrator Lan shares her identity struggle while growing up as a Vietnamese immigrant in Grand Rapids with an American mother who was born in China. As she learns both English and Chinese, she finds herself caught between different cultures that are hard for her to reconcile: “I felt myself split into two halves—Chinese Girl and American Girl” (Nguyen 22). This sentiment is reflective of cultural schizophrenia; although there are parts of each culture that appeal to Lan, they ultimately clash with one another due to their stark differences.
Similarly in Judith Ortiz-Cofer’s essay “The Myth of the Latin Women” from Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance Of A Puerto Rican Childhood (1990), she writes about struggling against stereotypes imposed upon her by society due to her Latina heritage. She reflects on how these expectations have left her feeling isolated within two identities—the idealized version created by outside forces and the more realistic version that represents who she actually is: “I am caught between two worlds…straddling them like some sort of tightrope walker without a net” (Ortiz-Cofer 58). Like Lan from Nguyen’s piece, Ortiz-Cofer feels split between cultures due to external pressure which impact negatively on her sense of self—an example of cultural schizophrenia.
Lastly, Shirley Jackson explores this same idea through character Tessie Hutchinson in short story “The Lottery” (1948). As one generation gives way to another while maintaining their traditions unchanged since their ancestors first began living there centuries ago, Tessie is forced into participating against her will despite questioning why they still do it every year: “’Lottery in June,’ Mrs Hutchinson said… ‘Seems like we’re doin’ it regular'”(Jackson 2). Because Tessie wants nothing more than for things change but cannot gain support from anyone else around her because they are so used its strict customs based off tradition; this creates an internal battle within herself over whether or not follow tradition regardless if she agrees with it or not – thus representing yet another instance where someone experiences cultural schizophrenia .
Through analyzing these three pieces–Nguyen’s “Goodbye To My Twinkie Days”, Cofers’ “The Myth Of The Latin Woman”, Jackson’s “The Lottery”–it becomes apparent just how much influence culture can have on individuals when trying reconcile conflicting aspects within themselves such as language barriers , family ideals , societal stereotypes , etc.–all leading up them experiencing what Bhabha terms as ‘cultural schizophrenia’. Ultimately, all three works demonstrate just how complex identity formation can be when multiple cultures come into play when building one cohesive whole out oneself .
The hypothetical idea of chance taking includes a few parts of vagueness and surprise. At its generally broad, risk taking alludes to the ability to be unsafe in exceptional conditions. Many creators certainly stand out enough to be noticed to the course of chance taking as opposed to its ramifications. Allies of such view stress that the most common way of facing challenges begins by having a variety of activities to pick to settle an errand (Beebe, 1983). Bem (as refered to in Beebe, 1983) distinguishes the meaning of decisions and further considers risk taking a course of consistent selection of activities which can lead the student to a “more regrettable position” (in the same place). From one perspective, it tends to be contended that Bem’s negative perspective on language risk taking doesn’t recognize the helpfulness or effectiveness of being bold in the study hall. Bem doesn’t represent risk taking as a potential positive specialist in the scholarly situation, however he expresses a necessary piece of the gamble taking cycle: selection of game-plans. Certainly, a daring person needs to choose what is viewed as the most ideal decision right now of pursuing a choice. In this way, risk taking incorporates vulnerability of the result as well as of the activity or strategy chose to achieve an oral undertaking.
Different examinations on individual contrasts and second language procurement have zeroed in on the results of hazard taking as opposed to on the cycle as to understudy achievement in talking errands. Kahneman, Slovic and Tversky for instance, propose that facing challenges can have an in a general sense unfortunate result since the student may be engaged with a misfortune or rout circumstance (as refered to in Gass and Selinker, 2008). Thusly, the idea of chance taking will in general be connected with a horrible condition that might forestall oral correspondence in a subsequent language. As per Dewaele and Furnham (1999) likewise conceivable daring people give exactness for speed in discourse creation, which could lead the student to deliver poor phonetic result. At the very least, elevated degrees of chance taking impact different regions, e.g., confidence, readiness to impart and certainty, which might set the student in a weak position. At the end of the day, the more dangers a student pursues the more open doors he must be genuinely obliged.
Wen and Clément (2003) additionally depict the idea of vulnerability in risk taking with regards to results. Nonetheless, their remarks on risk taking are all the more socially-situated as in the two creators emphasize shame and companion embarrassment as potential aftereffects of the gamble practice. Also to earlier meanings of hazard taking, Wen and Clément’s (2003) perceptions on gambles are noteworthy; in spite of the fact that, their work predominantly presents the negative side of this variable. What is wonderful about their definition is the link of a cognizant oblivious continuum of chance taking ways of behaving. Albeit the relationship among cognizance and obviousness can be a rich wellspring of examination for the writing on risk taking, the writers make brief traces of it; this shows one of the essential shortcomings of their article named Eagerness to Convey in ESL.
Lee and Ng (2010) notice that in the field of second language learning, scholastic gamble taki