Final answer:
The narrator's explicit engagement with cultural identity contrasts with his parents' implicit, tradition-based connection. This reflects a generational shift in cultural engagement and highlights the complexities of navigating between competing identities or cultures.
Step-by-step explanation:
The comparison between the narrator's attitude towards his cultural identity and that of his parents' reveals a complex dynamic. The narrator seems to have a more direct and explicit connection with his culture, one that is active and possibly conflicted, as suggested by the exploration of cultural identity and the impact of lived experiences discussed in the text.
On the other hand, the parents' attitude appears to be more implicit, with their connection to the culture being one of survival and passive tradition, as seen through their actions like sharing survivor's stories, rather than through an overt recognition and discussion about cultural identity. This difference points to a generational shift in how cultural identity is perceived and engaged with.
The understanding of cultural identity is further deepened when considering Du Bois's theory of double consciousness, which might be reflected in the narrator's own life. The experiences of the narrator, as they navigate between potentially competing identities or cultures, can offer insight into the broader discussion of how language and rhetoric can shape and define identity and culture.
Finally, the parents' implicit transmission of culture through customs and traditions contrasts with the conscious exploration of cultural identity by the narrator. This contrast can be placed within the wider social framework where beliefs and attitudes within a culture can be taught explicitly or learned implicitly, as seen in the school orientation analogy from the text.