Final Thoughts On...

Globalization is a huge part of our society today. According to Rob Burton, author of Artists of the Floating World, “Globalization has become a seductive catchword to describe the increased flow of capital (both financial and human), commodities, and creative ideas around the world in the last half of the twentieth century and early part of the twenty-first century.” (p. 125) We see jobs being outsourced to other countries because of cheaper prices and less restrictions on running a business. We also see things like branding by companies. People all over the world wear certain brands because of the company’s message they are trying to put out to the people. For example a company like Nike puts out a message of athleticism, so a lot of people involved in sports will wear there brand of clothing. We even see our country trying to make its own name of being a great country and kind of the leader in the world if that’s what you want to say. We try to put that idea onto other countries to sell them on doing things the way we do them and having the same beliefs or laws that we have. This is all fine and dandy, but it comes with a cost. We are seeing increased unemployment because jobs are getting outsourced to other countries and we also see things like violence just because of the clothes someone is wearing. So globalization has its upsides and its downsides, it just depends on the way you look at it.

We see a form of globalization in An Artist of the Floating World, by Kazuo Ishiguro. Because of the change taking place during the main character Ono’s time, he loses his job and everything he owns because of changing ideas. Ono was a painter who used to be renowned for his art based on his artistic talent and the sheer beauty of his art. Then because of changes in ideas during the time he changed to painting political pieces where he was not very successful at all. Globalization causes major change throughout the world, especially in the area of ideals and ways of doing things. I find that the change that takes place in globalization usually is not for the better. It usually ends up harming more than it helps. Like we see with outsourcing even though people are gaining jobs, there are those losing them and then the people gaining are working under terrible conditions and are way underpaid.

In the book Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee we also see this idea of globalization through the idea of branding. We see that the U.S. puts itself out there in that it is a great place to be and that it is full of freedom and opportunity. Through the earlier part of the story we see that Prakash and Jasmine are set on making it to America and once they do how much success they will have. They talk about how once hey make it Prakash will finish school then he will bring Jasmine over and start their own company called “Vijh and Wife”. They felt that anything was possible in America and they would do pretty much anything to get there. After Prakash’s death Jasmine decides she is going to make it to America. So she got a fake passport, because she was not 18 and not allowed to legally move to America by herself, she took long boat trips that were unsanitary and cramped, and she also survived a rape attempt just to make it to America because of the opportunity that she thought America would provide her with.

 In the end there really is no answer to globalization to whether or not it is good or bad. I think that we just have to learn to deal with situations like these whether that is to act upon it or just leave it alone and move on to the next battle.