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Trevor Noah’s book really inspired me on how to write a good story. Writing this story felt easy, smooth, and I actually liked it. Usually, writing is hard and I always blank on what to say during a writing piece. But now, ever since I read “Born a Crime”, I have a sense that writing just comes a little more natural to me. I have adopted a few of Noah’s writing styles, for example instead of beating around the bush, I just said what I thought and it made the story more interesting. Also, one of the main writing styles of his is foreshadowing, which I made sure to implement into my story. I sort of stated how getting to play guitar was a long shot, and that I had history that would determine if I got one or not, but I did not say until later what that history was. I didn’t really state what my culture was in the story, but I don’t think I really need to. My culture for guitar specifically is virtually none. But, my culture for music is strong in my family, hence the part where my dad wants me to get into it. Another very important part of Trevor Noah’s book is the sense of belonging. He never feels like he really belongs, but finally finds it through experience, and comedy, and a whole bunch of different things. But I never felt as though I belonged in music. As I said in the story, I went through a few instruments without ever really feeling them. It was always boredom that drove me away, which just blossomed into hatred for the thing. So just like in “Born a Crime”, although it took time, I finally found what I had been looking for. My identity is definitely influenced by my culture. Hell, I would’ve never picked up an instrument at all if it weren’t for my music culture. I’d probably find something else to occupy my time with other than music. But, I didn’t, thanks to my culture, and how it is passed down through generations, like my dad to me. I feel like that really resonates with Trevor, because there are so many things that were passed down from his family to him.

One way Noah explored his own sense of identity that resonated with me was community. I thought it was fascinating the stories he told and the detail of those stories and what he went through. Secondly, I think that Noah explored his own sense of identity through just living life and dealing with things the hard way. He had to live through some of those hardships to discover and realize things about himself. I didn’t use humor like Trevor Noah did because although my story has lots of emotion and happiness and there was humor I didn’t know how to exactly articulate that use it in my story. A way I explained the culture to an outsider audience was by being desctive with who I was talking and directly stating that we were all from different countries. My vignette addresses one of our essential questions because I talk a lot about community.

Standing in the shoes of an Asian American is kind of complex. You chose how much of each culture you would like to include into your life. Just like Trevor, he had a hard time figuring out his identity being a mixed child. He acknowledged both sides but chose to immerse himself into black culture.

In a way, I did the same. I acknowledged my American side but chose to be more immersed into Asian culture. Both me and Trevor face the fact that we are surrounded by both cultures but one more than the other. He chooses to surround himself and talk to black people but for me, I live in America so I tend to embrace my American side more as an instinct. But both of us chose what side we prefer to surround us and it helps build our character.

I think the most touching quote was on page 46 when he said “… but I didn’t belong with the white kids. I wasn’t a part of their tribe. But the black kids embraced me.” His situation was definitely the opposite of mine. Instead of having a negative view of one culture, I chose to embrace myself in American culture while immersing myself in my Asian culture. I let the American culture surround me while I spent the small details focusing on my Asian ways of living. A fair balance.

Throughout my memoir, my culture does have a huge influence on the way I think and how I interact with people. There are so many differences between the two countries and I often find it hard to balance myself. Knowing how people think and communicate on both sides, I always have a different perspective on everyone’s opinion. It’s the way Americans have their own plates of food while Asians eat with many bowls shared across the table. It’s how many Americans find makeup and hair styling something a girl should learn while Asians teach kids how to sew. It’s the small details in each culture that builds my character and how I like to look at things.

I was influenced by Trevor Noah’s stories about people making assumptions about his culture. He was often seen as threatening because he was colored, like when he went to jail and put on the stereotypical tough colored guy persona in chapter 17. Some Jews choose to keep kosher, which means that they won’t ever eat meat and dairy in the same meal or even use the same dishes to avoid mixing them. People often assume that because I am Jewish, I keep kosher, which is often confused with being vegan. I don’t keep kosher, nor am I a vegan, yet people tend to make assumptions based on my culture just like they do about Trevor. On page 154 of Born a Crime, Trevor explains that there is a code for mothers in the hood. If you’re not busy and they ask if they can “send you,” you always say yes. This resonated with me because Jews have a similar code. When someone is part of your culture, you don’t have to know them personally to be kind to them. Just like Trevor Noah, I used my vignette as a way to inform my readers about my culture while also using some humor to make my story interesting. I also focused on my perspective of the story and didn’t use much dialogue. I think that humor plays a big part in both Trevor’s and my writing. It makes the reader want to continue reading the story because it eliminates any dull moments. I explained my culture to the reader by defining Hebrew terms clearly, like I was describing them to a friend, which I have plenty of experience with. I also highlighted some of the negative aspects of my culture in order to make my description more personal. My vignette explains the way that culture can affect a person’s identity by providing real-life examples of what it’s like to be part of Gen Z Jewish culture and showing the way it affected my identity through my writing style. I tend to use formal vocabulary with a casual tone, which I feel represents my personality perfectly.

Artist statement:

One part of Noah’s memoir that really inspired me to write about my topic was when he spoke about being new to his school. How he had to pick a group to be with and how he felt like he didn’t belong. I really liked the way he explained how he felt and what he went through. I can understand how he felt because I felt a lot of the same things too. That feeling of not belonging somewhere really stuck with me. He talked a lot about being an outsider on multiple occasions which is most likely something that impacted his identity today. In chapter 11: Outsider, he talked about his school experience, how he felt about not belonging, and always having to pick a group even when he didn’t really have any to choose. I really enjoyed his writing style. He made his stories funny and entertaining to read even when some of the moments he talked about were traumatic. He also included a lot of his own culture and identity into his writing. For example, when he wrote in the language his mom yelled at him. It made the reader connect with him. His stories were very descriptive too which I loved, I imagined everything that he wrote about in my head, and so it made me want to make my story as descriptive as possible. Some storytelling techniques I used were visual descriptions, a little bit of humor, and some reflective moments. I didn’t add a lot of humor to my story. I just used it I felt like maybe it didn’t fit right with my story or I didn’t know exactly where to add humor. Even though I tried to add a little bit of humor when I described what I wore to my first day of school because I always thought it was funny. I talked about where I came from, my culture as an immigrant, I talked about myself, and how I had to learn and live in a whole new culture. That explains my culture and identity to an outsider. One of the essential questions of this unit was “ How do our various cultures influence our identities?” in my vignette, I talked about how being influenced by different cultures affected me. It was like stepping into a whole new world and that changed my life completely. Being influenced by American culture as well as my own influenced the way I am now. It taught me so many new things that maybe I wouldn’t have learned if it wasn’t such a big part of my life.

While writing this vignette, I discovered that it is much harder than I thought it would be to try and explain a culture that I have known my whole life to a potential outsider. Things that seem so obvious to me, are not obvious to someone who knows nothing about Judaism or Jewish culture. I chose to write about my Jewish identity and culture because I feel like it is one of the biggest parts of my identity. Judaism lets me feel connected to my ancestors and family members that I have never met, and provides a community with people that I would otherwise not have anything in common with. In his memoir Trevor Noah talks a lot about religion. His religion is not Judaism but it doesn’t matter that it is a different religion, he still had a community that came from his religion that he otherwise would not have had. In his early life, religion and church were much more important to his mother than it was to him, and I relate to that somewhat because when I was little, I did not much like going to synagogue but it was very important to my mother and other members of my family. My story becomes different from Trevor Noah’s though, because as he got older his thoughts on religion and church did not really change, but for me I became more grateful for Judaism and my congregation, partly because I was starting to become more aware of the struggles and hardships that Jews had faced for years and years, and how much they had sacrificed, which gave me a new understanding of Judaism and the importance it has to so many people.

It took me a while to figure which one of my identities I was gonna write about. So I decided well, all in a way. Which I ended up doing. And I am happy with the way it turned out. It was fun digging through my memories about it. I found it entertaining how I went from thought to thought in a matter of sentences. I didn’t necessarily use a writing style, I just wrote what came to mind but I did use smilies every once and awhile so I guess I had a descriptive writing style. I did not use humor like Trevor Noah did, I wrote in a way that drew the reader in every so often in the story. Noah’s writing style did not really impact me, I didn’t really think about his autobiography that much. It never came to mind, I feel like our writing styles are different, he uses humor and irony to keep the reader entertained, I mostly just use the story and wording techniques to keep the reader entertained. My story is about me finding who I am and once I address that, I feel completed. The question of who am I? Is crucial throughout the story and through many other people’s lives. The question is essential to life because the answer is what defines us.

Born A Crime, written by Trevor Noah, is an inspiring story of a young man’s youth and life in South Africa. It talks about culture, religion, family, friendships, and many other topics. These events inspired me to create my benchmark about my own sort of culture, introverts. In his story, Noah talks about his identity as a mixed child and how that affected his childhood. He explores his identity by talking about how his parents’ decisions affected how people acted towards him. He talks about belonging by discussing how he never fit in any friend group, but he was able to blend in and move through them, but he didn’t truly belong. One of Trevor’s most notable chapter was Chameleon. This was a chapter that stuck out to me because I know what it feels like to blend into the background and kind of remain unseen and unnoticed. I can relate to some parts of his writing, but others are completely new to me. Our writings are different, and I use my writing style to create my memoir. Trevor’s explanations of his culture were something that really gave me a clear understanding of the different languages and norms of South Africa, and I wanted to do something similar with explaining what an introvert is and how it reflects me as an individual. Instead of using humor in my writing like Trevor Noah, I opted to make references and write small blurbs with references. I also expressed my inner thoughts in the memoir as a part of my writing style. To explain the culture to an outsider audience, I noted the characteristics of an introvert, the definition, and what it means to me to be one. From my writing, you can get a sense of what an introvert is, but also how they are different from one another. My vignette shows how my culture is a part of my identity, but it doesn’t make up the entirety of who I am. It shows that when people accept who they are, they can use it, but don’t have to let their culture define who they are and limit what they can do.

A connection that influenced me is how connected he is to his city Johannesburg. It interests me how much he learned from living there and the details about Johannesburg that he put in his writing that made it sound so special. It influenced me to tell a story where I can go into detail about what it’s like to live where I was born, West Philadelphia. Not only did it influence me to do that but it also made me want to tell a story about the identity and culture that I’ve come to learn that was built by my community, and for Noah, this was Johannesburg. Trevor explores his identity through events that happened in his life. One event that resonated with me is when he took a second thought on whether he should sell a camera that was stolen. The thought that he had was there’s someone that is being affected by all the photos and memories connected to the camera and if it’s sold then those photos and memories are erased. Trevor said, “ We live in a world where we don’t see the ramification of what we do to others, because”. This showed Treavor’s unselfishness by putting other people’s emotions and feelings over the money that he would receive. The way Noah used dialogue in his writing resonated with me. I love the way he incorporated dialogue in his writing to make readers want to read more. This was something that I wanted to incorporate in my writing because I want to interest readers and make them want a sequel to the story, just as Trevor did in his writing. The way Trevor’s story is told, there’s a clear idea of what’s going on from the rising action to the falling action in that chapter. I wanted to create a vivid image for readers with my storytelling from beginning to end of the vignette that compares to his storytelling. I did not choose to use humor in my writing. Sometimes I like to use humor and I consider myself pretty funny, but for this vignette, I wanted to leave out the humor because sometimes I feel like it takes away some ideas in the stories that I want readers to see. I broke down what this culture looks like to provide images for an outsider audience so they could imagine what this culture would look like. My vignette addresses the essential question of what it looks like to be a part of a community and most importantly a culture.

Noah always embraced that no one welcomed him into any cultures, that he felt he SHOULD belong in. He was not accepted as a colored person by other colored people, because he was either too white for black people, or to black for white people, and at the end of the day, he still chose to identify as a black man. In chapter 16, Trevor was very oblivious to the fact that he was getting bullied. He was also very oblivious when he managed to get his bike stolen from a girl. I think when Noah was more so young, he cared a lot about fitting in, and belonging to a group, that he didn’t realize all the sacrifices he took trying so hard. In chapter 10, there was a Valentine’s Day dance, and a girl named Maylene who had a major crush on Trevor. There was huge talk amongst the friend groups about Trevor asking out Maylene, so he could take her to the dance. But the thought of him liking Maylene never actually crossed his mind. He said yes, but just for the wrong reason. Unfortunately, she broke his heart right before the dance for someone more “cool and better looking”, and Noah was devastated. I honestly can’t say that Noah’s writing impacted my own, because he uses a ton of humor and dialogue, and those aren’t techniques that I would refer back to when writing. I didn’t choose to use humor because I would consider myself just an intentionally funny person, and I feel as though when using humor in your writing, there’s a lot of brainstorming, because you try so hard to make the reader laugh. Furthermore, my goal wasn’t to make people laugh. I wouldn’t want people to laugh at my vignette at all. When my vignette is read, I want people to take the time to sit and think about what I just wrote. As an outsider looking in, which you are, the reader, I gave you points of views of other characters in my story who are ALSO outsiders to my culture.

Artist Statement

When writing my memoir Vignette I chose to write about my 6th-grade experience because it was a key event in my life that made me the person I am today, similar to how Trever Noah wrote about his education and how that also affected his life in Born a Crime. Some examples of this are in Chapter 10: A Young Man’s Long, Awkward, Occasionally Tragic, and Frequently, Humiliating Education in Affairs of the Heart, Part I: Valentine’s Day, Chapter 11: Outsider, Chapter 12: A Young Man’s Long, Awkward, Occasionally Tragic, and Frequently, Humiliating Education in Affairs of the Heart, Part II: The Crush, Chapter 13: Colorblind, Chapter 14: A Young Man’s Long, Awkward, Occasionally Tragic, and Frequently, and Humiliating Education in Affairs of the Heart, Part III: The Dance. The Sixth Grade experience, though painful, molded me to be the person I am today. I discovered that I am a pretty cool person regardless of what others think about me. I developed compassion for the downtrodden and rejected in society because isolation and rejection is an unpleasant experience. Not only that, but I realized that in life, shallow people exist and there is nothing you can do to impress them that will cause them to change their attitudes and impressions about you. They are self-conscious people and are consumed tremendously by how others view them. This experience prepared me for the Science Leadership Academy. I learned to be bold in new environments and to not try to adapt to who I was to fit in the environment. As Winston Churchill stated, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” I had a lot of failures that 6th-grade year, however, my failures were not fatal. In fact, my courage to continue made me a stronger person, therefore, leading me to future successes.

After reading “ Born a Crime” I was heavily inspired by Trevor turning embarrassing or sad memories into humor, and the way he used sarcasm like he was speaking directly to the reader. I loved the way he really opened up and wasn’t afraid to tell so many different parts of his childhood, I wish more people opened up like that in their writing. I think a lot of the deeper stories and the way he really shared his emotions stuck with me. I tried my best to explain my culture as if I was talking to an outsider, but it was so hard to do and made me appreciate Trevor Noah’s writing even more. I also tried to have a deep reflection like Trevor, which also proved difficult, how he wrapped his identity into every small story he told really inspired me too. So I tried to incorporate my chosen culture into as many parts of the story as possible. One of my favorite parts to read were the many chapters where he talked about his school and love life. I could really see him as a social floater, not really in any specific friend group. He was always an outsider and showed how he knew that he was, even in high school and embraced it. He used it to his advantage and even realized that his love life would sadly never work out because of it. “For me, trying to get a girl would upset the natural order of things. Part of my success as the tuck shop guy was that I was welcome everywhere, and I was welcomed everywhere because I was nobody.” page 102. This self reflection was different because it was an at the moment kind of thing, and It inspired me to include how I felt when the events in my vignette actually occurred. Because I really enjoyed this writing style I tried my best to incorporate it into my story, with subtle sarcasm and humor, openness and my real reflections when the event actually happened. While I slightly encapsulated some style, I definitely didn’t pull it off as well as Trevor, I will be sure to incorporate some of the styles I learned from “Born a Crime” into my further writing.

The idea that heavily influenced me when choosing my topic and writing about it, was Trevor’s connection and appreciation to his mother, and also Patricia’s way of living. In Born a Crime, we often see or hear about Trevor admiring his mother for her ways, and that inspired me. If Patricia could be strong and brave (which she’s not supposed to be) during such a bad time, I can too and I wanted to explore that. Trevor explored his own sense of identity in many different ways, but most of the time, it was his racial identity. He did this by feeling around to see where he felt comfortable, where he relates most, and most importantly, just not fitting in anywhere and finding peace and acceptance in that. In chapters 4-6, Trevor has a moment where he believes he fits in most with the black kids at school, because he could unapologetically be himself. Later in the book, he talks about how some black kids don’t accept him, same with the white kids, so he fits in with the “colored” kids, even if that’s not truly who he is, it was just easier. Very close to the end, Trevor goes to jail and decides to stick with the white people because they “look harmless”. It’s like a never-ending cycle for Trevor, and he just usually goes with what he feels that day. A part or quote of Born a Crime that I resonate the most with is “I was blessed with another trait I inherited from my mother: her ability to forget the pain in life. I remember the thing that caused the trauma, but I don’t hold on to the trauma. I never let the memory of something painful prevent me from trying something new.” I relate with this the most because I’ve had terrible things happen to me, but I don’t let it affect my current life. I had terrible social anxiety, still do, but it’s toned down a bit because of the people around me. Trevor’s writing style inspired me a lot, and I tried to copy him in a way. Trevor spaces his paragraphs more often than me, so I tried to space my paragraphs a bit more. Trevor also writes like he’s talking to someone who has no context of anything, which is also something I tried to do. I stayed on the serious side instead of being humorous, which differs from Trevor’s storytelling techniques. I wanted the reader to understand that I do take this subject seriously, and I would hope they would too. My vignette addresses the question of how our cultures influence our identity.

In Born a crime a few things connected with my writing that influenced the story. A few examples would be when Trevor Noah had a close friend named Teddy, and when Trevor Noah had wanted to switch classes when he liked being in class B better than class A. In both of these stories they have something in common, both Teddy and class B accepted him for who he was. Both of the people accepted Trevor Noah for who he is and made him feel part of a place where he isn’t judged. That is the same with my friendship group, they accept me for who I am regardless of my flaws. One of my favorite quotes in Born a Crime was in chapter 11 on page 99 “Since I belonged to no group I learned to move seamlessly between groups. I floated. I was a chameleon, still, a cultural chameleon.” This quote did connect to me, this connected with being because growing up I was also the same way. I was part of multiple groups but it didn’t feel like I was part of it. I was there from time to time but I never stayed for too long. My friend group and the habits aren’t the easiest to understand, sometimes we can’t even understand each other but that is a rare occasion. I tried to explain the characteristic traits of my friends the best I could to make sure they understand the way our group works. My friend group can get chaotic sometimes and when we are having a serious conversation about things that are affecting us we have each other’s backs. Identity and belonging haven’t always been the easiest thing growing up. I never really had many true friends, they were more of acquaintances. Growing up, we all kind of just lacked friends. So eventually we all became friends even though most of us attend different schools. The story connects with my identity because my friends influence how I am towards other people. While writing the book Trevor Noah’s very impactful writing style, it’s unique in many ways. His writing style had lots of humorous moments which also makes me want to add a lot of humor into my writing style. I am attempting to give my story a comedic effect.. I also want to make it as entertaining as possible. I adore humor, first because I like making things funny and laid back. I don’t like making my writing stiff, I like to have my personality intertwined with the writing.