The novel Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata takes place in post-war Japan, an era of change, where there is a struggle between keeping Japanese traditions and becoming Westernized, or “modernized”. In this way, the setting reflects a major conflict in the novel: past versus present. This struggle is subtly, yet clearly, expressed in the characters throughout the story as they face the cultural shift as well as deaths, and must decide whether or not to move on and accept change or to remain stuck in the past. The character Chikako Kurimoto, ex-mistress of the protagonist’s father, Mr Mitani, clings to the past. She continues to serve Mr Mitani after his death by cleaning the tea house, which does not need cleaning because the protagonist Kikuji, his son, does not practise tea. She also meddles in Kikuji’s life, in a way transferring her possessiveness of his father onto him, and uses tea ceremonies to inject herself into his life. Another way she ties herself to the past is by continuing the annual tea ceremonies held by Mr Mitani after his death. Through keeping the tradition of tea, Chikako attempts to feel connected with Mr Mitani.
Chikako continues to keep Mr Mitani’s tea house clean and functional, despite it being out of use since Kikuji’s mother’s death, and Kikuji himself having no interest in it, because she wants to remain feeling useful to him. Mr Mitani loved tea, so the teahouse reminds Chikako of him and remains special to her after he is gone. It is stated that Chikako wanted to remain useful to Mr Mitani after their affair was over, and would do the housekeeping and cooking: “She would come to help in the kitchen when there was to be a tea ceremony and even when ordinary guests were expected.” (p. 13) This show...
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...on with him through his love of tea by cleaning his teahouse, trying to keep his son-- almost an extension of Mr Mitani himself-- away from Mrs Ota through a surprise miai at a tea ceremony, and by keeping the tradition of his annual tea ceremony. With the theme of the struggle between past and present, tradition and modernity, coursing through the story, Chikako’s preference for tradition, as in tea ceremonies and miai, as well as her refusal to move on from Mr Mitani, both imply that she is representing the side of “past” which she portrays antagonistically, by being “tactless” and unpleasant, by meddling in Kikuji’s life and stirring up trouble for everyone. Perhaps a message to be learned from Chikako is that it is unhealthy to not let go of the past.
Works Cited
Kawabata, Yasunari. Thousand Cranes. Trans. Edward Seidensticker. New York: Vintage, 1996. Print.
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.
After all the hardships Tai and Chiko have endured in camp, Tai calls Chiko his “ko”. In Burmese, “ko” means “elder brother” and is a word used only for either biological brothers or people who are very close. The way the author uses “ko” is a much more powerful way to describe the relationship that Tai and Chiko now have. In the very last paragraph of the chapter the author writes, “I flick him [Tai] lightly on the skull… like it’s the most important job in the world” (Perkins 108). By the way the two now interact with each other, a sense of lightheartedness and home like feeling is added to the atmosphere. Both of the boys miss their families greatly, but they were able to find new “family” through meeting each other in camp and friendship. Though this is very touching, I predict that this event is only foreshadowing a bleaker future for the two. Earlier in the novel when the boys first entered the training camp, Chiko referred to Tai as an “uneducated boy” (Perkins 73). It amazes me to see how much the characters can be transformed from trials and tribulations. Furthermore, I find it interesting how Perkins uses just this simple word, “ko,” to convey the lesson, “adversity shapes who we are.” Neither Chiko nor Tai predicted that they would find a “brother” in such a harsh place. Near the end of chapter twenty-two, Tai says that he has “never had a brother before” and “who knew [that] I’d [Tai] would find one here of all places.” (Perkins 108). Being sent to the training camp allowed the two to meet. Through the two meeting, Tai learns how to read and write, and Chiko gains the confidence and mental strength he always wished he
Kiyota Emi was affected when she first time visited her grandmother who was in a Japanese nursing care. “I was so uncomfortable,” Kiyota says. “I could see that my grandmother and most of the other patients were just existing there; They had no purpose; they were just waiting for release.” Kiyota’s grandmother loved to gardening, but in that place she does not have any flowers or garden. The facility only allows the patients and. Staffs of these facilities normally calls the patients by their surname or by the room number where they are residing. That nursing home changed Kiyota’s life. Just after she the routine and the environment of what her grandmother was facing who is in the facility because
Since its publication in 1981, Joy Kogawa's Obasan has assumed an important place in Canadian literature and in the broadly-defined, Asian-American literary canon. Reviewers immediately heralded the novel for its poetic force and its moving portrayal of an often-ignored aspect of Canadian and American history. Since then, critics have expanded upon this initial commentary to examine more closely the themes and images in Kogawa's work. Critical attention has focused on the difficulties and ambiguities of what is, in more ways than one, a challenging novel. The complexity of Obasan's plot, the intensity of its imagery, and the quiet bitterness of its protest challenge readers to wrestle with language and meaning in much the same way that Naomi must struggle to understand her past and that of the larger Japanese-Canadian community. In this sense, the attention that Obasan has received from readers and critics parallels the challenges of the text: Kogawa's novel, one might say, demands to be reckoned with, intellectually as well as emotionally.
It is fitting to discuss the recollection of the past in an age advancing to an unknown futurity and whose memories are increasingly banished to the realm of the nostalgic or, even worse, obsolete. Thomas Pynchon and William Faulkner, in wildly contrasting ways, explore the means by which we, as individuals and communities, remember, recycle, and renovate the past. Retrospection is an inevitability in their works, for the past is inescapable and defines, if not dominates, the present.
Known for her work as a historian and rather outspoken political activist, Yamakawa Kikue was also the author of her book titled Women of the Mito Domain (p. xix). At the time she was writing this work, Yamakawa was under the surveillance of the Japanese government as the result of her and her husband’s work for the socialist and feminist movements in Japan (p. xx-xxi). But despite the restrictions she was undoubtedly required to abide by in order to produce this book, her work contains an air of commentary on the past and present political, social, and economic issues that had been plaguing the nation (p. xxi). This work is a piece that comments on the significance of women’s roles in history through the example of Yamakawa’s own family and
An important aspect of Dana Sach’s “if you lived here” is the trauma and recovery that characters like Xuan Mai go through. Trauma results from an event that is overwhelming to the person and causes symptoms that are a response to the trauma. Recovery is when the life narrative is pieced back together so that the trauma is, “part of the learning curve of the life narrative.” (Herman) The trauma and recovery of characters like Xuan Mai is important because the stage that the character is undergoing impacts their actions and attitudes toward key events in the novel. This is evident in how Xuan Mai’s attitude toward Shelley’s adoption of Hai Au changes based on what stage of trauma and recovery that she is in.
A changing world and a sense of dominance over other groups of people allows Etta Heine’s racism towards Japanese-Americans to be explicitly evident in the novel. During the 1940’s, the predominantly Caucasian country of America was gradually changing to incorporate a cultural diversity between several groups of individuals. Etta Heine’s lack of appreciation of a changing world enables her to develop a deep hatred towards foreign groups, “Carl’s heart failed him one clear October night in 1944…Carl junior was away at the war, and Etta took advantage of this circumstance to sell the farm to Ole Jurgensen” (Guterson 115). As Etta Heine prepares to take the stand in Kabuo Miyamoto’s trial, the narrator explains how Etta’s husband passed away. After Carl’s heart failed, Etta was quick to sell the land, despite her husband’s agreement with Zenhichi, to Ole Jurgensen. This signifies Etta’s deep hatred towards Japanese people since the death of her husband was merely a tactic used in her advantage to eliminate the deal her husband made with Zenhichi. A lack of mourning over the death of her husband was expressed, enabling the reader to develop assumptions about Etta’s character. Consequently, this proves how devious, cruel, and heinous Etta can be. Etta’s hateful attributes are deeply rooted with issues of certainty and structure that cause her to develop racist ideologies. Although America allows Japanese individuals to reside in their country, the law banning Japanese people from owning lands enabled Etta to justify her actions in a court of law. This portrays that Etta is a stubborn and traditional human, who has relatively made peace with Japanese individuals occupying “Etta’s country”, yet her husband’s deal with Zenhinchi caused he...
In the beginning half of the 20th century, China experienced an intellectual revolution, known as the May Fourth Movement. Among other things, May Fourth thinkers were passionate about women’s rights, and fought for equality between the sexes. Like in any school of thought, ideas about women and their roles evolved over time. In 1925, Lu Xun wrote “Regret for the Past”, a story about Shih Chuan-Sheng and Tzu-chun, a modern couple whose relationship falls apart. Ten years later, in 1935, the film “New Woman” was released. The film follows Wei Ming, a music teacher whose life begins to crumble due to the machinations of a lecherous businessman. Both Tzu-chun and Wei Ming represent a version of the “modern woman, but their similarities and differences illustrate how the idea of the modern woman changed and stayed the same over time.
There were many events that happened in the past which people were fighting for their rights and freedoms. In the novel “When The Emperor Was Divine” by Julie Otsuka, she uses this novel to tell the readers about the importance of freedom and human right. In the story, she did not mention the name of the main characters, but the characters that involve in this novel is a Japanese family who get arrest by the American because of their ethnicities. First, their father got arrested by the American because the American doubted that this man was a spy from Japan. Then their whole family got arrested into the Japanese Concentration Camp in the desert. They were ordered not to go through the fence of the camp or else they will get kill by the soldiers who guarding the camp. This means that their freedoms were taken away by the camp. In the story, the girl’s personality was changed because of this camp. She starts to realize that this “camp” was nothing but a jail. So she started to give on her life and not to care about anything. She used to eat with her family, but now she never did; also she started to smoke cigarette in her ages of 14 to15. Also their human rights were being taken while their were in the camp. They were being force to admit to America for their loyalty. It makes all the Japanese people to feel low self-esteem for their identity. Therefore, the author uses this novel to show the changing of this family by the lack of freedom and human right.
Soon after Papa’s arrest, Mama relocated the family to the Japanese immigrant ghetto on Terminal Island. For Mama this was a comfort in the company of other Japanese but for Jeanne it was a frightening experience. It was the first time she had lived around other people of Japanese heritage and this fear was also reinforced by the threat that her father would sell her to the “Chinaman” if she behaved badly. In this ghetto Jeanne and he ten year old brother were teased and harassed by the other children in their classes because they could not speak Japanese and were already in the second grade. Jeanne and Kiyo had to avoid the other children’s jeers. After living there for two mo...
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 Heian period(794-1185), the so-called golden age of Japanese culture, produced some of the finest works of Japanese literature.1 The most well known work from this period, the Genji Monogatari, is considered to be the “oldest novel still recognized today as a major masterpiece.”2 It can also be said that the Genji Monogatari is proof of the ingenuity of the Japanese in assimilating Chinese culture and politics. As a monogatari, a style of narrative with poems interspersed within it, the characters and settings frequently allude to Chinese poems and stories. In addition to displaying the poetic prowess that the Japanese had attained by this time period, the Genji Monogatari also demonstrates how politics and gender ideals were adopted from the Chinese.
In the novel the Chi is a powerful spirit that determines a man's lot in life. One such instance is when Okonkwo was disbanded from his home for a Feminine murder; Clearly his personal god or Chi was not made for great things. A man could not rise above the destiny of his Chi.
“The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin, is a story that has been controversial since its publication in 1894, with reviews ranging from highly critical to great acclaim. The story follows Chopin’s character Mrs. Mallard who is introduced at the same time she is receiving news of her husband’s death. The story is largely a mixture of radical views for its time, subtle meanings, and symbolism. While modern day readers read this story with an open mind, many men - of the 1890’s and much of the 1900’s - would have been outraged at its surface meaning. However, even today Chopin’s story receives criticism for being a gross portrayal of a woman's loss. This is due to the fact that many individuals continue to view the story at face value. Nevertheless, readers of Chopin’s story will find themselves reacting either one extreme or the other. But it is this reader participation that is crucial in determining what the story will be. Despite all beliefs, Mrs. Mallard is a woman who is stuck in her time trying to escape society’s constraints, develop her own identity, all while “coping” with the loss of her husband.