Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Culture Shock
Two of the case studies we have read in class (Walter and James) involved American businessmen grappling with problems resulting from cultural differences while running operations in Brazil. At one time or another, we have all misunderstood situations due to cultural, language, or other differences. Briefly describe this kind of misunderstanding from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or from your own experience. Which motif does this incident relate to, and why? If you need to review the case studies, go to http://www.branfordhigh.org/?PageName=TeacherPage&Page='DocumentsCategory'&CategoryID=3779&iSection=Teachers&CorrespondingID=38073
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
15 comments:
"Never Judge a Book by its Cover"
My aunt had this married name that was based on a different culture. This one time, she went to an job interview and the interviewer misunderstood her to be in the same culture that he was born. My aunt didn't get the job because of that. Now she is an company job interviewer and she always thought of that moment, and never judge anyone based on their name. That was a cultural misunderstanding and I think that interviewer that my aunt met was prejudice for not hiring her because she wasn't the same culture that he was born.
In Huckleberry Finn there are misunderstandings being of culture dealing with Jim and his race. People think of Jim differently and treat him differently because of his culture. This is everybody being prejudice against him and other of that certain race.
In the adventures of Huckelberry Finn Jim is looked upon based on the color of his skin; he is prejudged and thought to be selfish, stupid, and uncaring. Later on during the story though Huck realizes that his initial thoughts are not true.
Huck has a misunderstanding with the widow as to why he should learn about Moses and the Bulrushes. He isn't use to being civilized and being taught. Huck doesn't care about Moses because he doesn't ''take no stock in dead people'' (14). This incident relates to the motif of spiritual vs. earthly because Huck would rather be living in reality than learning about stories that took place long ago.
In Huck Finn, he has a misunderstanding of Jim, he thinks that Jim is a totally different person then himself, he thinks that Jim can't think the way he does, and he thinks that Jim doesn't have the same morals and ideas as he does. This is because of what he has been taught his whole life, he was taught that African Americans weren't equal to whites. Yet, as time went on, Jim and himself got closer together, Huck learned important lessons from Jim that helped him understand more. For example when Jim is telling Huck the story of his little girl,Huck realizes that he has feelings for his family as though a white would. Towards the end of the book, Huck finally realizes that he had misunderstood Jim, and everything that he has learned; Huck has learned to look beyond it, and like Jim for who he really is.
in the adventures of hucklberry finn the use of the N word is used alot and jim getting judged by the color of his skin. there were alot of misunderstandings in the book and in the case studies that we have read in class. when jan had to make a decison to fire srah or keep her but srah made the wrong decision by putting mney on the card. with Walter in the aviation slaes executive. an example from the book is that Huck wasn't able to join the gang becuse he didnt have a family. a experiance in real life is what i saw on tv is that these people weren't able to look inside the house because they were a different color than the rest of the people looking inside and also the real estate agent was also white and was being very racist and prejudice to them she said that " i dont if your type of people will be happy living here" to my opinion why wouldnt they want to live here, they have come to this neighborhood if they didnt want to.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is mainly about how Huck doesn't accept Jim because of his race. He was taught that being friends with a black slave was a bad thing and against what God wanted. Civilization makes him think that if he helps him in any way that he is going to hell. He decides to go against what civilization says by helping Jim and in the end, becoming his friend. This is an example of the motif called conformity vs. nonconformity
During the course of Huckleberry Finn, Jim is judged by the color of his skin, and how Huck has been brought up to despise the black man. He decides to go against everything hes been taught and help Jim escape.
Huck views Jim as a black, and not an actual person with rights. This is because Huck was taught racism and conformed to the idea that whites were superior to blacks. However, Huck started to understand Jim better when he realized that Jim was just as much of a person that deserves just as much respect as Huck did. Therefore, Huck noncomformed to the idea of slavery and racism. This is conformity vs noncomformity.
Instances where something was not understood because of cultural differences in my life would be when I visited Mexico to retrive a tractor. While we drove down there, we parked over at a dinner and went to eat inside. We were completely surrounded by Spanish people and we couldn't understand anything. It took us a while to get the people to understand what we wanted but we did and were on our way. The motif that this would mostly relate to would be southern backwardness because the way the talk and do things in Mexico in very different from here in America.
Don't judge a book by its cover becuase in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Jim is just seen as another black slave and nobody thinks of him as a human being. Towards the end of the book Huck and Tom along with many others realize he isn't such a bad guy.
When I served in the Peace Corps after college, I lived in a poor community in rural Paraguay. I eventually realized that, whenever I visited families near mealtime, custom obligated them to insist that I eat with them, even if they really could not spare the food, and it meant that they would go hungry. I soon learned not to drop in near mealtimes.
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there is a misunderstanding of culture. Huck didnt understand Jims way of life, and was taught growing up that slaves don't care about family. Huck eventually realizes all he was taught was untrue. The motif this relates to is prejudice.
Huck as been brought up with kind of a southern backwards mentality that tells him not to see black slaves as people. But he learns throughout the book that Jim actually has feelings and is a real person just like him. I think this kind of shocks Huck because hes never seen a slave in this way. This motif is southern backwards and maybe conformity v. nonconformity
jim was looked as as the "man who means nothing" to evceryone, and huck was brought up to think that as well. jim is basically judjed by the color of his skin and is thought to have no feelings what-so-ever
Post a Comment