All our aspects of life are shaped from our culture. We can choose how to live our lives. But our culture, no matter what our identity is, shapes us. We have all lived our lives following what our parents do, or whoever raised us. We learn, we experience new things, and then we incorporate our new knowledge gained from those experiences into our lives. The types of things we learn and experience depend on our culture. There are many types of cultures that define different types of people. Culture is what makes up a person. The combination of education, family, wealth, tradition, moral, religion, and friends are just some of the cultures that make up an individual. It is true that we are all different as an individual, but culture makes individuality. These cultures combined can make an extraordinary person. We are shaped and molded by our cultures. The type of education we receive will influence our intake of knowledge. Family influences our habits and instincts. Materialistic wealth changes the way we value other things. Morals influence our beliefs. Spirituality changes our faith, and friends influence our interaction with others.
Hermann Hesse wrote of a man who desires enlightenment in Siddhartha. Siddhartha and his family were very wealthy. Siddhartha's wealth was not everything he wanted. There was a thirst inside that he could not quench. "He had begun to feel that the love of his father and mother, and also the love of his friend Govinda, would not always make him happy, give him peace. He had begun to suspect that his worthy father and his other teachers, the wise Brahmins, had already passed on to him the bulk and best of their wisdom." (Hesse, 5) this quote shows Siddhartha taking his focus off the material things and his wealth because he had all that he wanted or needed and instead longed for something more; something that could not be attained through materialistic things.
