Characters in The Girl Watcher and The Human Chair

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Uncanny Reactions to Modernization Sugita Kojo of Tayama Katai’s “The Girl Watcher” (1907) and the chair maker in Edogawa Rampo’s “The Human Chair” (1925) react to new ways of life in a similar, vulgar manner. Both stories include aspects of society new to that time: Trains and chairs, respectively. These pieces from the Meiji & Taisho period, a period where stories began to express the character’s thoughts, depict the importance of understanding novel and foreign aspects of daily life by showing how these modern ways of living may be used inappropriately. Sugita, the protagonist in “The Girl Watcher,” has several responsibilities: his job, wife, and children. However, his passion is watching young, wealthy girls on trains. Yes. Why does he choose this particular “hobby”? These girls attend expensive high schools and can be considered modern in both age and appearance. According to lecture, trains were a new space where people of different social classes mixed, and people had to learn to act appropriately and how to look at other passengers. Right! With much practice, Sugita has figured out how to watch young women on trains, abusing this new form of travel: “It’s too direct to watch them face on, whereas from a distance it’s…likely to arouse people’s suspicions; therefore, the most convenient seat to occupy is one diagonally opposite” (Katai, 175). Yes. This is one of my favorite quotes in the story. Sugita is not an ordinary man, his walk is odd and he is unpleasant to the eye. However, he lives a mundane and depressing life writing for a magazine. Sugita watches girls to restore his passion for life, to engage in the modern world: “was there no one who would embrace him in her white arms? If only someone would, then he was sure …he would discover life…in hard work. Fresh blood would flow through his veins” (page 180). He wishes he could be rescued. Young women remind Sugita of his youth, of things he wanted to do but never did, such as make passionate love. Katai may be saying that once things modernize, one must become entirely modern to survive in society. Sugita lives in a modern house, wears western clothes (considered modern at the time), but he does not live a modern life: “he was coming out …in his same old way along his same old route, wish his same old hat…” (Katai, 170).

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