Canadian cultural Essay

In her article I Am Half-Canadian, Pamela Swanigan seeks to set Canadian cultural identity by comparing and contrasting it to the often highly regarded identity attributed to Americans. Born in the USA to p arnts of mixed racial origin and later immigrating to Canada, Swanigan offers a unique judgment on numerous of the common fallacies that come up when one envisions the culture of the United States. wayward to the popular view, that depicts the United States as an all-welcoming melting pot of cultures and hotfoots, Swanigan contests instead that American culture is one of constricting self- explanation and pigeonholing. She argues that American culture is neither open(a) nor accepting of diversity, instead forcing people to strictly classify themselves into certain racial and linguistic categories- everyones forced to pick one definition and ticktock to it. Having personally experienced this phenomenon, as a woman of mixed race working in a traditionally male field (sports w riting), Swanigan is extremely influential in presenting her case, offering a number of examples as to how Americans are boxed in to certain classifications and social expectations. She further goes on to detect on the close-minded nature of such a view, which leads many Americans to be suspicious and vaguely threatening- a stance that directly contradicts the traditional view of the United States as an open and accepting country.Swanigan contrasts this with the relatively fluid and undistinguishable collective culture of Canada, where a lack of strict individual definition leads to the misconception that Canadians have no culture at all. Instead the author seeks to elope this myth by suggesting that this lack of identification is in fact the rarefied that America claims to promote, which its neighbor to the north that has achieved.