The Paths Allowed by Culture

This evening, a friend of mine told me that she was planning to take a year off of school to discover herself and figure out what was keeping her from excelling in the way that she thought that she should be. As soon as she told me that, I thought of The Belly of the Atlantic and how much differently that news would have been taken if she was from a culture more like that of Senegal and less like the US. For her, the plan was met with nothing but support and words of encouragement and understanding about how hard it is to excel in an unknown place like college; but that is far from the sentiments portrayed in the book. For the people in the Senegalese culture, to leave home for France and then come back before succeeding in finding a job and making money is the ultimate failure- Moussa had to leave France before finishing what he started there, and he was met with so much hostility and animosity that he killed himself. Not even Salie got the support from her friends and family that my friend got, even though she managed to succeed at the dream that so many Senegalese people had but did so as a woman. I think that it is important that we all appreciate the support that we get, with our parent sending us to college and always welcoming us back home if needed, because our opportunities are the greatest gifts that we could ever receive and it is easy to make a choice and take for granted the ability to do so.