Sharing the Tradition Summary
This essay “Sharing Tradition” was written by Frank LaPena. This essay is about passing on culture’ and values from generation to generation through oral tradition. For this, we must listen to our elders’ stories. The writer was thinking about how difficult it is to maintain tradition because our elders pass away. He thinks that maintaining tradition is a difficult task but it can be done through oral tradition. In other words, oral tradition is passing the information of our culture and values through speaking to the new generation and that generation should also pass it on to the next generation.
He also says that it is easy to talk and write about it, but difficult to practice because everyone is not equally able to take the roles of our elders. The niche (position) makes by our elders is difficult to maintain and fill by the new ones. Another problem of oral tradition is that the new generation may not have any interest in it to listen to the elders for passing on the tradition. As the time spent and getting older, they may feel its necessity and importance; but it will be late and nothing can be done except regret.
Development of new science and technology is another problem that the new generation should keep themselves busy in it which may cause a lack of interest in them. He adds that it is hard to live with all the stress, worry, and change that modern technology imposes on people. So, he says that oral tradition is the educational tool of understanding the natural world. It is also like an art to visualize the stories and pass on to the next generation to preserve our tradition. Thus, he suggests that our tradition, norms and values are the product of our elders’ dedication and devotion in culture. We have to listen to them very carefully and meaningfully so that we can transform from one generation to another generation to pass on the great Worth.
Sharing the Tradition Questions And Answer: Understanding the text
Answer the following questions.
a.According to LaPena, what is the importance of the oral tradition? To what extent do you agree with his opinions and why?
Ans: According to LaPena, the importance of oral tradition is it helps in maintaining the value of culture and in a sense it is an art too which we pass from generation to generation. Yes, I agree with his opinions because it is an effective way to share about our culture which we must preserve since cultural tradition is our identity and it has been formed be the forefathers in order to benefit us as it teaches us good things.
b.Who preserve and pass on the oral tradition ?
Ans: The elders and the young people preserve and pass on the oral tradition because the elders have got it from their fore elders and they again share and pass on it to the young people and again the young people share and pass on it to the junior young generation orally.
c.What is the danger of not passing on information from generation to generation?
Ans: The danger of not passing on information from generation to generation is that our identity and noteworthy knowledge of our culture and values of our tradition will be lost. People may become undisciplined, moral less and barbaric which makes our life meaningless.
d.What is the difference between oral tradition and literary tradition?
Ans: The difference between oral tradition and literary tradition is in oral tradition we pass on cultural tradition orally (by speaking) whereas we pass on cultural tradition through writing in literary tradition.
e. How does LaPena establish a relationship between art and the oral tradition?
Ans: LaPena establishes a relationship between art and oral tradition with his opinions. He says that passing on our cultural tradition from one generation to another generation is a kind of art because we can share it very artistically and interestingly. Here, there establishes a good relationship between the senior and the junior generation through sharing of cultural tradition. Ballads, folktales, songs, etc. can be taken as good examples of sharing the cultural tradition orally and artistically. Moreover, it is a good and effective idea to preserve our culture without any cost.
Reference to the context.
a.LaPena states that the oral tradition helps maintain the values of a culture. If you believe that the oral tradition is important, how would you maintain it?
Ans: LaPena states that the oral tradition helps maintain the values of a culture. I also believe it that the oral tradition is important. I would maintain it in the given ways below by:
i. passing on it to the young generation;
ii.creating awareness of it and getting them to realize to preserve it;
iii. broadcasting the knowledge, importance, and necessity of our culture through media;
iv.establishing an oral tradition club to unite and put effort to preserve it in a group:
v.playing important role to pass on to the following generation;
vi.keeping awards to encourage the person(s) who preserves it through oral tradition; and
vii.suggesting the concerned authorities to make an effective plan and policy for its preservation
and promotion.
b.“Not everyone is capable of fulfilling the roles of the elders.” Explain this statement with reference to the essay.
Ans: “Not everyone is capable of fulfilling the roles of the elders.” I agree with this statement because the elders are the bases of our culture and values. The elders established and passed on our tradition in order to preserve it so that it can be transferred from one generation to another generation. We cannot forget their roles in preserving our culture and the values of tradition; because of them, we have been conducting our conduct properly to smoothen our lifestyle. These days, in the name of modernization, young people start forgetting and leaving their own culture and tradition since they are busy imitating others’ culture. This causes their identity loss problem. The roles played by our elders are praiseworthy and remarkable. So we should also continue it to pass on to the generations.
c.What is the controlling idea or thesis of this essay ?
Ans: The controlling idea or thesis of this essay is sharing our culture and tradition through oral medium (oral tradition). LaPena has presented the importance of oral tradition to pass on our culture and tradition from one generation to another generation. He has also mentioned that oral tradition is a form of art through which we can share the things artistically and effectively without any cost. He focuses that the elders and young people are the main responsible agents to preserve and promote out culture and tradition through oral tradition.
d.How do topic sentences guide the reader through the essay? What would be lost without them?
Ans: Topic sentences are the main ideas presented in the essays. Based on them, the essayist presents other supporting details to inform, narrate, describe, to show cause-and-effect and convince the readers. Generally, topic sentence is presented in the beginning of each paragraph. But, it can be presented in the middle and end of a paragraph too. In this essay, the essayist has presented the importance of oral tradition to preserve our culture and tradition; and just to support his main idea, he has presented other ideas as supporting details. Topic sentences guide the reader in a sequential and meaningful way to understand an essay. The following things can be lost without them:
i.the topic itself can be vague for the readers as they may understand that oral tradition as a tradition of a community;
ii.they may be confused about sharing;
iii. the essay becomes random as the readers will be lost in it;
iv. they may not get idea between topic sentence and the supporting details;
v.roles of the elders can be lost without them;
vi. problems presented by the essayist can be lost that the readers may not know about them; and
vii. they may not find the solutions as presented by the essayist.
So, topic sentences have played a key role to guide the reader through the essay.
e.What are the four major problems developed by LaPena with regard to maintaining the oral tradition. How are they used to structure the essay ?
Ans: The four major problems developed by LaPena with regard to maintaining the oral tradition are:
i.there is a difficulty to fulfill the position of the elders through oral tradition:
ii. there is a big influence of modern technology to continue the oral tradition;
iii.even modern education is not successful to pass on oral tradition its impact is much on young people; and
iv. the problem of sources for information, recognition and sharing.
They are used to structure the essay in a proper order of its presentation so that the readers will get the meaning of oral tradition, its importance, its problems and their solutions.
Reference beyond the text
a.Write a paragraph or two explaining your attitude toward the oral tradition of passing along information.
Ans: Oral tradition can be taken as a way of transferring our culture and values of tradition from one generation to another generation orally. It has a big importance that we can pass it on without any cost. Our elders have established, preserved and passed on to us to teach us good lessons, and code of conduct of our life. It is a good idea to preserve our culture because it is also a form of art through which we can share the information artistically and in an effective way. The idea of oral tradition is a good idea even to establish the relationship between the elders and the young people. So they are the major agents to preserve culture by sharing the information of our culture. Thus, it is a good idea to keep our cultural things alive for our own identity.
b.Our culture is our identity. Write a few paragraphs explaining how you intend to preserve your culture, values and norms.
Ans:
Our Culture is our Identity
Our culture is our identity. Our identity exists until our culture exists. People in the world have their own culture, tradition and way of living. Every culture is unique to particular community and it is their real identity. Culture plays a very important role in shaping our identity. We proudly say that we are Nepalese and our pride is attached to the culture of various castes and community. Who am I?, What am I?, How do I treat other people?, What made me the person I am today?, etc. is determined by our culture.
Nepal is a multilingual and multicultural country. People of different castes, cultures, religions, and languages live together in peace in our country which gives us our identity. We learn many things from our society and our behavior is shaped by the culture and tradition followed in the society. We would not be in our existing condition if we were not guided by our culture and tradition. Our culture teaches us moral lessons and helps us to walk on the right path. If we did not have our culture, we would not have our identity.
It is my culture that teaches me to behave other people well, respect other religions, culture and tradition and what is acceptable for me to do and what is not acceptable for me to do.
Culture transfers from one generation to another generation. What our parents were taught by their parents, they taught us and it is our duty to pass on the same culture to new generation. It preserves our culture and helps promote tourism industry which is directly associated to the development of the country. Our cultural identity makes us different from others and it is a true wealth of the nation. No one can live in isolation as we associate ourselves with the larger community to which we belong to.
We are Nepalese and it is the part of our identity. The religions followed in our society and country, the festivals we celebrate and various languages we spoke in our country are the parts of our identity. No human being is culture free and when the culture dies, our identity dies with it. Thus, it is true to say that our culture is our identity.