Our Role in the Floating World

Final Thoughs

        My friend, Tommy, once has asked me a question. He asked that how we can become a responsible citizen of the “floating world”. Actually, I think there will be many different answers for this question since every individual is influenced differently by different kinds of culture so that every person has different point of view on what it means to be a responsible citizen. To be a responsible citizen, the first thing we have to do is to become a responsible person who can recognize his or her own identity and the significance of the narratives being told around him or her. For example, I know that my role right now is a student in Chico State University and I know that I have my responsibility to complete my assignments with my best effort and respect my school. This theory is very important for me because I know that I will have to try my best to finish every single work with my great effort and respect my company in my future. Therefore, this is the way that I choose to become a responsible citizen of the “floating world”. I do not only take responsibility for my own actions, I will also need to find myself throughout my own experience with the world around me. In the novel “An Artist of the Floating World” and “Jasmine”, the two main characters, Masuji Ono and Jasmine, exactly do the same thing as what I just mention. Ono notices that people around him are affected by what he does in the world so that he later takes responsibility for it; In contrast, Jasmine finds her way through who she is with and the experiences that she has with them.

        In the novel “An Artist of the Floating World” by Kazuo Ishiguro, the main character, Masuji Ono, is a Japanese artist who became a leading cultural figure in supporting imperialism and Japan's involvement in World War II. He later became a highly respected artist due to his pro-war propaganda. Masuji Ono first spent several years studying under a master artist who focus on aesthetics and artistic technique. However, he felt that there was no impact for his aesthetically pleasing work in Japan so that he decides not to go on living in ivory tower. Later on, Ono’s work became political stance due to the influence from one of his peers. He gave up the artistic style. His master, Seiji Moriyama, could not accept Ono’s act, so he evicted him, leaving him with homeless and jobless. However, Ono did not get influenced from that and he later recovered and became success because of his political act work. He even enjoyed Moriyama’s fall from grace.

        Ono felt that standing on the Emperor’s side was the right thing for him to do at the time he was painting. However, he feels regret now, especially for the involvement of the war. His son-in-law is the one who points this out to him. He says, “…sometimes I think there are many who should be giving their lives in apology who are too cowardly to face up to their responsibilities…and when those mistakes were made on behalf of the whole country, why then it must be the greatest cowardice of all” (Ishiguro P.56). He also blames Mr. Ono on making those terrible wrong decisions. He feels that “brave young men die for stupid causes, and the real culprits are still with us.  Afraid to show themselves for what they are, to admit their responsibility”(Ishiguro P.58). If there was nothing happened, everyone’s life would have now been carrying on now.

        The thing I’ve learned from Masuji Ono is that we have to take responsibility for our actions. In the story, Masuji Ono made some wrong decisions when he was young and those decisions have a huge influence on the people around him. However, even though he feels regret it, things cannot be changed. What he has to do is to take the responsibility and move on with his life. This is also what a responsible citizen has to know. We might believe in thing at a moment and feel regret after doing that. However, as an individual in a floating world, we should do what our heart tells us. Even though we may feel regret after doing that, there may be more regret if we do not do it. Therefore, we should catch every opportunity to do what we want. In Chinese, there is a sentence: regret for the result is always better than regret for doing nothing. This sentence can be exactly applied on this theory.

        In the novel “Jasmine” by Bharati Mukherjee, the main character, Jasmine, constantly changes her name depending on who she is with and where she is at. This is the way that she lives in the floating world and how she defines herself as an individual. Jasmine was born in Punjab, India. When she was in India, her name was Jyoti. She married to “a modern, city man” (Mukherjee P.76) named Prakash Vijh. After she got married, she was given a name “Jasmine” because her husband wanted to break down the past and make her a new kind of city woman. She embraces the name. I think she embraces that because she has long wanted to change. She wants to get away from where she was and start the new life with her husband. However, Prakash was killed in a horrible booming incident. Jasmine was left to pick up the pieces and to complete the mission that she had promised Prakash to do.

        In America, Jasmine meets a man who was called by her Half Face. He is the captain of the shrimp boat who raped Jasmine finally. Jasmine ends up turning into the Hindu goddess Kali who she embraces in order to get justice for herself. Therefore, she kills Half Face because she feels that this action can let her move on with her life. And then, she meets a woman named Lillian Gordon who gives Jasmine a new name Jazzy. Lillian Gordon tells Jasmine, “let the past make you wary, by all means. But do not let it deform you” (Mukherjee P.131). Except giving a new name to Jasmine, Lillian Gordon also teaches Jasmine that how to become an American, such as the way they dress and the way they talk and this knowledge is very useful and makes her able to go to New York and meets Taylor and Wylie.

        Taylor and Wylie have an adopted child named Duff. They are a happy family. At the beginning, Jasmine works as a caregiver of Duff in their family. At this moment, she is given a new name Jase. Jasmine says, “I liked the name he gave me: Jase. Jase was a woman who bought herself spangled heels and silk chartreuse pants” (Mukherjee P.176). At this moment, Jasmine has become an American girl in New York who spending all her money she earns as a caregiver. She then says, “Jyoti would have saved…Jasmine lived for the future…Jase went to movies and lived for today” (Mukherjee P.176). Later, Jasmine falls in love with Taylor and Wylie falls out of love with Taylor. However, Jasmine can not stay with Taylor because she sees the man who killed her husband. She does not want to get Taylor and Duff involved into the danger. Therefore, she leaves Taylor and flees to Iowa.

        In Iowa, Jasmine meets a man named Bud. This is the man who finally becomes the father of her child and he gives a new name Jane to Jasmine. They finally have a good life together, but Jasmine does not fully accept the name he gives because she says “in Baden, I am Jane. Almost” (Mukherjee P.26). From the word “Almost”, we can see that Jasmine does not really like this new name and it proves when she returns her name to Jase when Taylor comes back to her at the end of the novel. She finally figures out who she belongs to. She says “nothing is forever, nothing is so terrible or so wonderful, that it won’t disintegrate” (Mukherjee P.181). I think she has this feeling because she feels that her names are not forever, they can be disintegrated just like everything else. She belongs to whoever gives her a name. By changing her name over and over again, she is getting rid from her past and accepts her new life and challenges.

        In conclusion, I think both stories tell us much useful information. In this floating world, taking responsibility for our actions and finding ourselves by going through our experience are the also the ways that define our role in the floating world and both characters, Masuji Ono and Jasmine, do exactly the same thing in their stories. Masuji Ono learns that he cannot change the past, so he has to accept it and take the responsibility; On the other hand, Jasmine learns that she is always an individual in the floating world, no matter who she is with and where she is at. These two stories also teach me that no matter what happen to me in my future, I will have to take responsibility for that and go through it with my own experience. Also, I will always have to use my experience as my guider to guide me to the right way.