Cultural diversity is an issue that contemporary writers address constantly in their literary works. The speakers in poetry, the characters of fictional narrative and even the narrators' persona adopt the customs, traditional practices, ideology, idiomatic expressions, jargon and slang of the cultural context of the literary work. Contemporary writers often portray real situations in their fictional works and poems as the context in which their main story lines or ideas develop.
The literary works that were to be analyzed in our seminar this past week look into the cultural context that works as the setting. Margaret Atwood's True Trash is a short story in which some teens who go to a summer camp and then get on with their lives. The outcome of these characters' lives is the product of how they deal with unresolved issues and the taboo of the time in the white Canadian society. Though it is set between the fifties and the sixties, the topic remains relevant, for our current society still holds prejudice and taboo in many areas of human interaction. Moreover, the poem Red Anger deals with the current situation of the American Indians. Left aside in their own reserves, these people feel hatred, anger. The responsibility for this situation is suggested to fall upon the Indians, as well as the White. The Whites inflicted their ideas and power over the Indians, but it is also suggested that the Indians, in a way, allowed them to take it to the utmost extent.
Even though the discussed writings are seemingly unrelated, reactions towards unsolved situations could be considered as common ground. These authors seem to be encouraging the reader to consider all the problems that may arise due to the perpetuation of "dead-end" situations. Though parochial in their setting, they have a universal span, since social taboo, unfair and persistent situations, growing anger or nursed resentment, resignation or the need to protest about them are a part of most societies of the current world in which contemporary writers dwell.
True Trash is a short story written by the famous Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. Although, she is very famous because of her science fiction stories, this story is quite far from SF; Instead, it portrays contemporary social issues by describing them just as they are seen in reality.
