Seeking Familiarity in a Foreign Culture
In the title “Red Bean Cakes: New York and London” by Janice Shinebourne, the setting shows that people look for familiar aspects in a foreign culture to combat unfamiliar surroundings. Adaptation of people to an unfamiliar environment can significantly depend on their personal qualities. Thus, the author introduces the idea that people tend to miss home and what they are used to because of their cultural identity. In this context, the topic of comfort strategies reflects as closely as possible what people tend to look for when they become immigrants.
Cultural Identity and Language
In the article, the author uses the word bhindi, a dish of okra (Shinebourne 497). The specific language is important here, as words and names can become elements of cultural identity for immigrants. At the same time, the author in her essay may indeed miss an essential aspect of the fact that people, in addition to seeking comfort, can feel an intense internal struggle with external conditions. This means that immigrants have a hard time in an environment they are not familiar with.
Food as a Metaphor for Home
“I needed to find the red bean cakes my mother made” (Shinebourne 499). This description demonstrates the author’s point that people will find meaningful ways to resist the new culture. From this point of view, attempts to grasp familiar cultural aspects in food, for example, can characterize a struggle and an inner sense of detachment from a foreign society. The author writes, “Cakes had become a metaphor for home to both of us” (Shinebourne 499). It can also be viewed from the point of view of intransigence with the new external environment.
Ambivalence in Cultural Assimilation
The concentration in a foreign culture on familiar aspects that resemble images of the native culture can illustrate that people are hostile and not ready to come to terms with a drastically changed environment. Thus, the author’s work can be seen as ambivalent, since it suggests that elements of a familiar culture can play a dual role, helping and hindering assimilation.
Work Cited
Shinebourne, Janice. “Red Bean Cakes: New York and London.” Concert of Voices, edited by Ramraj Victor, 2004, pp. 496-500.