Short Story: An Analysis Of Globalization In 'Miss Coral'

Number three

Globalization is the process of the international integration of interchanging of other aspects of culture, such as ideas, products, food etc. Is globalization a negative or positive development? There are pros and cons. The world becomes a big community that gets to know each other very well. The inferior side of globalization is when two people from two different cultures meet each other, then the misunderstanding perhaps begin. The short story number three is a good example of how two people from 2 different cultures misunderstand each other.

Miss Coral is a special person in the matter that she shows respect and kindness to Mr James. Nevertheless, Mr James still doesn 't appreciate the things she does for him. You can read

One of them is “setting as a mirror”. In “number three”, Mrs. Carol gets fired and then the author uses the setting as a mirror, to show us Mrs. Carol 's feelings. The environment on her way home is explained in a very negative way which is a reflection on Mrs. Carol 's feelings.

“In the taxi across town, through the smog and the half-hearted spring rain, stopped in traffic on a bridge crossing the Jialing river, and gazing over at the far side embankment, Miss Coral has time to note that the Tianfu slums have now been flattened completely.” (E.g. Page 5 line

She will probably end up poor and live like her surroundings. As we can see they drive through a smog, which is a dirty atmosphere. The use of the word smog is very negative just as Mrs. Carol 's feelings. It is also raining, which also reflects her feelings. In a country like China, it is harder for the individual to live without a job if you compare it to countries like Denmark.

One of the main themes in number three is the cultural differences. Through the text we see the cultural differences between Miss Carol and Mr. James. The way we see it with the salary differences in China and in the west.

“So, I’ve been chatting with my friends,” Mr James continues. “They’re all English teachers. In private foreign language facilities, mostly. You know, Wall Street English and such. The point is that it seems they’re all getting a couple of thousand more than me a month.” (E.g. P. 2 line 31 - P. 3 line 1-3)

The quote shows us how Mr James’ friends, who live in an English culture, are getting paid a lot more as a teacher than himself. We see as an example, the cultural differences, through the economical differences in the two different parts of the world. In China teachers´ payment is much lower than in England even though they have the same