People of The Setting Sun
Close inspection of The Setting Sun by Dazai Osamu allows one to see a particular family battle changing times that are affecting a whole nation of people. Paralleled in many ways by the author's own reality, we see how this deep message is more than just a fiction story. As a nation, Japan had just surrendered to the U.S. ending their participation in WWII. With the end of this battle, a new one on the home front began. In a sense, the tradition of Japan died with the war; there is a definite passing of a generation/era of people. The country is now caught in a state of shock as they try to piece together new lives. This is by no means a simple task when tradition is pulling from one side and an influx of modern ways and ideas are pulling from the other. Through the analyzation of Mother, Kazuko, and Naoji, the notion of a nation struggling to grasp a new modern identity while coping with the decline of a social order that has stood strong for so many years is unfolded from beginning to end creating mixed feelings of hope and depression for the people of the setting sun. Due to WWII, Kazuko and her mother must leave Tokyo and establish residents in nearby village. Kazuko's brother, Naoji, has been fighting in the war
Kazuko has lived with her mother from beginning to the end. She has treasured the time spent with last of the true aristocrats. When the war has ended, she has to deal with so many issues that a feeling of despair seems to lurk over her character. She makes it clear that love and revolution are what makes the people go, "Before the war, even during the war, we were convinced of it. Since the defeat, however, we no longer trust the older and wiser heads and have come to feel that the opposite of whatever they say is the real truth about life...they (revolution and love) are so good that the older and wiser heads have spitefully fobbed off on us their sour grapes of a lie." Feeling alienated by her own class of people (due to their actions), she looks to Naoji's artist friend Uehara for a sense of belonging and passion. She writes a series of letters proclaiming her love for him. In the end, she is able to have a child by him. This act in the novel takes us into a deeper issue. Modernity is once again made evident with the role of Christianity in the novel. The birth of her child symbolizes the rebirth that you can have in Christ, as well as symbolizing the rebirth of a nation. As Kazuko witnessed the deaths of her mother and brother, it is surprising yet relieving to see her character end the novel with a new positive hope. This child is her way to cope with the coming age, and it is her gift of life to the child that also allows her to handle the deaths of the very family that has made her who she is for so many years. The beginning scene of the novel is a great description for the type of women that Mother was. By explaining how she eats her soup or "wee wee's" in the garden, we can see that she is looked at by her children as being a good aristocrat. She had class, but was not afraid to act in her own ways. Eventually people were forced to take care of her due to her failing health, but never once do you see her attitude change to the negative. As she began to die, she never complained at all about her condition. She is among the last of a generation of good aristocrats; her ideals and morals about how life should be lived a
Some common words found in the essay are:
Japan Kazuko, Dazai Osamu, Victims Victims, Kazuko's Naoji, Kazuko Naoji, WWII Kazuko, , artist friend, setting sun, aristocratic family, japan kazuko, born family, modern world, wiser heads, naoji takes,
Approximate Word count = 1456
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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