The Ways in Which Lian Hearn Develops the Theme of Personal Identity in Across the Nightingale Floor

The Ways in Which Lian Hearn Develops the Theme of Personal

Identity in Across the Nightingale Floor

The book opens with the main character Tomasu having his whole village

burned down by Lord Iida and the Tohan clan. This is due to the fact

that his family and villagers are part of a small clan called the

hidden. Tomasu then runs out into the mountains with Iida's men after

him and comes across Lord Otori Shigeru who saves Tomasu' life. This

is where Tomasu' identity develops a stage.

Lord Shigeru try's to speak to the boy but receives no reply and so

semi-adopts him and takes him to his home town. Along the way Tomasu'

identity changes and he becomes a very quiet boy and always seems to

be thinking about nature. Lian Hearn then develops Tomasu as a boy as

he gives Tomasu acute hearing, the boy can hear everything said within

quite a distance. He is able to hear things said in other rooms and

all around Lord Shigeru's house.

On one of the nights this acute hearing comes to the lord's rescue and

Tomasu manages to alert the lord that there is an assassin trying to

get in the window. The lord regards this as a very noble act and

decides to adopt the child. In order to stop Lord Iida from finding

the boy and attacking him Lord Shigeru renames the boy as Takeo.

This name change signifies a change in personality for Takeo as he

seems to develop more as a character and we find out more about him.

The lord notices his acute hearing and gets the boy a teacher in order

to fully develop these hidden traits that the boy posses.

The teacher goes by the name of Kenji and he himself helps the boy to

discover who he really is and develops...

... middle of paper ...

...e and they instantly fall in love

but neither shows it as both know that Kaede is set to marry Lord

Shigeru.

The book ends with Lord Shigeru getting seriously injured by Lord Iida

and Takeo has to kill him in order to stop him from suffering. Takeo

then gets Lord Shigeru's magical sword which also seems to have a

great effect on Takeo's personal identity he seems to become more or a

warrior not a boy any more he has now killed some one with a sword.

Kaede then meets Takeo and they both confirm each others thoughts that

they were both madly in love with each other. They share one evening

together before then being split apart again as Takeo had an

obligation to join his tribe again. Once again his identity seems to

be smashed into pieces and he becomes Tomasu again the quite little

boy as he joins another tribe.