The setting of a story is important since it sets the stage for the novel, but can often be overlooked when analyzing literature, especially in Yukio Mishima’s novel The Sailor Who fell From Grace with the Sea. The description of the setting in the novel is subtle that readers would not notice his thoughts about Japan and westernization. There are many images of the sea that are described with the image of land. There are descriptions of the land, most are industrialized images, but some show the deconstruction of natural landscapes to concrete cityscapes. Not only that, but the meeting locations of the gang Noboru is apart of, adds to what Mishima wants to convey about his country. Mishima views westernization as a bad influence on Japan by …show more content…
As seen throughout the novel, Mishima is a proud Japanese, who takes pride in the country’s natural landscapes, but due to westernization, his Japan has more cityscape than landscape. There are many times where construction is happening. On page 138, where the gang discuss their hatred for father figures, the chief says, “Nothing they won’t do to protect the filthy cities they’ve built for themselves,” which shows Mishima’s distaste for cities. To create these cities, large plots of land had to be sacrificed, and destroying these natural landscapes is like destroying Japanese pride. Also, when Ryuji “marveled at the serenity of the houses that lined the streets, at the sturdy roofs and rooted, unbudging fences. As always, the details of shorelife appeared abstract and unreal” (Mishima, 46) which support the fact that westernization is a bad influence for Japan because it causes an authentic culture to adopt aspects of Western culture, which seems as though Western culture is taking over Japan. In addition to the unreal streets, there is a forest that is slowly being destroyed, much like how Westernization is slowly destroying Japanese culture in Mishima’s view. As seen in this passage, “The hill overlooked the northeastern sea. Away to the left, bulldozers were cutting a red-loam slope into the side of a …show more content…
After Ryuji’s last voyage on the Rakuyo, he meets Fusako at Center Pier, which is described as “a curious abstraction… streets unpeopled and too clean… pseudo-Renaissance shipping office chugged an ancient steam engine… little railroad seemed unauthentic, as though it belonged with a set of toy trains. The sea was responsible for the unreality of the place, for it was to her service alone that the streets, the buildings, the buildings, even the dumb bricks in the wall were pledged. The sea had simplified and abstracted, and the pier in turn had lost its sense of reality and appeared to be dwelling within a dream.” (Mishima, 95) to show the difference between the two elements. It is obvious that the sea is more real than land, but the land is described as a Western street, which reveals Mishima’s true thoughts about westernization: that western culture is not real. In addition to this idea, when Ryuji describes “… his only memories of life on shore were of poverty and sickness and death, of endless devastation…” (Mishima, 40) that the image of land is Western greed and destruction. The influence from the west is a threat to Japanese culture in Mishima’s eyes. Opposed to the image of land, the sea is described as a woman, which shows a sense of reality in the novel, even though the only female character in the novel is Fusako who exemplifies western
Much of what is considered modern Japan has been fundamentally shaped by its involvement in various wars throughout history. In particular, the events of World War II led to radical changes in Japanese society, both politically and socially. While much focus has been placed on the broad, overarching impacts of war on Japan, it is through careful inspection of literature and art that we can understand war’s impact on the lives of everyday people. The Go Masters, the first collaborative film between China and Japan post-WWII, and “Turtleback Tombs,” a short story by Okinawan author Oshiro Tatsuhiro, both give insight to how war can fundamentally change how a place is perceived, on both an abstract and concrete level.
Christopher Benfey’s work The Great Wave is a narrative driven by a collection of accounts, stories and curious coincidences tying together The Gilded Age of New England in particular with interactions and connections to the Japan of old and new. In the context of The Great Wave, Benfey's own personal journey to Japan at the age of sixteen should be understood. Embarking on this voyage to learn traditional writing, language and Judo, his story can also be seen as a not only a historical continuation, but also a personal precursor to the vignettes he discovers and presents to the reader.
Mishima, Yukio. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea. Trans. John Nathan. New York: Vintage, 1994.
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.
Four warships of America’s East Asia Squadron anchored at Uraga, in the predawn hours of July 14, 1853. This is twenty-seven miles south of Japanese capital, also known as Edo (renamed Tokyo in 1868). A prominent scholar had recently warned of people who came from the earth’s “hindmost regions” were “incapable of doing good things,” to Japan. The recent Mexican Spanish-American War, Americans has sharpened his desire for taking advantage of his wealth and power for political and commercial benefit. For al...
...ainment, Japanese culture, and shopping in the form of Japanese themed outdoor shopping malls, the Japanese American National museum, a handful of Buddhist temples, public murals that ooze culture and history, and an endless number of ramen establishments. Many experts talk about how contradictions bring about change and eventually reinvention, but the interesting thing about Little Tokyo is that the change is actually the source of new contradictions as the neighborhood struggles to maintain its cultural identity while also expanding and transforming to attract more leisure seekers. There is no question that change will occur in Little Tokyo, the question is, as F. Kaid Benfield puts it, “whether that change can be managed so that it inures to the benefit of Asian-American residents, institutions and businesses, and whether it will be environmentally sustainable.”
...and strength to break away from society. Personification is used to describe the sea. "The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation" (Chopin 50-51). The sea also plays metaphorical roles in the story standing as chaos and danger. This comes in to play when Edna goes into the sea and it takes her life.
Over the course of Japanese history, arguably, no artist is more famous for their works than Katsushika Hokusai. During his 88 years of life, he produced over 30,000 pieces of artwork, and heavily influenced Western styles of art. His most famous piece was created around 1831, a Japanese styled piece titled, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. This piece has stood as a defining piece of artwork in the Japanese culture for over 180 years, analyzed by students and authors for the interpretations filling the paper. The relationship between Hokusai’s painting has directly affected the Western point of view of Japanese style. The English author, Herbert Read’s novel interprets the painting distinctly differently from a Japanese point, American poet,
• Mishima, Yukio. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. Trans. John Nathan. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1965.
Racial tension is a major theme in “Wide Sargasso Sea”, with the mix of whites and blacks and white/blacks in the novel creating a cut-throat atmosphere which creates a hazardous place for Jamaica’s denizens. Many racial situations occur between whites and blacks, which Americans are use to due to the dangerous troubles between blacks and whites in the 1950s with a clear enemy: the whites. But Rhys tackles a more important point: an overall racial hostility between everybody living in Jamaica during the novels time period with no one to blame. Instead of using only racism, Rhys uses situations her readers could easily relate to such as: betrayal, adultery, and feeling of not belonging. Through her use of alternating points of views, Rhys uses racism shared by both characters and their actions/faults and thoughts to meld and to show the blame cannot be placed onto one person.
The role of gardens play a much more important role in Japan than here in the United States. This is due primarily to the fact the Japanese garden embodies native values, cultural beliefs and religious principles. Perhaps this is why there is no one prototype for the Japanese garden, just as there is no one native philosophy or aesthetic. In this way, similar to other forms of Japanese art, landscape design is constantly evolving due to exposure to outside influences, mainly Chinese, that effect not only changing aesthetic tastes but also the values of patrons. In observing a Japanese garden, it is important to remember that the line between the garden and the landscape that surrounds it is not separate. Instead, the two are forever merged, serving as the total embodiment of the one another. Every aspect of the landscape is in itself a garden. Also when observing the garden, the visitor is not supposed to distinguish the garden from its architecture. Gardens in Japan incorporate both natural and artificial elements, therefor uniting nature and architecture into one entity. Japanese gardens also express the ultimate connection between humankind and nature, for these gardens are not only decorative, but are a clear expression of Japanese culture.
It really brings in the idea of beauty from destruction, this idea being the main focus of the novel and a source of obsession for Mizoguchi. This symbolism is parallel to Japan and its reconstruction, coming from the “ashes” of the war, both literally and figuratively. The real Kinkaku-ji, for which the book was based on and a symbol of Kyoto, was burned down after a monk committed arson in 1950 (Bridges). Later reconstructed, it became a true symbol of the destruction and remaking of Japan after World War II.
Yukio Mishima’s novel The Sailor who fell from Grace with the Sea, represents the conflicts between pre-WW2 Japan and post-WW2 Japan, the author constructs the novel with characters whose lives are pulled into conflicting directions that portray the changing culture of Japan during that era. In the novel Fusako, the mother of Noboru and the girlfriend of Ryuji, is a woman who is caught up by conflicts, that many post-WWII Japanese women would face, which take place in her life and are direct cause of her actions throughout the novel. Fusako’s conflicts symbolize the issues faced by post-WWII Japan. Fusako is a woman with who has needs for intimacy but seeks these needs as if she was man, she has to deal with the needs of her growing boy, Noboru, who is fatherless at the moment, and also has the need to transform into a Westernized business woman as opposed to representing a traditional Japanese woman.
Mishima, Yukio. (Translated by John Nathan) The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, New York, Vintage International, 1993.
In every direction the sea rages and growls, tumbling its inhabitants in an ever-lasting rumble. Glory, honor, and duty are washed upon the glimmering golden shores of the Japanese empire. The sturdy land-bearers clasp hands with those thrown into the savage arms of the ocean. This junction of disparate milieus forms the basis of an interlocking relationship that ties conflicting elements and motifs to paint a coherent, lucid final picture. In The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea, Mishima incorporates the impact of contradictory settings of land and sea, combative ideologies of the Western and Eastern hemispheres, and inherent dissimilarities amongst the characters’ lifestyles in order to reinforce the discrepancy between his ideal Japan and the country he observed.