Summary: Whatever Happened To Western Civilization

Culture affects people’s ways of thinking and their views of the world. People face the challenge of developing an understanding of culture that both captures diverse backgrounds and shared systems of attitudes and feelings. Individuals of different cultures not only live different lifestyles but also have a unique and distinct way of thinking. Advocated to learn and appreciate numerous characteristics of everyone’s cultural background. From John David Morley’s short story, Acquiring a Japanese Family, he compares and contrasts how the Eastern and Western cultures embrace the different behaviors, lifestyles, and the qualities of living.
People act and behave differently in daily life between the East and West. Depending on how one was raised,

there may be different pathways that he or she might acquire. In the short story, Acquiring A Japanese Family, by John David Morley, Okaasan, the mother of Sugama, was unexpectedly living with him and was gladly invited to stay at his new winning apartment. If you compare this situation to Westerners, most would send their family member in nursing homes. Also, in a reading of Eastern vs. Western Culture, the author Mendy Wang enlightens an example about how, “Eastern and Western parents are showing their love toward their children. Parents in Eastern countries think they have the obligations to decide what is the best for their children; however, parents in the West think it is best for their children to make their own decisions” (Wang, 4). This shows that there are different approaches and techniques of parentages showing care and love towards their descendants. Another example is when Sugama has his Great Uncle and his family come to his house surprisingly and how they “immediately prostrating herself on the floor in the deepest of deep bows, old-style obeisance with he added advantage of concealing momentary shock and embarrassment” (Morley, 192). Comparing the cultures, Japanese folks show their respect and admiration to a homeowner through bows and profound gestures, as for Americans, a simple face-to-face handshake and positive greeting is all that is needed. Learning and absorbing ones culture and background helps gain an insight of the diversity involved in the heritage.
Different lifestyles and values distinguish different areas in the world.

There will always be an aspiration to have more stuff by creating an identity from the possessions and belongings we own for the luxury and comfort everybody wishes for. For example, Sugama had won a ticket to own and possess an excellent government-subsidized apartment even after he had lied about living with his grandfather, when he really was not. This shows that Sugama aimed to live at a high societal level just like everyone wishes to be although he has wrongly used his grandfather for an extravagant living. In the reading, Whatever Happened to Western Civilization, by Richard Eckersley, he states that in both cultures, there are “cultural shifts towards excessive materialism and individualism in a matter of greater vanity, selfishness, and greed, or simple the manufactured desire to have more stuff” (Eckersley, 5). This shows that although there are differences between the East and West, one main relationship is the goal to be well off where ever he or she may be from. Another relationship that is essential and significant in both cultures is family. Sugama never really had a well standing relationship with his grandfather in Morleys short story since he essentially only used him for housing, and once the grandfather died, he felt doubtful for expending his existence. In that case, Sugama botched to put family first and as Eckersley states, “there is a common perception that, with individual freedom and material abundance, people don’t seem to know where to stop, or now have too much of a good thing” (Eckersley, 3). Knowledge about the East and West cultures provides an insight and a better sense of the cultural interactions

involved.
It is important to recognize and appreciate the quality of living and accept that there are differences between the East and West. “Eastern people live in time, which means that they follow the natural order of time to do what they out to do and work step by step. Eastern people don’t like their schedules to be messed up and usually hate to change things once they decide the sequence” (Wang, 3). The author makes a point that usually Westerners select what they want to do in their lifetime and decide what they want to be as an adult, as for Easterners, they have a set pathway ahead of them and already know what to expect. In Morleys short story, Boon anticipated to learn about the Japanese culture and has predicted the “Japanese concrete to be different, to have a different color, perhaps, or a more exotic shape” (Morley, 188). It was a culture shock for Boon because although Japanese standard living is becoming modernized like everywhere else around the world, the interior of the apartment was still traditional Japanese living, filled with collective features such as tatami, fusuma, and shoji. Another example of living in a traditional Japanese house is how there is no furniture that establishes or determines the purpose of a specific room because Japanese believed they are all “one flesh” and harmonized, but as for Westerners, they usually have a customary practice of purchasing furniture and household items to have a family function determining on which room one is in and would rather enjoy having separate spaces and privacy. This shows that Western culture are “pressured to focus on what we make of our lives, to fashion identity and meaning increasingly from personal attributes, possessions, and lifestyles, and less from shared cultural traditions and beliefs” (Eckersley, 5). Individuals must improve their culture awareness to gain knowledge and a perception of people’s establishments.
As time is passing by and tradition becomes modernized, the two cultures narrow down the gap between them. Individuals could gain awareness of the unique cultures by accepting traditions and customs, the values and beliefs, attitudes and manners, the types of relationships and the way of communication is used. Adopting cultural values could possibly make and individual a better person and positively manage and cope more effectively abroad.