HUMAN AGENCY AND COMMUNITY IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD Essay

HUMAN AGENCY AND COMMUNITY IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD - Essay Example Social norms and practices can be greatly affected by the changing global perspective, but the predominant power of an individual can possibly overcome this kind of situation. The complex play of both human agency and social modifications complicates the whole process of world change. Though individual efforts by acting for and against them are recognizable, equally, certain foundations of human societies can remain influential and powerful. The comprehensive ideas springing from the complex process of change can modify existing notions of human individuals about their society (see Engestrom et. al). The concept of gender for instance is affected by numerous factors existing in the social world. Today, discourses about certain social issues particularly gender (Foucault 18) are being motivated by the changing political mindsets of the people. In the literary world, texts and other creative narratives explicating new issues are being published and enjoyed by many readers. In the works of Dai Sijie and Ha Jin for instance, we can see how the clashes of social and individual ideas through discourse are outlined in the contemporary literature. In this paper, a discussion on the aspects of human agency and social development facing the challenges of globalization will be explored by focusing on the related reflection of Dai Sijie’s and Ha Jin’s stories. ... In the title story of Ha Jin’s book, an example of a man being arrested because of the ‘crimes’ of homosexuality is very intriguing as the seemingly ‘undesired’ act was committed by a married man (Ha 3-17). In this event, sudden mind-changing encounter deliberates questions on the brewed conviction of the people (in the story and the readers) as issues about homosexuality are brought about. People will now examine homosexuality as something not contained in certain ‘stereotyped’ individuals. In here, we see how Ha Jin’s book becomes a discourse of gender issues. Consequently, we can see in the story several factors affecting the characters and the readers’ mood. Social influences as norms about the said issue are being modified in contrast with the struggling function of the individuals involved. Gender as a social concept, as well as other issues like morality, fidelity and the like, is being analyzed by human agency as rep resented by the characters in the story. In Dai Sijie’s Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, a representative condition of a man facing the complex clashing of new ideas and the old ones in a setting that can be attributed to globalization is illustrated. The personas in the story are engulfed by a situation where their powers as human individuals are spirited in order to overcome the difficulties in their lives and ultimately, find happiness. The cultural revolution evident in the story can be seen as one of the steps people and the society can have in order to adapt to the continuously changing world. The way characters in the story acted upon particular situations and the way the narrator weighs things in his reflective lines represents the