Why do people follow tradition?

The discussions in class about one particular story had me thinking about another question that has always been hanging on my mind but it was too insignificant in my life up to this point to seriously explore the topic that is being questioned. How do people live up to the ideal that their culture or location forces onto them? Personally, idealism for me has been natural; I am forced to participate in certain things and perform well in school in order to be an ideal child for my parents, and I live up to the ideal of a good student by doing the same, as well as trying my best not to break any rules. However, reading how Chinese Americans are unable to achieve their ideal while it is certainly possible for me to achieve mine made me question why people want to follow tradition and be the ideal whose concept was created hundreds of years ago.

The excerpt from Woman Warrior called “White Tigers” was very innovative, and, more importantly, symbolic with a lot of rhetorical meaning. This segment had a retelling of a famous Chinese story of a woman warrior in the 1st perspective, which you don’t see very often and can therefore be confusing at first. However, this rhetorical choice makes more sense when it is paired with the second part of the passage: the segue into the harsh realities of life for Chinese people. There, Kingston, the author of this piece, uses symbolism in the form of talking about birds previously described as hopeful and powerful to have false meaning in the real world with a series of anecdotes. Relating to idealism, Kingston uses this contrast of symbols in order to show how her ideal of a “woman warrior” like the one in retelling of the story she wrote into her piece was impossible to achieve due to society, and helped me grasp this concept of idealism and recognize its importance more.

Kingston uses birds as a symbol for hope for both herself and the protagonist of the story - both with varying results.

We look up to stories or legends we hear because we want to be people who are accepted in society naturally as human beings. That much is clear, but the reason we try to follow tradition is a bit more unclear. A part of it is because we want to follow these traditions to be accepted, but more importantly we follow traditions because we believe they will make us into the “warrior” we want to be. We associate these stories with good thoughts and happy endings, so why would we try to not follow them? Even if it seemed impossible, the Chinese Americans endured all of the hardships set on them by America, and people who want to become the ideal person of their own story will also try just as hard as they did.