Characterization in The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea and Wonderful Fool

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Characterization in The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea and Wonderful Fool The literary technique of characterization is often used to create and delineate a human character in a work of literature. When forming a character, writers can use many different methods of characterization. However, there is one method of characterization that speaks volumes about the character and requires no more than a single word - the character's personal name. In many cases, a personal name describes the character by associating him with a certain type of people or with a well known historical figure. Therefore, since the reader learns the character's name first, a personal name is a primary method of characterization; it creates an image in the reader's mind that corresponds with the name of the character. Once this image has been created, all subsequent actions and beliefs of the character are somehow in accordance with this image; otherwise, the character does not seem logical and the reader is not be able to relate to the work. In the novels The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea, by Yukio Mishima, and Wonderful Fool, by Shusako Endo, each author gives one of his characters a personal name that guides the character's actions and beliefs. Noboru, the name assigned to a 13 year old child in Mishima's novel The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea means little boy in Japanese (Honda). By naming this major character Noboru, Mishima has characterized him as nothing more than a little boy. Consequently, Noboru's actions and beliefs are typical of the actions and beliefs of a small child. Noboru's actions are the first to show the effects of his name. When Noboru discovers a peephol... ... middle of paper ... ... be translated from Japanese to English. Due to cultural barriers, those who read the translated versions of the novels fail to see the importance of names like Noboru and Tomoe, and the impact that these names have on the rest of the work. Consequently, some of the literary value of the novels is lost in the translation. By using personal names as primary sources of characterization, Endo and Mishima offer a concluding suggestion that, whenever possible, it is best to read works of literature in the language in which they were originally written. WORKS CITED • Endo, Shusako. Wonderful Fool. Trans. Francis Mathy. Chester Springs: Peter Owen Publishers, 1995. • Honda, Yoriko. Telephone Interview. 23 January 1997. • Mishima, Yukio. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. Trans. John Nathan. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1965.

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