Across a variety of cultures, various traditions can be found. While these traditions are often times revered, many times those same traditions may cause tension. The tension that occurs from tension is a result of the pressure of maintaining traditions within a culture and the desire to change those traditions that are often outdated, misinterpreted and no longer is advantageous. As seen in the text, Cats of Confederacy and Dying for Dixie by Tony Horowitz and Drawing Names by Bobbie Ann Mason, outdated, misinterpreted traditions serve to be detrimental and devastating to not only personal situations, but Southern culture in general.
In Horowitz’s texts, Cats of Confederacy and Dying for Dixie, the preservation of outdated traditions leads to severe racial tensions and eventual shooting in the South. In Cats of Confederacy, Horowitz comes by the town, Salisbury, North Carolina, and discovers that many of the townspeople still uphold the traditions of the Confederacy. Through meetings and organizations such as United Daughters of the Confederacy, the beliefs of the South are still upheld. These are a people who care very deeply for the “rebel cause” and in the “war between the states”. Traditional Confederate symbols such as the rebel flag remain very much so upheld in their culture. This tradition is then passed on to their children into organizations, such as Children of the Confederacy.
The tradition of maintaining the Confederacy that is upheld does not necessarily maintain the same connotations that it once did. For example, in Dying for Dixie, Michael Westerman is shot and killed over the rebel flag, a symbol of the Confederacy. While many maintained that he was an avid Confederate, the truth of the matter was however he truly did not know what the flag meant. The tradition of maintaining the Confederacy and symbols of the Confederacy had been so blindly upheld and outdated, that its true meaning was lost over time. The shooter, Freddie Morrow, as well did not know what the true meaning of the flag was.
What exactly did the flag mean to him? Freddie shrugged and looked at me impassively. ‘I thought it was just the Dukes of Hazzard sign’, he said. The Dukes of Hazzard was a popular TV show that featured a car decorated with the rebel flag. Growing up in Chicago, that’s all Freddie had known about the Confederate Banner
(Horowitz 116)
This tradition over time became outdated and severely misinterpreted. Two people who truly did not understand the importance or meanings behind the traditions believed or fought against them, and ended up ruining their lives.
Traditions are often times outdated and misinterpreted. When that occurs, they are more hurtful than what they may have originally intended.
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The phrase "outdated and misinterpreted" is used quite a lot through out your paper. Try using different wordings of the phrase every so often to vary it up! Also in your last paragraph, your last two sentences could be made into one.
ReplyDeleteNoticed that you mention DRawing names in your introductory paragraph but don't mention it in yopur paper. Try integrating that into your paper and it will help further your paper along. I think you're doing a great job on the two articles that you've already covered. I suggest that you might expand more on Freddie's point of view of the confederate flag. Also your second sentence is unclear and I wasn't sure if tension was the wrong word in the phrase "tension that occurs from tension" so try to make that more clear. Other than that, good job on your paper!!