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The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea

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

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 explore her sexual persona. His decision to spy on his mother is not shocking, considering his interest in sexual activities and his latent fear of the loss of his mother's attention.

Mishima, however, cleverly overlays these very normal teenage reactions with Noboru's involvement in the gang. The gang lives by the tenet that: "[L]iving is merely the chaos of existence, but more than that it's a crazy mixed-up business of dismantling existence instant by ...

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The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 05:54, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1682521.html