Final Course Reflections

Last summer, while visiting my grandparents in Canada, I met some distant Swedish relatives who stayed at my grandparents' house for a night as part of their vacation across North America. My Grandpa told me that the family spoke only Swedish except for the father, and his understanding of English was limited. Unfortunately, the language barrier got in the way of a lot that night -- when I tried to offer the family drinks as we sat down to eat, nothing I said even changed their expressions. I started naming different drinks out loud, hoping something would sound appealing, when I mentioned the Pepsi in the basement fridge. Instantly, the entire family and I were on the same page and I went downstairs to grab some sodas. At the time, I was surprised that they understood the word 'Pepsi', because drinking soda sometimes feels like the antithesis of 'sophisticated' European culture, but I dismissed it without further thought and enjoyed the rest of the night.

Reflecting back on the incident with the tools I've learned from Unreliable Narration has allowed me to 'read' it in another way. Though based in Purchase, New York, Pepsi is enjoyed in huge quantities all around the world; its tremendous global outreach can easily be forgotten living in America. My relatives were intimately familiar with America's fast food culture because chains like Pepsi and McDonald's pop up all throughout Sweden. The fast food chains they saw must have been beacons of familiarity during an otherwise unfamiliar experience. During our limited time together, the only culture we shared was in the form of American soda-pop, a one-sided relationship that suggests the breadth and scope of United States globalization. Without the skills I learned from this course, I may never have been able to connect this minor incident with its larger political implications; the ability to re-read and reanalyze information, whether in text or real life, in a more politically or historically conscious way, is one of the skills that will stay with me in the years to come.