In Richard Rodriguez’s essay “‘Blaxicans’ and Other Reinvented Americans” and George Orwell’s essay “Shooting an Elephant,” both writers present their views from differing perspectives but both make a clear connection and draw similar conclusions. As an American whose family emigrated from Mexico, Richard Rodriguez writes from the perspective of a minority and the affects that diversity in race and culture can have on each other. George Orwell writes about a time when he was a sub-divisional police officer in the town of Moulmein, during the British occupation of Lower Burma. In Orwell’s essay, he illuminates the consequences that two competing cultures can have and the adverse effects that will ultimately arise. Rodriguez and Orwell both…show more content… Rodriguez focuses on the benefits of cultural assimilation and the importance of understanding the affects other cultures have on us. Whether a person has the intention to learn, understand, or take on aspects of another culture, they do so anyway. From German beer, to Italian wines, to Mexican and Asian cuisines, everyone is touched by other cultures. “Culture is fluid. Culture is smoke. You breathe it. You eat it. You can’t help hearing it-” (274). Rodriguez also writes about the affect indirect assimilation has on a population. Providing people with new or limited way of viewing the world around them and experiences within it, because “assimilation happens” (274). He writes how he is classified as Hispanic because of his ethnic background being “mestizo” (271). Rodriguez makes it clear that being Hispanic is not what defines his identity. It is his exposure to other cultures, “the collision of centuries” (271), that make him many different things not just Hispanic but “la raza cosmica” (271). He shows the affects culture can passively have on one’s self by showing the affects it has had on him. “I am speaking to you in American English that was taught me by Irish nuns-immigrant women. I wear and Indian face; I answer to a Spanish surname as well as this California first name, Richard” (271). Rodriguez expands his…show more content… Orwell is blunt in stating how the imperialistic nature of the interaction between the British and Burmese cultures directly affected his understanding, capacity for sympathy, and potential to help the Burmese. Orwell wrote, “I was young and ill-educated and I had to think out my problems in the utter silence that is imposed and every Englishman in the East” (244). Many other Europeans had varying sympathy toward the Burmese and those lacking the most sympathy had their view blocked, they were unable to see or understand the opposing cultures views. When Orwell shoots an elephant that killed a man, the older and younger generations differed on whether or not they agreed with the decision that Orwell had made. “The older men said I was right, the younger men said it was a damn shame to shoot and elephant for killing a coolie, because an elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee collie” (250). The younger men had no sympathy for the death of a Burmese; they had no capacity to feel sympathy toward the culture that they had occupation over. Orwell’s sympathy toward the Burmese condition is important but is lost in his distaste for them. “I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job
