Karen Tei Yamashita Through The Arc Of The Rainforest

Karen Tei Yamashita Through The Arc Of The Rainforestintroductionfict

Karen Tei Yamashita: Through The Arc of the Rainforest Introduction Fictional stories or novels written by many authors display the satirical representation of the world we live. The facts and realities that are represented by events in the world are turned into fictional works to communicate with audiences around the world. Yamashita, a Japanese-American, who has lived in Los Angeles and Brazil, used the experience to come up with the fictional literary work to address the theme of social-economic inequality, techno-determinism, exploitation of environment, and globalization. The novel presents a connection between environment and the micro/macro factors of the world. The literary work is mostly used by scholars as a text in globalization, transnationalism, and environmental-systems which are important components of the global systems.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how the fictional story by Karen Tei Yamashita reflects the interconnectedness with the world. Setting The novel, ​through the arc of the rainforest​ is set in in Brazil. Being born from Los Angeles, Yamashita(Kazumasa) migrated to Brazil which is a developing country. The novel ventures in miraculous occurrences which were influenced by the social class divide in this third world society. “ Extravagant car and mansions were noticeable having hundreds of Lourdes, and of course businesses, hotels, elevated poverty, great politics and great future†(Yamashita, ).

These presents the concept of globalization where the fictional world has both extreme wealth and poverty. These represents the actual settings of third worlds struggling society in Brazil. Kazumasa moves from Japan to Sao Paolo, where his Japanese friend lived, because of career change. This signifies the search for money or better opportunities that every individual in the world is exposed to. While in Sao Paolo, fortunes crop up something he did not expect.

Batista, his neighbor has created written script of a prophetic message delivered by his beloved pet, a pigeon. These messages are portrayed as good indicators of good fortunes in the future. These depicts how human beings in the world rely on technological information to prepare and predict future fortunes especially in business (De Loughry, 2017). Surprisingly, one of the prophetic message is that a Japanese man will come with a ball on his head and give fortunes to the Brazils’ people. The texts present miraculous occurrences.

Kazumasa first turns into a healer, a fortunate man, who people flock and line up for days to receive the blessing of healing. These depicts the advancement in medical technology which has enhanced the efficiency of delivering quality medical services to people, and not cheaply available to third countries like Brazil. Kazumasa gets a lot of money which is an endless fortune and tends to become a charitable man by funding the needs of the people. “ The difference between wealth and poverty in third world countries is elevated, the news of instant wealth in unexplored land sends ripples to the world. Kazumasa became well known, like a nightly soap opera character, by every tongue in Brazil.â€( Yamashita, ).

Kazumasa realizes the small balls have a rare commodity, Matacao, which has a remarkable plastic. Three arms entrepreneur, J.B Tweep, after the discovery, ventures to explore the Amazon forest in search of this rare commodity. These introduces the theme of greed and globalization through exploration. However, the Matacao’s fortune ends after the feather which disintegrates everything on its way does not spare the fabled plastic material of Matacao. These provides the notion of that riches or miracles do not lead to the fulfilment of life.

“Kazuma realizes happy ending experiences do not depend on an individual’s ability to have riches or rely on miracles for wealth (Yamashita, pg. )

Themes

The fictitious novel by Karen Tei Yamashita presents major themes and minor themes. The text presents the theme of globalization and environmental concern. In globalization the text explores technology and corporate ventures as the main factors which has challenged the of both human made system and natural system. Human activities eating into the natural system makes the environment to degrade and it becomes hard for it to replenish itself. The ball which Kazumasa caries along signifies technology and hidden fortunes in the world.

The ball has a rare plastic material which is a fortune. The ball represents a collection and representation of ideas in technology in a global system. Kazumasa can be argued to be an American road worker who uses technology for mobility. The adventures cause the destruction of natural environment due to excavations and discovery of fortunes. “ The ball became something of comfort.

It was the sort of comfort a child derives from his thumb or an old blanketâ€( Yamashita, pg. 8-15). The text uses symbolism as the literary device to depict technology as a part of need that industrialized nations need to continue thriving for richness and getting economic growth. The pigeon as idealized by Batista, represents the altruistic nature of technology and money. The pigeon is a representative of communication between people and even non-living things.

This presents the role of communication in globalization and human society. The notion presents the importance of technology being accompanied by nature preservation rather than using technology to hart nature. However, when becomes a factor, the relationship between technology, environment and human beings is tainted. “One could never be sure, then, what the message carried by the pigeon would be. It might bring wealth, some penetrating realization, r it might simply be one of Batista’s old jokeâ€( Yamashita, pg. 38-43)

Jonathan B. Tweet symbolizes the rich venture capitalist or countries, who would hurt the natural system to attain the globalization needs. The actions of Tweet reflect capital accumulation that exists in the world. The Matacao’s magical fortunes, makes Tweet to go to any length to acquire this rare commodity which is found in Matacao’s field in Amazon. These is a practice of economic imperialism which many individuals in the world do without caring the implications of the business activities to nature and the society.

The limitation of self leads to the nature to be ignored because of industrialization. “GGG’s marketing strategy was pure. You recall before J.B. arrived, GGG had no product on which to test its strategy. GGG developed a strategy that created miracle product. But J.B was not still satisfied†(Yamashita, pg. ).

Conclusion

The novel, Through the Arc of the Rainforest by Karen Tei Yamashita, presents the globalization interconnectedness of the world. The novel shows how valued natural resources in the world causes imbalances in the global systems. The technology advances allow the corporate to explore the resources without considering the negative implications on nature. Although, technology integration advances how human beings do things including problem solving, other global systems including climatic change should be considered. Miracles and greed will leave people hungry and poor but responsibility and concern about the global system will enhance human survival rates in the world.

References

• De Loughry, T. (2017). Petromodernity, petro-finance and plastic in Karen Tei Yamashita’s Through the Arc of the Rainforest. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 53(3).
• Yamashita, K. (1991). Through the arc of the rain forest. London: Scribners.