MulticulturalismISU Presentation

Theme• Multiculturalism. The authors’ communicate

through this theme to the readers that it is very difficult for people to accept each other’s cultural differences. However, if this can be accomplished, great things can be done with this unison.

Summaries of Sources-Poem: A Multicultural Town• This poem by Francis Duggan seems to contradict

itself. It speaks of a multicultural town inherited by people of varying different cultures who remain relatively separate and distanced from each other. The world that Duggan has created is a world where the people act like the other cultures’ don’t exist.

• “For them multiculturalism has few appeals”(Duggan, Francis).

Short Story: Skraeling• This short story by Rachel Qitsualik transports the

reader back to 1000AD where 3 tribes of varying cultures inhabit the land. In this narrative the Tunit, a small tribe who live in a little village, are continuously brutally slaughtered by the Siaraili, which become known as the “Skraeling”. The Tunit’s situation seems hopeless until an unexpected chain of events finds the Tunit and an enemy from an older tribe who travels alone, working together.

Film: The Help• Based off of Kathryn Stockett’s award-winning

novel, this film is about a group of black women and a white woman who unite in the risky and dangerous business of creating a book that tells the stories and struggles of a black maid’s life in the early 1960’s in Jackson Mississippi.

Novel: The Joy Luck Club• In this novel the author, Amy Tan relives the

conflicts and struggles of a multicultural family. In 1940, 4 Chinese women immigrate to San Fransisco to start a better life and raise American-born daughters. Tan, traces through the struggles and conflicts between the mothers and the daughters of many generations. The Chinese originated mothers have trouble communicating to their daughters and try to force tradition upon them. This generally doesn’t go very well and the relationships in result become broken. Both the mothers’and the daughters’ have difficulty in accepting each others’ differences, for they can not see past the others’ culture.

Connections• The concept of multiculturalism plays a large role in

many wars around the globe. What the authors’ of my sources have been communicating through their books remains true in reality as well. People have difficulty accepting the differences of others.

• Take the Holocaust for example. Hitler was not satisfied with the Jews as a culture and couldn’t just accept them for who they are and leave them be. Instead, he dehumanized them through a period of time and committed mass murder to the Jewish population during “the night of broken glass”, “Kristallnacht” and in the concentration camps of his own creation.

Connections-Evaluation of Theme, Historical: The Cyrus Cylinder• In 539 BC, Babylon, a city in Southern Iraq was ruled

by a tyrant King, Nabonidus. Nabonidus had odd ideas of religion and in result his city was suffering. Similar to Hitler he killed Jews and burned there synagogues. Then came Cyrus The Great and his “army of peace”. Once Cyrus became King and ruled all of Babylon peace was restored to the city for many years. During this time period the city lived in a completely multicultural environment. The very 1st multicultural environment to ever exist! King Cyrus rebuilt the Jews’ synagogues and allowed the Jews to do their own thing as well as the Muslims, and any other religion or culture that happened to inhabit the city of Babylon.

The Cyrus Cylinder Cont’d• In his period of reign, Cyrus created a cylindrical

object from clay. On this he decreed that the political formulization of racial, linguistic, and religious equality, slaves and all deported peoples were to be allowed to return to home; and all destroyed temples were to be restored. This was then translated into the 6 official languages of the U.N. To this day a replica of the cylinder is kept at the Headquarters of the United Nations. It is said that this was the first charter of human rights.

Multiculturalism’s role in The Cyrus Cylinder• Cyrus The Great was known for his tolerance and acceptance of

culture. He created a city of multiculturalism. He solved many conflicts in doing so as well.

• The message that the authors’ of my sources were trying to communicate proves to be true when it is evaluated in the historical event/story The Cyrus Cylinder. The tyrant King that ruled Babylon before Cyrus obviously had trouble accepting the cultures of others because he had murdered many. However, when Cyrus came along and created a multicultural city great things became of it. The city lived in peace undisturbed for many years, he created the Cyrus Cylinder and wrote on it the first charter of human rights and has been known for his acceptance, tolerance and bravery ever since. When cultures can look past their differences, great things result.

The Cyrus CylinderAt the British Museum in London

Connections Between the Sources• All of my chosen pieces include a theme of multiculturalism. In

“The Help”, though it is a dangerous business, Ms.Skeeter (the white lady) wants equal racial rights. She wants all of Jackson Mississippi to know what the blacks have been through. This connects to the poem “A Multicultural Town” by that the whites and blacks are living in the same town yet they remain separated and are “living in different worlds” so to speak. It connects to the short story in the way that the cultures don’t get along, specifically the whites view the blacks as enemies and dirty parasites that carry diseases. However, just like in the short story “Skraeling” where the alone enemy unites with the Tunit to help them defeat the Skraeling, the one white lady, Ms. Skeeter unites with some black maids for interviews hoping to publish the book and inspire change in the city.

Connections-Between Sources: The Relevance of the Theme• The theme of multiculturalism

in the film “The Help” is relevant to the modern reader because they need to keep an open mind when dealing with other cultures. In racial case, you might not know what they have been through. Being able to accept each others’ differences and moving forward to inspire change is an important concept that modern readers or viewers in this case, should take home with them.

Connections-Between Sources• Also, “The Help” is similar to The Joy Luck Club in

the way that Ms. Skeeter is experiencing inner turmoil almost as if she had another culture inside her. She is torn between helping the blacks and living in her white world. The “Skraeling” is like the poem in the way that it deals with a variety of cultures, and it’s similar to The Joy Luck Club in the way that Kannujaq, the alone person, is experiencing inner turmoil as well. He wants to continue on his way and forget about the Tunit being slaughtered but he also is concerned about him. This inner conflict is the similarity between the short narative and the novel.

Connections-The Relevance of the Theme• From the short narrative the readers’ should take

from it that it is better to put your differences aside and treat people equally . Crossing that barrier or intolerance can result in great accomplishments less conflict. In our world today there are a variety of different cultures and the reader should take from the short story that it is best to accept one another for all that we are, including our culture and religion.

Connections-Between the Sources• The last connection is from the novel The Joy Luck

Club to the poem “A Multicultural Town”. The two pieces are similar in the way that they deal with different cultures who try to pretend the other does not exist. Sometimes in The Joy Luck Club the daughters’ get so upset with their mothers trying to force their old customs and traditions on them that they try and shake their Chinese origin entirely! They sometimes try to bury their background culture just like the people in the poem only see their culture and not the other ones that are inhabiting the same town.

Connections- The Relevance of the Themes• For the novel, the modern reader should understand that you should

never try to run away from your true self. They should embrace who they are and should not let cultures get in the way with their relationships to others.

• For the poem, the modern reader should think that an accepting multicultural town is better than a multicultural town where all the cultures are separate.

• From ALL my sources the reader should get that though it may be difficult to accept other cultures and forget about other peoples’ differences, it can be very rewarding once that intolerance is left

behind. My sources demonstrate this through character emotions, (The alone enemy’s inner turmoil) the conflicts, how they are based around culture and the difficulty in accepting, and through the result that you can see in all my pieces (“Skraeling” for example) the good that is accomplished when united. In “Skraleing” the Skraeling are

defeated.

Acceptance is the key to multiculturalism , and in multiculturalism like the city of Babylon that Cyrus ruled, the world will find peace and most conflict will cease.

Works Cited• Duggan, Francis, “A Multicultural Town.” 21 Jan, 2008.

PoemHunter.com. 16 Oct, 2013www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-multicultural-town/

• The Help.Dir. Tate Taylor. Dreamworks Studios, 2011. Film.

• Qitsualik, Rachel. “Skraeling”. Enbridge. Doubleday Canada, 2004

• Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. London. Penguin Books, 2006

• Iran Chamber Society. History of Iran, The Cyrus Cylinder 2001-2014. Web. 9 January 2014.www.iranchamber.com/history/cyrus/cyrus_charter.php