Both Geeta Kothari's essay "If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?" and Dinaw Mengestu's "Home At Last" use explanations and anecdotes concerning food to explore how what we eat can establish and shape cultural identity.
In a response of 150-200 words, compare how food is used by these authors to examine the predicament of feeling stuck between two cultures. Use specific examples from each essay to explain how what we eat is connected to the external and internal struggle for acceptance.
Both Geeta Kothari in “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I,” and Dinaw Mengestu in “Home at Last” find and look for belonging amongst cultural foods in different ways.
ReplyDeleteKothari is different than Mengestu, as she attempts to fit in to America by eating things like tuna salad. As an adolescent she wants nothing more than to be just like her American friends and eat the “bologna, hotdogs, and salami.” She also thoroughly describes being “disappointed” in her mother, taking for granted her mother’s efforts to fit in, such as attending culinary school. The story progresses though and Kothari matures, and her attitude towards fitting in changes. She now respects her parent’s authority and decisions. She becomes advocate in trying to perfect the recipes that her parents prepare for her as a child so not to lose them and have “a lifetime purgatory in Indian restaurants.” Kothari describes that “these imperfect imitations remind (her) only of what (she) is missing.” She does not want to lose that Indian heritage that her parents tried to engrave in her but she stubbornly rejected.
Mengestu is not trying to fit in like Kothari, but instead find a place where he can call home. He moves to Brooklyn at the age of twenty-one from Peoria, Illinois, and originated from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, but considers neither of these places to be home and hopes to find that in a neighborhood called Kensington. He had “chosen this city as the place to redefine, to ground, to secure (his) place in the world.” He found security in the many different immigrant restaurants “on the corner of Church and McDonald.” Many of the restaurants began to recognize him, smiling and giving out extra food. Mengestu took this as “acknowledgement (he) had earned (his) own place here.” He found a sense of acceptance through the comfort of other immigrants and their many restaurants. Sometimes he would observe and admire with envy as similar ethnic groups would assemble and speak in their native language, about things he could not understand.
The diffrence between kothari and mengestu is kothari orginally from India comes to America and all she wants to do is eat the American food which is hotdogs and fast food. Thats not a promplem only that her mother doesent like that she does that her mother likes cooking Indian food and wants nothing to do with nasty american food. kothari hates how her mother makes her eat Indian food she has prepared. Later on in Katharis life she starts to realize where you orginated from is pretty important and she starts to want to learn the recipes that she once thought were discusting. Kothari believes she missed out a lot when she was younger and wants to catch up on her missing out of her moms tradition and learn all these Indian recipes her mom has made so well in the past.Mengestas expericence with food is diffrent from kathrais he moves from broklyn to illionis but he originated from ethiopia and out of all these places none of them he cant really call home. He ends up in Kenisington he chose it as a permenetn place to live and stay for a while. Around that area there were a lot of immigrants who had restarunts the guys liked him and gave him food and that made him feel like he belonged there for once and could stay if he wanted and call this neighborhood home.
ReplyDeleteKothari and Mengestu are similar in a way that they are unfamiliar with American culture and things of that nature. There are differences about them though. Not only are they two separate reasons (sorry that's a bit obvious) they come from different places. Kothari is Indian and Mengestu is from Ethiopia. Kothari was born in America and Mengestu was not born in America, he was born in Ethiopia. Mengestu came to America when he was only two years old. So Mengestu most likely doesn't remember Ethiopia when he was two. Kothari was born in America, so she is technically American born, but her family isn't. She ate the food her parents gave her, and her parents gave her Indian food, so that's what she ate. Kothari just wanted to be like other Americans, but Mengestu liked the facts that he was Ethiopian and liked other immigrants that he saw, they gave a feeling like he isn't the only one in his situation.
ReplyDeleteKothari and Mengestu use food as medium for different means. Kothari wishes to assimilate into American culture, so she attempts this by trying to get American food. Her mother believes that most American food is unclean, due to their traditions and religion she is unable to even touch some meat. Throughout her childhood she wishes she could be more American. As her life progresses she finds herself wishing she could cook and eat her mother's old dishes. She finds herself being torn between her past heritage and her new American life.
ReplyDeleteMengestu came from Ethiopia after one of their wars. Unlike Kothari he doesn't necessarily want to be a part of the American culture. All he wants is a place he can say he is from. He chooses to make his home in Kensington, an area in Brooklyn home to multiple types of immigrants. He immediately begins to familiarize himself with the area and discovers many delis and grocery stores of differing backgrounds. As he acclimates to the area he is accepted by the community. The local stores and their food is used to show the differences between all the cultures inhabiting the area.
Authors in both, “Home At Last” and “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I”, reference food in order to express their lack of a sense of belonging. Kothari shows her lack of a sense of belonging through the food that she cannot have. Her mother does not allow for her to eat the traditional American foods. At first she longs to do so, but later in her life she realizes that the traditional foods of her country are more valuable to her. Mengestu uses the only food available to him to show his lack of belonging. The only restaurants located near his poor neighborhood are cheap Middle Eastern restaurants. He eats at these places every day, wishing he could have a type of food at a restaurant that he could call his own. He eventually finds the sense of belonging that he has been longing for through the other inhabitants of his neighborhood. He does not necessarily interact with them, but lives through them.
ReplyDeleteBoth Geeta Kothari in “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I,” and Dinaw Mengestu in “Home at Last” are both outsiders to the United States. They both have problems with intergrating into Americain society and culture. Even though they both are not in the same predicement, they can relate to how the other feels.
ReplyDeleteGeeta Kothari in “If You Are What You Eat", uses stories about food to describe how she had to intergrate into Americain culture. Foods like tuna salad, hamburgers, and hotdogs and how she missed out on it as a child due to her parents and there indian culture and food they traditionally eat in india. She eventually experiences all that she missed as a child and came to find out that she really missed what she had as a child. She wanted the indian food that she so long disired to go away, she relized that she was home and that her culture was what she wanted and desired.
Dinaw Mengestu in “Home at Last”, had a little different story then Geeta Kothari. His parents and himself came from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia but had to leave because of the revolution happening. They came to settle in Peoria, Illinois, where he grew up and tried to call home but he could not. Dinaw Mengestu's problem is not that he wanted to fit into the American culture, but to find somewhere he could call home, because he could not call Peoria home, because it wasnt. He moved to Brooklyn, specificly Kenisington. While here he begins his writing career and tries not to fit in with the groups around him buit observe from a distance and sometimes close up. He wanted to find somewhere tha he knew like a home, a place where he felt like he belonged and thats what he found in Kenisington, a place where he belonged.
In these stories they try to be a part of aculture different from their own by trying to eat like Americans. they try to break away from normal tradition but as they grow they realize that the traditions that their parents tried to make them follow had signifigance and they finally realize that as the grow older. mengestu is trying to find a place that can be called home instead of trying fit in with friends like Kothari. They want to be accepted by this new culture and fit in around the area that they live.
ReplyDeleteIn the two short stories “If You re What You Eat, Then What Am I” and “Home At Last” both authors use food to prove a cultural presence. In the first story the Indian girl wants to eat like the American’s she goes to school with. She can no eat the meat products because of her culture so her mother tries to fix a tuna sandwich but doesn’t realize that it is a “salad”. The tuna is thrown out and the girl does feel like she fits in .
ReplyDeleteIn the second story, the restaurants were where the people gathered and where they communicated in their native tongue. Even though Brooklyn was a second home to many it still excluded those who were not part of the ethnic group.
Both characters felt issolated even though they ere part of the community. Both thought if they could learn ot eat like their peers that would make them a "part" of the group. Both were not fully embraced in either culture and felt like they had no home.
In "If You Are What You Eat, then What Am I" and "Home at Last" both of the authors try to fit into a culture and along their journey to finding a sense of belonging, they use different examples of things that they usedfor symbolism. One main example would be the food. Both authors used food as a symbol of fiting into a certain culture. In Kothari's story, she wants to eat American food such as hamburgers and tuna salad. Kothari matures through time as thestory progresses. She matures from wanting to associate herself with the American culinary side, to referring back to her Indian culture. At a young age, she neglected her familiy's Indian roots to find a sense of belonging in American society. In Mengetsu's story, after moving to Kensington, he searches for a sense of belonging and finds himself stranded between two cultures. As an Ethiopian who has never really belonged somewhere, he feels that he has finally found the place thats right for him. Mengetsu ass oiates himself with the people from Bangledesh and Pakistan to only notice that he had no clue what they were saying. He only wanted to sit and take into account that these people had once found a sense of belonging and now have brought a taste of their cultural background to their current location, in Kensington.
ReplyDeleteIn both Kothari and Mengestu’s essays, “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I” and “Home At Last”, food is used to show how both authors felt out of place in the United States. They both come from foreign countries, India and Ethiopia, and the food people eat in America is much different than their traditional food. Kothari talks about her mother not feeding her what the other kids at school ate. She was ashamed of not being like the other students and eating bologna and hot dogs at school. As her life progressed she realized the importance of her culture and became upset that she did not take advantage of learning more about it when she was younger.
ReplyDeleteMengestu came from Ethiopia at a very young age, so he does not consider himself from there. When people ask him where he is from, he finds it hard to say Ethiopia, but people see him as a foreigner, not as an American. In his early twenties, he moves to Brooklyn in search of finding a place he could call home and be accepted. He moved into a neighborhood that was filled with foreign restaurants. Mengestu became a regular in many of those restaurants, and began to feel them accepting him. They would give him extra food on his to go orders and make him a fresh sweet tea when he walked in. Through these restaurants he began to feel a sense of belonging in a country that judges people before they get to know them.
Both Geeta Kothari's essay "If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?" and Dinaw Mengestu's "Home At Last” are immigrants into America. Kothari's essay talks about how when she moved to America all she wanted to do was eat American food and fit in. She wanted to eat the hotdogs and go to fast food restaurants just like all the other kids. Her mom thought that the American food was bad and keep cooking traditional Asian meals for Kothari. Later as the story goes on Kothari matures and realizes that tradition is more important than just fitting in. Kothari then starts to appreciate her mom’s recipes and starts to try and learn them as well.
ReplyDeleteIn Mengestu's essay he talks about how he moved from Ethiopia at the age of two. He never felt like he could call Ethiopia home because he never grew up there. When he was twenty one he moved to Brooklyn after college to live. While living there, Mengestu memorized his neighbor hood so he could feel like he could call Brooklyn home and so people wouldn’t say he doesn’t belong. In his neighbor hood there were Middle Eastern restaurants that he would eat at. He describes how after awhile the people at the restaurants knew him by sight and would add extra food to his plate. He felt that he now had a place here and he could call it home. Since a lot of the people that lived near him, he found acceptance through these people, even though he didn’t associate with all of them. He would watch groups of men gathered around eating and drink at night with envy because he wishes he could have been a part of them.
In the two short stories "If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?" by Geeta Kothari and "Home At Last" by Dinaw Mengestu both the authors uses food a culture symbol. Food can be used to greatly differentiate different cultures and countries. In the first story "If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?" Geeta Kothari is from India and wants to fit in with her American classmates. She is impressed because of the food she eats. But soon as she grows up she starts to resent how she acted and strives to perfect the Indian food her mom made her as a little kid.
ReplyDeleteIn the other story "Home At Last" by Dinaw Mengestu. Dinaw Mengestu is trying to find a place he can culturally fit in. He moved for Ethipia at a young age and while in his twentys he relocated to Brooklyn. In his neighboorhood there a immense amount of foreign resturants. Dinaw Mengestu becomes a "regular" there and they would give him extra food or always greet him with a sweet tea as he comes in. He felt accepted through the food he ate.
Geeta Kothari and Dinaw Mengestu are similar due to their families ethnicities in comparison to their current situation in where they live. Kothari in "If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?", she is deprived of the American food that she so longs to have. Her mother refuses the acception of such consumption. Fortunately for Geeta, she grows up to appreciate the traditions of her nation of origin. In "Home at Last", Mengestu moves from Ethiopia and eventually moves to Brooklyn in search of a place he can call his home. While in the neighborhood, Denaw begins to feel accepted and even becomes a regular at multiple restaurants and stores. He finds that in his new home in Brooklyn, people treat him better, and these feelings help with his false insecurities and self-confidence. So just like Kothari, Mengestu became accepted through the food he ate.
ReplyDeleteIn Kothari stories she writes about her desire to become more and more american. She hates and denies her indian culture her parents try to engrave into her. She is very disappointed with her mother and doesn't like her. to blend herself and immerse herself into her America's culture she wants to eat tuna and bologna. She eventually realizes that she will miss her mothers cooking and the many indian parts of culture that her mom brought with her.
ReplyDeleteIn Mentgestu's story he writes about how he strives to find a place he call home. He moved from Ethiopia when he was two and does not consider himself from Ethiopia but just a Ethiopian. At the age of twenty-one he moves from Illinois to Brooklyn and begins to assimilate in his neighborhood. he eventually finds comfort and in the local restaurants that surround the area. He is given free tea and bread because he is liked and is accepted by the people around him. he eventually calls this place he is in home
Kothari and Mengestu are both using food as their approach to their culture. Kothari was born in New York while her parents were both from India. Kothari has a hard time because she doesn't connect with her cultural food at a young age since she lives in America. All the kids around her eat American food and she wants to be ordinary like them. As she grew older she realized she didn't know or have many recipes from her culture which made her always ask herself is she really was Indian. She didn't like spicy food like the rest of her family which Indian food is almost always spicy. Mengestu on the other hand tries to find a place to call his home. He moved from Ethiopia at a very young age so he doesn't remember where he was born. He moved to Brooklyn when he was in his twenties and started getting comfortable with his surroundings. He connects very well with the local restaurants and the people accept him. Many times he would walk in and they would make him fresh sweet tea. As this environment and people grew on him, he finally realized he would call this place his home.
ReplyDeleteIn the Kothari and Mengestu stories we read, they want to break away from their cultural tradition of eating and try to start eating American food. They want to try to be different from their own cultures and try to be more American. They don't realize it when their young but when they are older they realize the tradition their parents' taught them were very very valuable to them and they realize that when their older. they would rather have this culture so they can be like Americns.
ReplyDeleteWell for Mengestu, he doesn’t try to be an American like Kothari, well I guess in some ways he is. He got in fights in school and arguments about him not being “black” enough. He moved to the US from Ethiopia, and is trying to find a place he wants to be able to call home. When he moves to Brooklyn he says he didn’t think too much of it, for example, he didn’t even know what street he lived on until he signed the lease. When he started walking, he found many different restaurants, of many different cultures. It amazed him that all those cultures could be together and he admired that.
ReplyDeleteFor Kothari, she tries to fit in and actually be like everyone else, which she ends up regretting. She is a second generation immigrant, meaning she was born in America, so she wants to be like an American, but her mom makes all Indian food and doesn’t know how to cook anything American. Kothari resents her mom for that, like she’s holding her back from being an American, but when she grows older she realizes that she wants to know her heritage and the dishes her mom made that she loved so much but are now gone. She basically is comparing her heritage to the food, when the recipes of the food are gone, so is her heritage.
Kothari's "If You are what You Eat, Then what am I?", and Mengestu's "Home At Last" both use food to show cultural differences. Kothari wants to fit in with the American people and feels embarassed to be eating different foods from them. Mengestu doesnt necesarilly care about fitting in with the Americans, he just wants to find a place he can call home.
ReplyDeleteKothari wants to eat the foods that the kids she grows up with are eating such as hamburgers, tuna, and bologna sandwiches. She is embarrassed that her mom wont give her the foods everyone else is eating and doesnt feel like she can fit in because of this. as she gets older, she begins to see the importance of her culture and feels ashamed that she was trying to abandon the customs of it.
mengestu doesnt care about fitting in, he just wants to find a place he can call home. after leaving Ethiopia at such a young age, he doesnt feel like he can call it his home. he moves to Brooklyn from Illinois and starts to associate with the people in his area. hestarts to go to resteraunts of all different cultures and meets many different people. he finally feels like he found his home.
Kothari wants to fit in with other American kids so bad. She has her mom cook her tunna like the other kids eat at lunch. All Kotharia wants is to be like an American kid, because she is tired of her indian customs. Her mom bends over backwards to try and cook the wright food for her daughter so she will be accepted by the other kids. At first Kathari mom did not know how to make any of the foods the other kids were eating; such as hot dogs and tuna salad. Later on in the story Katharia didnt really mind on what she had to eat. Ofcourse this after her mom figured out how to make the food she wanted. Mengestu how ever was more poor then Kotharia. He learned to say hello in chinese so he could use that to greet his landlords father. All these foreign resturants were afraid that he was not eating so to much. So they would give him unsweeten tea and bread for free. He had this affect on people where he was super nice to everyone sp in return he was given food. The corner that he would go to by the church and McDonalds and talk about anything with other foreigners. He started to feel accepted and more at home.
ReplyDeleteIn both Kothari and Mengestu’s essays, “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I” and “Home At Last”, food describes them. Kothari wants to fit in with her friends. To her if she eats like them and makes her mom cook American food this will help. So her mom goes and tries to learn how to cook the food Kothari wants. However later on in life Kothari misses Indian food and tries to cook like her mom did. The only problem is she can not.
ReplyDeleteMengestu comes to the US at a young age from Ethiopia and moves from Illinois to Brooklyn. All he wants to do is find a home. So when he starts to socialize with with other people and recive food from them, because they feel sorry for him and he's nice. he starts to feel accepted. eventually thanks to complete strangers he feels at home.
So in Kothari story she uses food to try and fit in and feel at home. In Mengestu story food is more used as a sign of affection and makes him feel at home.
Kothari's mother won't let her eat american food, no matter how much he wants to. The only thing her mother will let her eat that is "American" is tuna. She gets frustraited with never being able to eat American foods, and get's tired of her Indian customs. After a while her mom starts to make her "American" foods. She doesn't make them too well at first, but after a while she gets better at making them and she started not to mind it. Mengestu on the other hand was more poor than Kothari, coming from Ethiopia and wasn't able to call it his home at first and restaruants would give him tea and bread for free because they thought that he wasn't eating enough. Once he moved from Illinois to Brooklyn he starts to feel more accepted and starts to assosciate more with people.
ReplyDeleteGeeta Kothari and Dinaw Mengestu are similar due to the fact that their families are immigrants trying to make a better life in America. Kothari was more well-off financially than Mengestu. Kothari wants to fit in with her friends, so she eats like them and adapts to their standards. This is difficult because the only American food her mother allows her to eat is tuna. She's having a tough time accepting her culture through food because she grew up in America and doesn't know any other life. As she matured, she started to doubt the validity of her ethnicity due to the fact that she didn't know any recipes from her culture. She regrets not learning more about it when she was younger.
ReplyDeleteMengetsu comes to America in his twenties and moves into an area heavily populated with minorities. He has no reason to dump his heritage to fit in because everyone there is different including himself. He begins to form bonds with many of the restaurant owners that he frequents. They give him fresh sweet tea, extra food, and other hospitable perks because he's a regular. Mengetsu eventually began to feel a sense of belonging through these restaurants in a country that is quick to judge based on your race, customs, or beliefs.
In You are what you eat the author seeks nothing more than to fit in and be like her other American friends. She does this through her food choices and the way in which she eats. she starts to eat more "American Foods" and does her best to fit in with the rest of her friends. despite the best attempts of her mother to keep to their Indian customs kathari eventually wins her mother over and gets her to make American foods. In the second story the author differs in views. He would rather stick to his own customs while looking for a place to call home in America. after then starting to frequent restaurants in the eclectic neighborhood that he lives in, he starts to receive perks based on the fact that he is a regular. this in turn gives him the sense of belonging that he had been searching for.
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