(JBC) Contrasting Marxist and Durkheimian Perspectives

As I look back to my childhood I can always remember eating a bowl of rice, beans, cut up tomatoes, and pepper. This became one of my favorite dishes and comfort food. On average, my family would it eat it about once to twice a week depending on how much we craved it. I remember being young and taking my own packed lunches to school but I never liked to eat it in public. As I sat in the cafeteria and saw every other kid around me with their lunchables and cafeteria food, I felt like I was uncool and didn’t fit in with everyone else. I would discreetly eat my beans and rice because I didn’t want others to point out I had food that was very different from everyone else. Nevertheless, my love for this dish never faltered, but when it came to publicly eating it in a social setting other than with my family or at a Mexican party I became embarrassed. Now as I’ve grown older, I see how others around me love the types of food I grew up eating. When my friends come over and my mom and me cook they beg for some rice and beans. I see now that simply because my style of food was different from everyone else it did not necessarily mean it was bad. It was normal for me but not normal to others at the time but that shouldn’t retain me from living my own lifestyle. To me, beans and rice was a normal dish and I knew it was both healthy and filling. It’s known as a traditional Mexican dish with its own personalized style according to the person. While at first things don’t seem like they fit in, many of things in society don’t because everyones definition of normal is different.