The Issues Of Living in Two Different Lifestyles And Cultures in Literature

Culture is how people live, their religion, what they eat, what they wear, how they wear it, the language, marriage, music, and their beliefs. Culture is a big word and can mean so much more. Culture can be different in other societies but can definitely have some similarities. In this essay, issues with living in two different lifestyles and culture will be discussed in stories such as “Living in Two Worlds”, “Terra Firma-A Journey from Migrant Farm Labor to Neurosurgery”, and “Mr.

Z”. These chapters will show how they live in two different lifestyles.

In “Living in Two Worlds” discusses living in two lifestyles such as poor and wealthy. Mabry begins to describe his life that was split up. “More than my sense of guilt”, he is going to school with a full scholarship, living a good life while his family is at home suffering from poverty. His hard working mother and brother live with his grandmother, along with other unemployed relatives.

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Mabry explains when he is thinking about his family, it makes him not focus in school which makes him do bad. The beginning of the story he explains that it has a negative impact on his life because he does not want to have fun, or even study because the fact that his family is in a bad situation will be on the back of his mind. Towards the end of the short story, he feels pride in his family for being able to live and continue the life that they are living with problems.

As there was Christmas break, he leaves his school and goes to visit his family at his grandma's house back in New York. His first night at his old house, he slept on a uncomfortable coach that had springs poking him. As many other problems occurred living with his family, he realizes how his mom works long shifts as a practical nurse struggling to provide a life for herself and for his brother. She was making sure that his brother didn’t live a life that could be bad because he didn’t see a future in himself. He realizes that he lives too good away from them and he feels guilty because of all the events that are occurring without him. This shows how he lived in two different worlds and how it affected him.

In “Terra Firma-A Journey from Migrant Farm Labor to Neurosurgery” story shows how he enters the U.S as a poor immigrant then becomes a student at the University of California, Berkeley. Quiñones-Hinojosa arrived in the United States in the mid-1980s. He became a 19-year-old illegal immigrant farm worker. Quiñones started working at his dad's gas station at the age of five. Quiñones-Hinojosa family was poor, his mom and dad worked long hours and can support the family until 1970s because an economic crisis. Quiñones-Hinojosa wanted live in the US so he packed his bags and had $65 in his pocket and cross the US border illegally. After working at various jobs, he knew very little English and went to community college and was accepted at the University of California Berkeley. “You will spend the rest of your life working in the fields” this gave him so much motivation to prove that he would become something better. His grandma was known as the medicine woman in the town where Quiñones-Hinojosa grew up. His grandma was a huge role model to him. As humble as he was in the story, he still managed to achieve his dreams by living as an immigrant and starting from nothing. He was lived in two different lifestyles, living as a poor immigrant and then becoming a neurosurgery giving back to his community.

In “Mr.Z”, Holman did not like his color. His was told “his mother’s skin was a sign of error”. In other words his skin color was unacceptable. Being a different culture can have a bad look. It can give low self-confidence. Holman, a black male is trying live a white lifestyle. Mr. Z put all of this effort into being successful and fitting in with the whites by being proper and educated, but even though he was a distinguished member of his class there was no difference in his outcome. He died like everyone does, and he died with no higher distinction than anyone else. At the end of the day, culture that is not from the U.S will work very hard to achieve what they want.

These ideal cultures have a similarity which is living two different lifestyles during some point in their life. They can think they are worthless, but in reality all they have to do is try and focus on their goals in life to succeed the lifestyle they want to live. Cultures that are foreign n the U.S should work harder to achieve what they want because they have disadvantages as opposed to the citizens. If not then it will be a hard life doing hard work for low pay. All cultures have one thing in common which having a low point and having a high point in life. Living in a society that you don’t want to be in will make you work harder to get out. Cultures have different lifestyles but should all have one thing in common which is to push themselves out of the poor life they live into a healthier lifestyle.