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Zhouwei's Writing Portfolio
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There has long existed in me an entrenched puzzle in the essence and structure of American society, of how the immigrating cultures are aggregated together so stably while, contradictorily, history in other nations showed us a clear and ecumenical correlation between cultural crash and confliction.
The bewilderment was not reconciled after I had read this fiction.
I believe the author was trying to inform us of his two basic conceptions of the American society: that exotic culture and the active effort in figuring it into the American society are positively welcome; and that intercultural comparison often leads to further recognition of an immigrant's native culture, however paradoxical it may appear. In such a sense, to a specific immigrating culture, a multicultural society can well serve as the hotbed of its public hearing. However, we have reasons to believe that such a collage-like composition of cultures denies the common ground vital for social harmony as well as the definition of the word “Americanization”: immigrants tend to behave in an “exclusive” way towards people from other cultures, which may be well analogous to excessive patriotism, or jingoism.
I heard of another explanation, emphasizing conformity. We appreciate, at least appreciated, the description of American society as a melting pot. This description explains satisfactorily the reason of the intercultural harmony, since they do not appear so exclusive and different. Nevertheless, the stereotype, known as culture of the Anglo-Saxons instead of that of Indian which is one heartbeat away from extinction, ironically turned out to be non-native. Besides, a monotonous society is not likely to experience the cultural flourish we witness in America. Nor can the uniqueness of American cultural over European ones, or the symbolic magnanimity for cultural distinction of the American society be satisfactorily explained.
Thus I am quite frustrated when I see myself turned back to the starting point of solving the relationship of harmony and versatility. Can they coexist? Or there even exits a clear dichotomy into them? At last it dawned on me that the two factors are somehow, subtly merged together, in a way beyond my understanding.
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Zhouwei's Writing Portfolio
