The Metdiegetic Story Of Yukiko's 'I'

Yukiko attempts to secure her spot in this homosexual realm by volunteering a needlework, which is generally considered as a feminine job. However, Umemaro prevents her from successfully integrating to the system by tacitly implying that behaviors of heterosexuality, such as a needlework done by female, are not permissible in a homosexual world. On top of her struggle to take over a feminine job to recapture her feminine subjectivity, she even dreams of an opportunity to take some power away from Y by depriving him of Umemaro. In the scene where she describes her ambivalence towards Y, she thinks that “since he [Y] loved Umemaro so tenderly, she might humble Y’s arrogant pride by depriving him of Umemaro, whenever that opportunity might present

Yukiko tells her experience to ‘I’, who then tells the story to the audience through a third person point of view. Even though the ultimate narrator of the metadiegetic story is ‘I’, it is precisely Yukiko who recollects the past as an active agent and thus has an enormous impact on the way how the characters are described. As a primary narrator of the metadiegetic story, Yukiko is able to interact with the story and her current thoughts are often manifested between lines where she describes particular scenes or feelings of the past. For example, at the point of time when she was just gazing at the quarrel between the brothers, she describes that “her heart was uneasy and disturbed” and thought that “she would not be able to look at them anymore” (83). However, in the very next line, she says “when she [Yukiko] recollected the past, she came to realize that she might have regarded them primarily with jealousy. Yukiko felt attracted by the sweet, sentimental desire that emanated from the abyss of their violent passion for each other” (83). The young Yukiko at the time of the event thought she was disturbed by what she saw from the two brothers. Notice that during this time, she was not only at the bottom of the power structure but was on the verge of losing her female subjectivity. Thus, the homosexual implication of the brothers’ relationship only reassured the fact that there is no place for her heterosexuality to stand up. However, as soon as the old Yukiko intervenes the story, her confession acts to emphasize the transformation of her role from a powerless being, desperate to secure her existence, to an observer who is fully aware of her emotion and the corresponding meaning of