Molly Puckett - "The Influence of Culture"



The influence of culture is greater than anyone truly thinks it is. Oftentimes, I can forget just how vastly different cultures in the world can be. This is where the idea of experiencing a culture-shock comes from. Cultures influence the way we dress, talk, and present ourselves to different groups of people. Each culture has different myths, stories and legends that are traditionally taught. The Greek myths are different from the Roman ones; Native American myths are different from Japanese ones. Yet all these myths have things in common: they all connect us. As we have discussed in class, myths present reality through human emotion and experience. The myths in all the countries around the world are different, however, they each allow us to reflect on ourselves and our emotions.

The movie we watched in class, Cold Fever, is a perfect example of cross cultural influence. The film mixes Japanese culture with Icelandic culture, causing the main character to experience a lot of culture shock. Yet, we can understand (at least from an outside perspective) that these cultures can mix together and connect us.

We often think of our culture as a thing that separates us from other cultures. It makes us different. But how different does it actually make us? If myths are different across cultures, but they connect us through human emotion and language, do those cultures make us different or do they draw us together?

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