Alienation in Lost in Translation

However, Copula suggests this inability to communicate is extrapolated by a paradigm of urgency, specifically instant ratification, as symbolized through the setting of Tokyo as a world of consumerism. This is conveyed in the opening scene when the low angle shots of neon advertisements and towering skyscrapers is coupled with the chaotic motion of the Shabbily crowd. Through this Copula presents individuals who are left behind by the pace of the global world.

This is shown through the framing of the city which is often shot out of focus In relation to the individual who Is positioned behind symbolic barriers Like windows. Our desire for Instant gratification and immediacy Is further evinced through the onset of new communication technologies. For example, Bob communicates with his wife exclusively by the fax machine and Charlotte friend accepts that everything Is “great” despite her troubled state of mind. Indeed the suspicion that we can never truly communicate in a world where meaning is constantly deferred leads to alienation.

The absence of meaning leads to ennui as represented through Bob’s insomnia, Charlotte self help CD “A Soul’s Search” and their hermetic occupation of the hotel, a traditional “non-space”. Thus, with emphasis on the 21st century, Copula conveys a sense of desalination brought on by our inability to understand and be understood a dilemma which has extrapolated the elliptical limitations of language. To this end Copula suggests that we are constantly lost In translation. In our rush to embrace the global, we must not lose sight of tradition.

Evaluate In contrast, McLeod explores how the dilemmas of globalization, particularly the pressures of an economic paradigm, force certain Individuals to concede their traditions as a way to survive. In his story “In the Fall” he portrays Individuals’ Limited ability to retain the tradition of kinship and sentimentality in a world which teen moral necessity symbolized through the father’s desire to keep the horse, Scott, and material necessity, represented through the chickens that are being raised for slaughter.

The characterization of the mother as a pragmatic woman is shown through her hair which is pulled back “severely’, a characteristic which has been molded by the hardships of poverty. However with the successful transfer of the horse she lets her hair down a gesture which evokes her vulnerability, McLeod portraying the burdens and tragedies, the pragmatic if inhuman choices individuals must make in the face of necessity. This is portrayed through Manacle’s use of pathetic fallacy. The sea which “crashes… Relentless and unforgiving”, reflects the anguish of the characters which intensifies during the horse’s transaction.

Indeed the rain makes aggressive contact with them as suggested by the terms “slashes, stings and burns” imagery that evokes the global world’s violent encroachment on the communities that can’t afford to keep traditions like sentimentality alive. To this end, McLeod portrays how individuals must lose sight of certain traditions if they are to survive in the global world, a conclusion which is ultimately represented by the ember diction of “my parents are blown together, only trying to hold their place” a lament for this loss of tradition.

Yet at the same time, McLeod also explores how the erosion of tradition by the global world has sparked local movements of resistance in the form of cultural revivals. The miners in his story “The Closing Down of Summer” reaffirm their Gaelic traditions by returning home the centre where they can replenish themselves. As the miners shower beneath a waterfall, the idyllic imagery of the water which symbolizes life and vitality runs down their bodies to their feet which stand in the sea.

This is then Juxtaposed with the “spraying shower nozzles of the world’s great mining developments” an image of sterility which evokes the wholesome nature of tradition. Indeed cultural revival is also evinced through the revival of language. The narrator describes how Gaelic “so constant and unchanging began to bubble up within me” the introspective overtone suggesting how one preserves tradition to safeguard a sense of certainty. Yet the miner also concedes how some defining traditions of the local, such as physical hardship will be lost.

This is conveyed through the line “[the narrators] children will grow fatly affluent before they are thirty’ the fricative alliteration suggesting the narrator’s bitterness towards the new generation that has embraced the alternative albeit easier lifestyles provided by the global world. Thus McLeod explores the how tradition is significant for identity and community but he ultimately reflects the permanence of loss and change -traditions are inevitably lost when choice becomes available and circumstances no longer dictate the way we sustain ourselves.