"What makes me myself rather than anyone else is the very fact that I am poised between

two countries, two or three languages, and several cultural traditions. It is precisely this that

defines my identity. Would I exist more authentically if I cut off a part of myself"- Amin

Maalouf. Maalouf is a French writer of Lebanese descent. His life has been filled with personal

conflict due to living in world that does not include someone with mixed heritages and cultures.

As Maalouf expresses he has found that being himself is what means the most to his cultural

identity. However, along the way to finding oneself, a personal disagreement about being

multicultural is inevitable. Therefore a multicultural background intensifies ones personal

cultural identity conflicts and expands how one views self and others.

In the Personal Essay Ethnic Hash, the author Patricia J. Williams portrays how being

multicultural has caused her many interior conflicts in her life, including choosing a food to

represent her ethnicity. The author struggles to find what represents her because she feels that she

does not fit into one culture, but more like multiple diverse cultures. Williams states that Ethnic

recipes throw me into the same sort of quandary as that proposed interracial box in the census

form. She finds that defining herself to one culture and heritage throws her into a frenzy of

conflict of what she is expected. Williams expresses her feelings about presenting a hors

doeuvre based on her ethnicity by saying Her request threw me into a panic. The request to

define and identify as one specific culture is a terrifying one. The author is facing a conflict

about her cultural identity and what heritage she identifies with due to the fact that she is a mix

of cultures and ethnicities.

Self conflict with being multicultural can also be seen in the argumentative essay An

Indian Father's Plea by Robert Lake ( Medicine Grizzlybear). Lake states about his son that he

is caught between two worlds, torn by two distinct cultural systems. His son is facing this
social conflict about his culture and how to fit into the Western culture of the children he goes

to school with. Lakes child expresses a conflict between his own Native American heritage and

the new Western culture he is being exposed to. His son also feels the need to change his

traditions in order to contain or free himself of the contradicting cultures. Now my indian child

does not want to go to school. The authors son feels as if he needs to change who he is to be

accepted into the Western world that his classmates lives in. He even changes such traditions

as having long hair in order to rid himself of this personal battle to fit in. His son is facing an

inner struggle due to his multiculturalism and a constant fight between the two worlds of both

cultures that he identifies with.

Lastly in the poem Legal Alien by Pat Mora, ones conflict about their cultural identity,

due to being multicultural can be found in the poet's words. The poet expresses her constant

fight to fit in the world, and how her cultures create this fight. Mora is caught between two

worlds, but doesnt fully fit into either one, an American to Mexican/ a Mexican to American.

The poet's inner feelings are conflicted, because she know she is biologically multicultural, but

does not feel included or accepted into either culture.The authors clashing cultures cause a

discomfort for her on how she sees herself and the world. Sliding back and forth/between the

fringes of both worlds/by smiling/by masking the discomfort/of being pre-judged. Mora never

feels comfortable in her own skin or her own heritage and is sadly confused on how she

identifies culturally. Her feelings and inner problems are mixed due to the many cultures and

cultural differences that exist in her life.

We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall

endure.- Cesar Chavez. Chavez is a strong independent man who fought for Mexican American

workers job rights. He was torn between two worlds and two cultures like what has been observed

from other multicultural authors, poets, artists, and activists. Through years of being seen as mixed
and separated from each culture, people have to learn to see themselves as who they are instead of

how their heritage defines them. Chavez conveys this perfectly by saying We shall endure. He and

many other mixed ethnic people truly portray how multiculturalism can produce a number of

conflicting opinions of how one sees the world and themselves in society.