Custom «I Give You Back, Ode to Salt» Essay Paper Sample

Culture is defined as an aggregate of socially transmissible behavior patterns, institutions, beliefs, arts, and other products that result from human though and work (Storey, 2010). By reading I Give You Back, Ode to Salt, and Decolonizing the African Mind, it is evident that people are supposed to retain their own cultures and renovate them where necessary. According to the author of I Give You Back, total dependence on a culture that is not one’s own can be life threatening (Trout, 1999). The author has revered the alien culture for long but has finally realized that, it is not a friendly culture because. She describes the unfriendliness of the culture as killing her children, stealing food from their places while they are starving, sodomizing her brothers and sisters, and setting her house ablaze (Trout, 1999). However, she admits to have been supporting the foreigner for all incidents (Trout, 1999).

According to the author of Ode to Salt, an individual should not consider his or her own culture as low valued (Neruda, 1990). He uses a rock of salt to represent culture (Neruda, 1990). An individual can possibly find that the neglected values of his own culture are more useful than those values revered in the society, especially the values of the alien culture. It is evident from the reading that salt is used as a food additive and a preservative in stores (Neruda, 1990). The author of Decolonizing the African Mind emphasizes on the effects of adopting a foreign culture (Chinweizu, 1987). He considers most Africans as readily accepting the alien culture. The alienated Africans have been found resistant to decolonization because they support the foreign authorities. He refers to the alienated Africans as the Ariel. If the alienated minds of Africans are decolonized, the African culture can be renovated to meet all the current needs.

Therefore, according to the authors of I Give You Back, Ode to Salt, and Decolonizing the African Mind, one’s culture is the most useful and beneficial. It is not advisable for an individual to neglect the values of his or her own culture and accept foreign cultures. Foreigners may invade a country because they want to benefit themselves by exploiting all valuable resources (Storey, 2010). In most cases the foreigners are not concerned with the poverty of the natives. Exploitation of resources is depicted in I Give You Back as the author refers to the foreigners as thieves who steal food from the plates when people are starving. Natives should be very careful while adopting alien cultures.