Sunday, February 23, 2020

HUMAN AGENCY AND COMMUNITY IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD Term Paper

HUMAN AGENCY AND COMMUNITY IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD - Term Paper Example The human individual has to face different social events that are continuously influencing many aspects of his or her community. Humans, as agents of social modification and development, face the challenges of world events. Through the presence of globalization, people become more aware of different views and ways of life while being vulnerable to being engulfed by such new ideas. They are susceptible to incorporating new perspective in their practice. Thus, the human individual as social agent has a big role in restructuring or maintaining the norms and traditions of his or her society. In this paper, an exploration will be presented about how a human individual in a globalized world setting is acting upon the events and changes happening in his or her society. In light to the discussion, narratives from Ha Jin’s book will be studied focusing on the issues of changing societies and human individuality. Two instances of globalization from Ha Jin’s book will be discussed and will be examined using Amartya Sen’s and Kwame Anthony Appiah’s comments and discussions in connection with globalization and the status of human individual in the global community. ... One instance of globalization that is illustrated in the book is that of the situation of the narrator in the ‘An Entrepreneur Story’ where he experienced how money and capitalism influences many things in the world (Ha 116-126), if not all. In this example, capitalism as used by international community as political and economic strategy is being projected in the narrator’s thoughts and intention. Generally, capitalism becomes central to the theme of the story. The implicit and explicit conditions of people in a nearly capitalist community as influenced by world economic politics are depicted. Another event in the book where implications of globalization can be found is that of the story of a man in the title story. The story narrating about a man named Baowen, a husband, (Ha 91) arrested because of the ‘crimes’ of homosexuality is quite surprising. In the story, homosexuality is viewed to be like an illness that needs clinical cure. In here, we see h ow myths about the matter are being shown implying the deep-rooted political and social factors influencing it. This instance is also related to the outside phenomenon happening outside the setting’s local community. In the global society, certain views and modifications about the issue of gender and homosexuality have circulated and startled people from different parts of the world. This matter is just one of the prominent issues talked about in the international communities. Thus, it is apparent that the characters in the story, representing ‘the human individuals’ in the community, are affected by the circulating views and perspectives introduced by globalization. In reading Ha Jin’s stories, particularly those instances

Friday, February 7, 2020

Cultural film analysis Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Cultural film analysis - Movie Review Example lls on the early years of culture and education leading to establishment of parochial, monastic and cathedral schools as well as universities of the Middle Ages (Daniel-Rops 5). In the movie, Johanna was the third child of a village priest and a converted heathen wife. The opening scene immediately showed anti-feminist bias, as the father angrily refused herbal medicine to alleviate his wife’s birth pains due to his belief that â€Å"in sorrow, thou (woman) shall give birth.† As she grew up, Johanna was not allowed education since only boys were taught reading and writing. Through self-learning, however, the intellectually gifted Johanna not only showed skill in reading and writing, but in interpreting Latin Bible verses as well. Catching her reading a Greek manuscript, Johanna’s father meted her a brutal lashing, even as he had once grossly raped his wife for teaching Johanna some heathen methods of natural healing. Upon recommendation of an admiring traveling schoolmaster, Johanna gained unprecedented admission to study in the bishop’s schoolhouse for boys. Gerald, a knight in the bishop’s court, provided her a home until she grew to maidenhood, resulting in the jealous wife of Gerald arranging Johanna’s betrothal to a young man against her will. The wedding was cut short by an attack by Norsemen bandits. Historical research shows that the event is reasonable, since there are historical accounts of pagan Norsemen pillaging territories in Frankish empire to add to the disorder of the times (Boak, Slosson and Anderson 180-181). Johanna escaped death by the plundering Norsemen, although she had to disguise herself as a man in order to gain entry in a monastery. As a monk, she saved villagers from an epidemic but had to again escape to avoid disclosure of her disguise by fellow monks. She was cared for by villagers, but not wanting to be tied down to a village life, Johanna to ok a pilgrimage to Rome again disguised as a man. In Rome