The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea

In The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, Yukio Mishima explores the breakdown in adherence to traditional Japanese culture that marked the period following Japan's involvement in World War II. Conrad Schirokauer, in the section titled "Contemporary Japan: 1952-Present" in Modern China and Japan, observes that the period following Japan's involvement in World War II was generally characterized by a questioning of Japanese culture and beliefs: "The forces of modernity are testing old values and ideas, traditional forms of social organization, long-accepted patterns of life, and previously unquestioned beliefs. At issue over the past quarter century has been the ultimate identity of Japan" (267). Specifically, through Noboru, Ryuji, Fusako and the Japanese economy and landscape he describes, Mishima demonstrates the changing nature of Japanese culture. Unfortunately, the view he adopts does not appear very hopeful.

Noboru is a normal, confused, thirteen year-old who must come to terms with his mother's affair with Ryuji, the possibility of gaining a father (a force with which he has not had to contend for five years and which his friends soundly decry), and the resultant loss of his mother's full attention. Whatever the reasons Noboru gives himself and, hence, the reader, his actions could be read as a pubescent young boy's burgeoning interest in sex at the same time his mother once again begins to e

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is mother's full attention. It is, however, more than that. In a world in which women are playing a much more controlling 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 emptiness 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 only finds half-answers and platitudes. Noboru and the boys believed that Ryuji might have the answers because he had seen a world larger 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 leadership and finds them wanting. Works Cited Mishima, Yukio. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994. Schirokauer, Conrad. Modern China and Japan: A Brief History. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982. Wild Swans by Jung Chang One does not learn
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2088
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)