Living The Third Generation
In Margaret Meads essay “We Are All Third Generation” Mead attempts to explain the American character.What generation are we? First, second, or third? These are some questions people never think and care to think about. After reading We Are All Third Generation by Margaret Mead I realized we are all living in the third generation. Mead explains the main differences between the first, second, and third generations. Everyone lived through the third generation even our founding fathers George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We are all raised by our parents and at some point become the third generation. Mead shows that all generations seem to rebel from their ancestors.
My parents moved from Tanzania to America to live a better life for their children and future family. Mead describes the first generation as immigrants who left their families to come to America. Once people came to America they like to settle with others from the same country. Immigrants like my parents did not want to learn the main language in America. These Immigrants thought it would be useless to learn English and only preferred to speak their native language. At some point immigrants would have to learn the language since they would not be able to communicate with people. The first generation speak english but they have an accent so it is very easy to tell whether the person is an immigrant. The first generation also prepare food that they would prepare back home. This first generation have a better life now that they live in America but they are still doing cultural things they would do back home. Mead seems to be correct since everything she says almost describes my family perfectly.
As time went by the first generation starting having families and produced babies. The children they produced became the second generation. The second generation do not like the first generation since they cannot assimilate to America. This generation is born in America and...