Natsume Soseki's novel Kokoro

The novel is about the way morality was changing as the old traditional life passed away in Japan and the modern world emerged. The old ways were ruled by strict moral views. There was a sense that people owed one another loyalty and fidelity. Friendship was important, maybe even more important than love. But these ways were passing away at the time this novel was being written. The modern world was coming into being. The major difference between the old world and the modern world was the fading away of the sense that people owed moral behavior to one another. In the modern world, the most important value was individualism, rather than group loyalty and friendship.

Sensei is a man with one foot in the old world and one foot in the modern world. He knows that the moral code of the old world said that he should not have taken the woman K loved. But Sensei also is in the modern world, and he has become more individualistic and selfish as a result. He takes the woman, K kills himself, and the rest of Sensei's life is spent in guilt, alienation and misery. Finally, Sensei himself chooses suicide as a way out of his suffering, telling himself that it is a moral action.

Soseki's novel would not be the great work which it

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comes paranoid thinking about Ojosan and her mother: "It was unbearably painful to imagine the two of them plotting behind my back. I was not merely unhappy; I was desperate" (157). We see that he is prepared to betray and deceive somebody else before he ever lets himself be tricked again: "No matter what happened, I vowed to myself, no one would ever dupe me as my uncle had done" (159). Then, as Sensei tries to decide whether to marry Ojosan or not, K enters the picture. In fact, Sensei brought K into the house where he and Ojosan and her mother live. K is a childhood friend reunited with Sensei. The question of the book from that point on seems to be how an individual loses his innocence, what he does to protect himself as a result, and what he does when he sees that his action has been very destructive. This is the conflict between the old moral code and the modern world where honor and loyalty mean far less than they once did. Sensei lost his innocence when his uncle stole from him and betrayed his trust. He vowed never to be deceived again. He fell in love with Ojosan. Then K entered the picture. Sensei loved K: "My heart was filled with reverence for K" (165). It is clear that Sensei has some jealousy and envy for K, fo
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Approximate Word count = 1791
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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