In
his article “America: The Multinational Society“ Ishmael Reed emphasizes how
various parts of America and the world are affected culturally. He assures his
readers that the United States is blended up of a lot of various ethnic groups,
and all of them are welcome to live together in peace. Using a happy and welcoming
tone Ishmael Reed acknowledges his readers that the world has changed since America
started to be built as a nation. The author wants his readers to change their
thinking about American culture as “Western Civilization” and he defines new
approach to this clarification as multicultural. Relying on his historical,
sociological and personal examples throughout his essay, the author argues that
American society emerged not only from European background. The author’s multiple
perspectives make the essay informative and persuasive arguments for his readers.
So, first Reed takes a historical perspective. He gives his
readers multiple examples to prove his statement that in a historical view
America is not a Westernized society. Reed argues that the history of European
people has some aspects of Asian and African background. He claims, “And what
of the millions of European who have black African and Asian ancestry, black
Africans having occupied several countries for hundreds of years? Are these
“Europeans “members of Western civilization…?”(209). By asking these
challenging questions he gives evidence to his readers that European people do
not have only one culture. It was influenced by Asian, African cultures a long
time ago. Furthermore, the author gives an example that the person who was
the founding father of American
Benjamin Franklin was
inspired by the system of government that has been taken from Native Americans.
The author says, “Even the notion that America is part of Western civilization
because our “system of government” is derived from Europe is being challenged
by Native American historians who say that the founding father, Benjamin
Franklin especially, were actually influenced by the system of government that
had been adopted by the Iroquois hundreds of years prior to the arrival of
large number of Europeans”(210). By giving this fact the author wants to say
that even the belief that America is part of “Western Civilization” because its
system of government is developed from Europe has been historically influenced
by Native Americans.
In
his next paragraph, Reed talks about Puritans. Puritans are a Protestant group in England and New England in the 16th and 17th
centuries that opposed many customs of the Church of England. And as
stated in the “Western Civilization” idea, they are considered as a
hardworking, skillful, faithful and determined group of people. They were
considered as a representatives of
Western culture and they were embodied for their life style by Western people. Even
though, they symbolize a great society who created work ethic, they were very
rude, destroying others cultures, hating art, punishing people illegally in
cruel ways and even killing their children for disobeying their parents. The
author says, “The Puritans were a darling lot, but they had a mean streak. They
hated the theater and banned Christmas. They punished people in a cruel and in
human manner”(211). Stating this evidence about Puritans, the author
establishes the fact that the Puritan culture was nothing to look fondly upon.
Defining American culture as “Western civilization” only gives an illusion of
superior quality.
Next, Reed
talks from sociological perspective. If
we go back to the history, from the sociological point of view of human being,
it has been shown that mixing up people causes a new nation and new culture.
America is great example of this concept. Reed gives us multiple sociological
facts that USA society is a melting pot environment. He argues that classical
music and painting were influenced by different aspects of cultures. He argues
even American society was created by European people; the history of European
culture itself goes to “monolithic” description. He intrigues his readers
asking these questions: “Is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which includes Turkish
marches, a part of Western civilization, or the late ninetieth- and
twentieth-century French paintings, whose creator was influenced by Japanese
art?”(209). By asking these questions he gives his readers explicit example
that before European culture created American culture, it had been already
influenced by other cultures. And there is no pure culture that had not been
influenced by other cultures, as every culture has some aspects of another culture.
To prove his
arguments and make them reliable, the author gives his readers his personal
examples and observations showing that America is a multicultural society. First
personal experience is from his travel to Texas, where he heard Spanish and English
announcements from the radio at the airport. Second, he talks about exhibition
of African and Afro-American pictures in a local American McDonald restaurant. Another
example is when his poet friend described a city he just visited and let him
guess what city it was. The city has different sections, one of them consists
of Islamic mosques and other section is full of a large number Hispanic people.
Surprisingly, it was one of the US’s biggest cities, Detroit. He claims that
anyone can meet such mixing cultures in big cities of US: He says, “Such
blurring of cultural styles occurs in everyday life in the United States to
greater extend anyone can imagine…”(209). By giving his personal experience,
Reed claims that we can see that America is multicultural society as we can
find different cultures in every corner of US. And these cultures create an
American not just a Western society.
In the 20th century after new immigration laws were
established in USA millions of immigrant came to US virgin lands, creating here
new families and societies. These different immigrants with their different cultures
created Multicultural society in America. In his essay Reed successfully proves that America is
Multicultural society and its background does not only lie in European culture.
Using informative data such as historical, sociological and his personal
observations Reed convinces his readers that American society is blended with
multiple cultures.
Work cited:
The Norton Mix.Ed. Katie
Hannah. New York, NY: ww. Norton& Company, Inc.2010.207-212.Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment