Cultural Imperialism

Cultural Imperialism

The forces of cultural imperialism are so strong that assimilation or elimination is inevitable. In Leslie Marmon Silko’s story Lullaby, Ayah’s children are taken away and learn of a new culture. Also in Lullaby, Ayah finds that after her children come back to visit many years later, the children have changed a lot and are not connected with their original culture anymore. In A Red Girl’s Reasoning by E. Pauline Johnson, cultural imperialism is seen taking place in Christie and her family, and how Christie is accepted throughout the community like a white woman.
In Lullaby, a Navajo woman, Ayah, is taught how to sign her name in English by her husband. This is showing cultural imperialism in two ways: one is that Chato, the husband, has learned English and has already been affected by the white man’s culture; and two that Chato spreads the white man’s culture to Ayah by teaching her how to sign her name. When the doctors come to Ayah...