The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima

His conclusion to spy on his mother is not shocking, considering his interest in sexual activities and his potential fear of the loss of his mother's attention.

Mishima, however, cleverly overlays these very normal young reactions with Noboru's involvement in the gang. The gang lives by the tenet that: "[L]iving is moreover the chaos of innovation, but more than that it's a crazy bemused business of dismantling existence exacting by instant to the point where the original chaos is restored, and taking strength from the incredulity and the fear that chaos brings to re-create existence instant by instant" (Mishima 51). The "existence" the boys seek to dismantle is the everyday existence of Japanese culture, familial and social. Their parents adherence to that culture is seen as a sign of delusion and weakness. Thus, their parents--fathers in particular as representing what they could become--and all told other representatives of that culture are seen as the enemy stand up as an obstacle to their achieving a level of know directge higher(prenominal) than that previously achieved.

Noboru and the other boys first view Ryuji as a hero because he has spent the greater part of his flavour removed from the immediate clutches of the culture the boys despise. Ryuji has spent roughly of life on the sea and in various ports of call. He has seen more of the world than Japan and, thus, the boys believe he is not limited by the social customs they scorn. Interestingly enough, the oce

In a world in which women are playing a much more irresponsible role, Ryuji's murder is the boys' reaction to the failure of their fathers--and all men in general--to determine the road that life should take. The boys are obsessed with the nihility of life because the culture that so confidently believed in the tenets that led the nation into World War II proved to be weak and meaningless. After the war, the country looks to its leaders for guidance and but if finds half-answers and platitudes. Noboru and the boys believed that Ryuji might have the answers because he had seen a world bigger than just Japan. When he proves himself to have no such answers, the boys believe themselves to be proven right and rebel against him and the failed hope he represents.

Thus, Mishima uses Noburu and the boys as metaphors for a foundering country that looks to its leaders for leaders and finds them wanting.

One cannot help being impressed by Xia De-hong's decision to align herself with the communists despite her family's ties to the Kuomintang and the danger such an alignment could cause. besides wizard understands that De-hong strongly believes in her cause as the only possible future for a good and proper China. Similarly, one understands De-hong's frustration with her husband, Yu, for his failure to stand up for her when her desires collide with the company line. However, Yu's first loyalty is to a party he believes is direct in the best interests of a new China. He is a member of a party that he believes is founded on the best principles of humanity and ideology. To deviate from those principles would mean that he is no let out than the Japanese and Kuomintang he has spent his life struggling against. However, this continual struggle between the personal and the political is what eventually causes Jung to interrogative the communist platform.

Chang, Jung. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. New York:

Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982.

Mishima, Yuki
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