Responsible Citizens of the Floating World

Despair is plentiful in our modern world.  From the terrible Indonesian tsunami of 2004, to Hurricane Katrina, to the recent horrible devastations surrounding the typhoon in Burma and the deadly earthquake in China, we can see that our precious Earth is clearly in trouble.  However, more so than natural disasters, the biggest danger to our world is ourselves.  Ideas and frames of thought such as “The War on Terrorism”, “East versus West”, “Christianity versus Islam”, “Religious versus Secular”, and many others threaten peace and unity between people who are really not as different as they perceive.  By complacently buying into the narratives that guide our lives, thinking within our own narrow frames of reference, and neglecting or even blatantly refusing to accept and respect “others” as parts of ourselves, many of us are rejecting the beautiful world community that we have claimed we are striving to create and protect.  Even if one is to admit this is true, he or she may still find it difficult to imagine what they can do to counter this narrow-minded way of thinking.  How is one to rise above it and become a positive influence—to have a personal, positive effect on the world?

This is indeed the question that we have been building up to the entire duration of this semester: How is one to become a responsible citizen of the floating world?  Throughout this course, the writings of Kazuo Ishiguro, Bessie Head, Bharati Mukherjee, Salman Rushdie, and Rob Burton have lent us food for thought and contemplation on this issue.  I would like to particularly focus on Ishiguro and Mukherjee in order to illustrate my own perspective.

In Kazuo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World, the narrator, Masuji Ono, reminisces on his past and in his doing so, the reader is able to observe the narratives that framed his actions prior to and during World War II.  Ono is a man who begins his career as an artist by embracing the idea of portraying the glamorous “floating world” of ukiyo-e in his paintings.  This is the narrative he chooses in order to improve his artwork; however, after discovering the wicked reality of poverty in his own great country, depicting luxury and pleasure in his paintings ultimately becomes contrary to fulfilling his new narrative embracing the importance of nationalism.  Ono then takes the turn into becoming a prominent and celebrated (if only in his mind) propaganda artist for nationalist Japan.  As the nationalist, Ono then proceeds to make some very questionable decisions and does things that, observed from the post war perspective criticizing the nationalist state, are seen as having been dirty and unacceptable.

Looking back on the past, Ono’s very nationalist-colored version of the events of his life comes to conflict with post-war perceptions.  Ono even becomes very puzzled when his daughters’ and many of his peers’ thoughts and recollections do not coincide with and confirm his own.  The fact is that the rest of Japan surrendered in the war and has chosen to proceed forward with a new attitude, but Ono has not surrendered his former beliefs, nor attempted to move on and construct new, more appropriate and responsible narratives for himself.  It is difficult for the reader not to pity Ono’s inability to truly realize his mistakes and transition into being a responsible citizen in his reformed country.

Ishiguro’s story of Masuji Ono is certainly a tragedy in which we can see grander lessons for ourselves.  In the face of disaster and adversity in the world, it is irresponsible to stubbornly refuse to change the way we let our own narratives shape our lives.  In order to better ourselves and the world around us we must carefully examine our narratives, and then make a responsible choice as to which of these narratives are appropriate for us to actively allow to frame our daily experience.  This is one way to approach the transformation into a responsible citizen of the floating world.

Bharati Mukherjee’s novel Jasmine touches on another key point in that transformation, and that is the recognition of the plurality of identities and relationships.  Jasmine is the story of an Indian woman’s immigration to the United States and her subsequent transformation into many identities in search of her true self.  These identities take the form of individual names that are custom-fit to embody them.  Jyoti is the Punjabi villager girl whose life is predestined to widowhood and exile.  Jasmine is the independent and modern wife of romantic Prakash who someday hopes to relocate to America in search of a better life.  Kali is the goddess of death who takes revenge against the half-faced man who rapes her and defiles her and Prakash’s American dream.  Jazzy is the woman who, with the help of a kind philanthropist, is able to pick herself back up from Kali’s destruction and become the walking and talking image of an American.  Jase is the day-mummy of the daughter of a wonderful New York couple that helps her to feel comfortable and at home in American culture.  Finally, Jane is the caretaker and future wife of an Iowan banker paralyzed below the waist and the mother of an adopted Vietnamese boy.  In the end after experiencing all of these identities, the narrator finally uses her experiences to choose to live the rest of her life as her former identity of Jase, now the companion of Taylor and mother of Duff.

The point Mukherjee is trying to make is that we all have many identities that we choose to assume throughout our lives.  These identities may be temporary, long-term, evolve into new identities, and even reoccur throughout our existence.  Essentially, we are not one self, but the combination of many selves, plural identities, that make up one person.  If we consider ourselves this way, we can see more easily the common threads between people who we may never before have imagined to have connections with.  For example, I, as a university student in the U.S., can feel fellowship with a man or woman pursuing an education half-way across the world, regardless of their race, religion or culture.

It is in this way that we can truly begin to recognize and accept the “subaltern” or “other” voices of the world and make them one with our own voices and experiences.  If we can recognize other people and cultures as no longer being the “other”, we will better be able to sensitively understand and interact without categorizing our relationships from a polarizing perspective.  Being able to do that is the other key for approaching the transformation into a responsible world citizen.

These two ideas that I have highlighted could stand alone, but they are also intertwined with each other.  The process of actively choosing which narratives to live your life alongside definitely goes along with having plural, commonly-shared identities.  The theme of these ideas is to move beyond narrow-minded perspectives and accept others through shared experiences.  That is not all though.  Above all, it is imperative for all of us to take responsibility for our actions.  We, as global citizens, must recognize why and how the things we do and decisions we make affect people worldwide.  When we can learn to put all of these things into perspective and action, only then can we work together  to conquer the problems we have created for our Earth.  Only then can we truly become responsible citizens of the floating world.