In Yukio Mishima’s novel The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, Mishima’s political ideologies of Westernization and women’s gender roles leak through the text. These ideologies seem to be centered around one character, Fusako. Specifically, the idea of westernization as strictly a materialized obsession is exhibited through Fusako’s home and business. These possessions drive Fusakos interests in Western goods and the sea, which, directly opposes the interests of all the male characters within the text. In addition, Fusako’s westernized behavior lacks traditional Japanese values. Ultimately, Mishima uses Fusako as a symbol for westernization that he dreads. One of the first introductions of the character Fusako, in the novel The Sailor …show more content…
Just like Westernization, Fusako has a tendency to bring in Western goods in hopes for it to prosper and make a profit in foreign land. In addition, Fusako’s house is completely Westernized, the narrator describes: “There wasn’t a single Japanese room in Fusako’s house, her mode of living was thoroughly Western” (Mishima 113). These two major possessions are parallel to one another, as well as, lacking any ties to Japanese culture. Ultimately concluding that women are negligent to their traditional culture when presented with lavished material items. This is not only evident in big possessions, but also small material items that Fusako owns. The narrator says: “Fusako was wearing a black-lace kimono over a crimson under-robe, and her obi was white brocade. Crimson peeped seductively through the black lace” (Mishima 42). This turns a traditional Japanese kimono into something that is seductive and tainted, possibly exemplifying the way Japanese culture was tainted by Western powers. Takao Hagiwara, author of “The Metaphysics of the Womb in Mishima Yukio 's The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea,” utilizes this same kimono as a way to show Fusako’s feminity as negative. Hagiwara says that the use of
Compare The Successes And Failures Of Patriarchy In Colonialism, In “The Tempest”, “Translations” And “Things Fall Apart”.
In Maryse Condé novel, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, Tituba is the victim of the spread of colonial ideology. Colonial ideology is established early in the novel and plays a role throughout. Colonial ideology is the reason Tituba is a slave to white men throughout the play. Colonial ideology is the reason why Tituba’s opinion is considered irrelevant by other characters in the play. Tituba’s life is filled with lost, misery, and disappointment because of the ideology shared by other characters in the novel. The spread of colonial ideology leads to Tituba’s low role in every society she lives in during her life.
Throughout history artists have used art as a means to reflect the on goings of the society surrounding them. Many times, novels serve as primary sources in the future for students to reflect on past history. Students can successfully use novels as a source of understanding past events. Different sentiments and points of views within novels serve as the information one may use to reflect on these events. Natsume Soseki’s novel Kokoro successfully encapsulates much of what has been discussed in class, parallels with the events in Japan at the time the novel takes place, and serves as a social commentary to describe these events in Japan at the time of the Mejeii Restoration and beyond. Therefore, Kokoro successfully serves as a primary source students may use to enable them to understand institutions like conflicting views Whites by the Japanese, the role of women, and the population’s analysis of the Emperor.
Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor is a critically acclaimed novella set around the shores of England in the last decade of the Eighteenth Century. The plot revolved around a young Sailor, Billy Budd, who was extracted from the ship he was originally on, The Rights of Man, and was oppressed to a British naval warship named the H.M.S. Billopotent. There were numerous allusions used throughout the novella that enhanced the meaning of this great work. The allusions used pertain towards myths, the Bible, History, and other works of literature. All of them together illuminate the true meaning of the entire novella.
Other research has devoted to unveiling the origins and the development of their stereotyping and put them among the historical contextual frameworks (e.g., Kawai, 2003, 2005; Prasso, 2005). Research has shown that those stereotypes are not all without merits. The China doll/geisha girl stereotype, to some degree, presents us with a romanticized woman who embodies many feminine characteristics that are/ were valued and praised. The evolving stereotype of the Asian martial arts mistress features women power, which might have the potentials to free women from the gendered binary of proper femininity and masculinity. Nevertheless, the Western media cultural industry adopts several gender and race policing strategies so as to preserve patriarchy and White supremacy, obscuring the Asian women and diminishing the positive associations those images can possibly imply. The following section critically analyzes two cases, The Memoirs of a Geisha and Nikita, that I consider to typify the stereotypical depictions of Asian women as either the submissive, feminine geisha girl or as a powerful yet threatening martial arts lady. I also seek to examine
In society, constructs of correctness have been formed on the basis of expected, gendered behavior. Individuals have traditional roles that they play which are based on the historical performance of their gender. Although very rigid, these traditional roles are frequently transferred, resulting in an altered and undefinable identity that exists beyond the boundaries of gender. These transgressions into the neuter role are characterized by a departure from the normal roles of society which, if successful, complete the gender transference and allow the individual to live within a new set of boundaries. The Female Marine, or the Adventures of Lucy Brewer is the fictional autobiography of a woman who recounts her experiences in the navy and life as a cross-dressed male. Throughout her narratives, Lucy is able to successfully leap back and forth between gender roles without repercussion. On the other hand, Hannah W. Foster's The Coquette is a sentimental seduction tale that narrates the tragic demise of a young woman who attempts to exceed acceptable behavioral boundaries by establishing herself as a virile, independent individual, a role established by Simone de Beauvoir to be associated with the male (Beauvoir 405). Because of the similarity in the situations of these women there lies a need for an examination of their narrative purpose. The differing results of success with these women are found in the author's reflection of their audience's narrative expectations that deal with the social outcome of women who attempt to move beyond gender-identified behavioral roles.
Alan Brown's story is a comical yet emotional tale of a Japanese man obsessed with American women, after viewing his first Audrey Hepburn film at the age of nine. Jane, a flamboyant American English teacher, seduces Toshi, a twenty-three-year-old manga cartoonist living in Tokyo. As Toshi tries to carve a life for himself, he discovers the complexities associated with sexuality and American women, especially Jane. Throughout the book, Brown beautifully captures how atypical and baffling the Western style can be to someone from outside the culture. Not only does Toshi struggle in his relations with American women throughout the novel, but also with a troubled childhood and a family secret that is slowly exposed to the reader. Brown's witty lines and dry humor make the book entertaining while still supplying an accurate depiction of many national characteristics through the character's actions.
Saikaku, Ihara. Life of a Sensuous Woman. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. 3rd Ed. Volume D. Ed. Martin Puchner. New York: Norton, 2013. 591-611. Print.
In the novel Life of a Sensuous Woman, Ihara Saikaku depicts the journey of a woman who, due to voraciously indulging in the ever-seeking pleasure of the Ukiyo lifestyle, finds herself in an inexorable decline in social status and life fulfillment. Saikaku, utilizing characters, plot, and water imagery, transforms Life of a Sensuous Woman into a satirically critical commentary of the Ukiyo lifestyle: proposing that it creates a superficial, unequal, and hypocritical society.
...ic female figures in Ancient Japanese literature. His sentiment is basically that such acts are melodramatic and lead only to regret on her part (pg. 25). I took it to mean that Murasaki Shikibu was criticizing those old tropes used in Japanese literature, and the unrealistic standards (which the men in Chapter Two later admit are impossible) are a criticism of the expectations placed on women in Heian society. All in all, the book points at the despairing conditions of women in the Heian Period, and as for Genji, who is described by the author and other characters as “perfect” in every imaginable variation of words, it is made clear through his actions and decisions that he is not perfect, and tends to be quite selfish—signifying that the male ideal is also unrealistic and unattainable.
Texts and their appropriations reflect the context and values of their times. Within Shakespeare’s Othello and Geoffrey Sax’s appropriation of Othello, the evolution of the attitudes held by Elizabethan audiences and those held by contemporary audiences can be seen through the context of the female coupled with the context of racism. The role of the female has developed from being submissive and “obedient” in the Elizabethan era to being independent and liberated within the contemporary setting. The racism of the first text is overtly xenophobic and natural, whilst the “moor” is unnatural whereas the updated context portrays Othello’s race as natural and racism as unnatural. Therefore these examples show how Shakespeare’s Othello, and it’s appropriation, Geoffrey sax’s Othello, reflect the context and values of their times.
When it comes to post-colonial literature, most initially think about the colonization of other countries and how it has affected the natives. Though it is the most well known form of post-colonial literature, it is not the most wide-spread. By slightly altering the framing in which one looks at it, the idea that feminist literature by women from a patriarchal society is post-colonial literature begins to make sense.
A lady is an object, one which men attempt to dominate. A man craves to get a hold of this being beneath his command, and forever have her at his disposal. In her piece “Size Six: The Western Women’s Harem,” published in 2002, Fatema Mernissi illustrates how Eastern and Western women are subjugated by the control of men. Mernissi argues that though she may have derived from a society where a woman has to cover her face, a Western woman has to face daily atrocities far worse then ones an Eastern woman will encounter. Moreover, Mernissi’s core dogma in “Size 6: The Western Women's Harem” is that Western women are not more fortunate than women raised into harems in other societies. Additionally, she asserts that though women in the Western world are given liberties, they coincide with the unattainable ideals of what is aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore, to strengthen her argument towards her wavering audience, Mernissi’s main approach in her paper is to get the reader to relate with her issue by means of an emotional appeal, while also utilizing both the ethical and logical appeal to support her thesis.
In the collective society of Japan there is a certain stigma about women like Fubuki that set them apart. Choosing to work past the age of marriage is not necessarily the accepted (find a better word) in Japan because no matter the situation, collectivism and honor always come first. “Wish for work. There is little hope, given your sex, that you will get far up the ladder” (Nothomb, 1999, pp.66-67). She has worked so “far up the ladder”, so far up from what society said she should do, and it makes Fubuki is one of the biggest faces of individualism and hypocrisy shown throughout Fear and Trembling and the first time the reader see this is when Amélie and Tenshi were reported for their wrong doings. “I can see why and I disapprove of your reasons,” she says “I’m the one who had some reason to feel indignant about your attitude. You had your eye on a promotion to which you had no right” (Nothomb, 1999, p.37). Her constant use of possessive pronouns creates a selfish-like tone. “I can see why I disapprove… I’m the one who had some reason to feel indignant” (Nothomb, 1999, p.37). And that selfish tone highlights the hypocrisy that can be found within the Japanese society despite their claim of being a collective society. Fubuki goes on to say, “I’m twenty-nine years old. You’re twenty two. I’ve been in this position since last year. I fought for it for years. Did you think you were going to get a comparable job within a matter of weeks?” (Nothomb, 1999, pp.37-38). The tone of victimization (?) is created and this is constant throughout the whole book, “Do you think I can’t see what you are doing? You made these incomprehensible mistakes to get your revenge on me!” (Nothomb, 1999, p.45). The use of (another phrase) the word “you” reader can also see that Fubuki constantly uses Amélie’s mistakes to make her seem like the victim.
The setting shows a world of opposing ideals, contrasting the weight and solidification of the port and land with the open and free sailor life that Ryuji has been living. This realm of opposites is bolstered by the physical environment in which the characters are placed. Yokohama, a busy Japanese shipping town, is an ideal representation of conflicting spheres. As the city is the ideal connection amidst land and sea, the ocean plays a vital point in connecting the differing ideologies present in the novel. As the plot begins, Fusako and Ryuji’s affair show how Ryuji attempted to overcome the grasp of sealife. The scene of consummation shows the elements of land and sea, Fusako and Ryuji respectively, in perfect harmony with each other as “the universal order [was] at last achieved” (13). The simply beautiful act of sex becomes su...