Phoenix Arizona Culture

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Culture plays a big part on one’s life. One’s food, home, language, name, worldview, etc, all revolve around one’s culture. This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona is an excellent illustration of how a lack of clarity in regards to cultural association, leads to an atypical worldview. In order to succeed in the world where different cultures are becoming incorporated, and some cultures are disappearing; keeping ones culture alive is prime. Although on the surface, losing a culture might not seem like an issue, when the culture is about to be lost, there is an inherent fear that leads to confusion. The socially competent characters in This is What it means to say Phoenix, Arizona associate themselves strongly with a specific culture-whether…show more content…
Throughout the story, you see bits and pieces of both the Indian culture, and the American culture in him. There are many occasions where Victor associates himself with the American culture; he puts a cowboy hat, and a dodgers hat on his fathers ashes, he tries squeezing as much money as he can from the reservation for personal gain, and is very disrespectful to the symbol of traditional Indian culture-Thomas. Although Victor shows association to the American culture, there are still many occasions where he associates with the Indian culture. Victor still follows Indian practices (cremation, etc), he still lives on the Indian reservation (he did not, and does not seem to want to leave), and when Cathy the gymnast asked if he was Indian, he replied, “full blood” with no hesitation. Victor doesn’t clearly relate to a specific culture. Throughout the story he is very condescending to his own Indian culture, but still he doesn’t fully identify with its counterpart-the modern American culture. Since Victor cannot completely identify with a single specific culture, he is very confused; he doesn’t have a clear set of codes to follow, and so he is lost. This confusion causes him to act in a very hostile and recluse manner. Victor is representation of a man caught between two different cultures and has trouble trying to identify with a single…show more content…
The modern American culture is taking over and the reservation is not able to keep up. This is seen through Thomas’ vision in which the children drive a car to the police station. This act is the modern interpretation of the Indian right of passage where once the boy tames a wild horse, he is considered a warrior. Since the Indian culture is disappearing, they are struggling to find means of association. This disappearance of culture is seen when Thomas jokes that everybody in the reservation is named Junior. Names are extremely important, one’s name says a lot about them, and they are usually a reflection of one’s culture. When your child is given the same name as you, many times, they are just called Junior. Since there are many people at the reservation without Indian names, the number of Indians without traditional names is ever increasing! Since the traditional Indian names are disappearing, the traditional Indian culture is also disappearing. Unfortunately, people are not trying to keep it alive by passing it on to future

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