Literature of Japan.
Three Japanese literature article reflections are below...
"Swaddling Clothes"
What dichotomies are represented in the story? How do they play out in the story? What aspects of Japanese culture do the characters represent? What are the universal themes in the story? A theme is not a moral, but rather a connection the writer is making between the intimate worlds of their characters to the universal human experience. What about the ending?
There are differences within this story because Toshiko and her husband are treating the situation that had occurred in different ways. Toshiko was ashamed of the birth and her husband was telling the story to many people as though it was not a big deal. Toshiko is having a battle in her head the whole time during the story of how to handle what she had witnessed. These characters represent Japanese culture through the way they stated how they felt about the birth of the child. This story leads me to believe that the Japanese culture cares about the way their children are birthed. According to this story a birth in an unplanned or poor area will result in the child being poor and not successful. I think this is what the writer was trying to accomplish through this story because it was very different to read and try to understand. This ending was very unpredictable but I enjoyed it. Toshiko was thinking of telling the child, when he was twenty, how he was born when all of a sudden the boy laying down was the child and it was her time to tell him.
"Autumn Gardening"
How does the story avoid the "single story" narrative of Japanese experiences during WWII that Americans are typically exposed to? Look up historical and cultural facts surrounding Hiroshima survivors. How does Anderson's story offer an authentic, though fictional, account of what many experienced? What is the predominant theme in the story? What role does memory (Mariko's and Mistuye's) play in the story? How does the importance of speaking connect to other historical events?
This story was discrete in the way it was able to share the story of the bombing of Hiroshima but not straight forward with being a fictional story. From reading the book ‘Hiroshima’ I was able to have a better understanding of what had happened and I had a previous outlook of the real stories of the survivors of the bombing. This story was able to deliver, what seemed to be real, a fictional story of the reality of what had happened in Hiroshima by making the character, Mariko, capture you in thinking this is the history of her. The predominant theme in the story is to realize the affects of Hiroshima and how many years after the bombing these two women were scared to share they were survivors of the bombing while living in the US because they would risk losing their insurance and anything else they were being provided of since Americans would have viewed them as bomb survivors and would not like that. Mariko is trying to forget what had happened because she feels as though she was not able to help as many people as she would have liked to and feels more ashamed of her memories, whereas Mistuye was ready to share her memories to inform everyone how much that had and still was affecting her and everyone else’s lives after the bomb. She wanted to get her memories out there since she felt if she didn’t there wouldn’t be anyone left to share the survivor’s stories. The importance of speaking in this story is similar to WWII with Hitler and the Jews that did survive. I know that I, personally, am grateful for the people who shared their stories and memories from that awful event because I was able to learn from their experiences and it is so much better to learn it that way rather than through a text book in a history class.
"One Arm"
What genre of fiction does this story fit into? What is the story about? What is it really about? What is magical and real about this story?
This would be considered a short story, fantasy fiction story. This story is about a man who has a woman’s right arm that she had willingly given to him to use and to even perhaps keep as his own, the arm speaks to the man and he views the arm as a woman that he was becoming close to. I believe this story is really about how two people are connected and become so closely together as one, just like when the man and the woman’s arm become one for a night. But, just like life, sometimes it is not like that for very long and he pulled her arm away from his body and returned his own arm to his body. The arms coming on and off the man and woman, the arm speaking to the man, as well as the two coming together as one meaning the woman’s arm became the man’s own arm are the magical parts. The real part is the connection to real life it actually made with how you really can become that close with someone and then all of a sudden just become completely separate within a short moment.
We were then asked to come up with a haiku to explain each article to our own interpretation and a tanka to explain our interpretation for all combined:
"One Arm"
Revealing yourself
The desire for many
Until you have it
"Swaddling Clothes"
I'm the only one
His secret is mine to keep
The years have passed by
"Autumn Gardening"
I want to forget
The shame I feel from that day
The dead have a voice
Our interpretation of all of them together:
I want to forget
His secret is mine to keep
Until you have it
Too much like a burden now
A bundle of rocks hidden
