Isolation In Kokoro

Kokoro by Natsume Soseki is a novel that introduces readers to a vast majority of characters that feel isolated due to their past. It is apparent that in Japanese society, during the Meiji period, that people were going through sudden changes. These changes provoked many people within this era and later in the novel, Sensei hints at his mysterious past which put him into the isolation that he is in now. When exploring feelings of isolation in Japanese society through these characters, there is a discrepancy between the isolation that these characters felt and Japanese society during the Meiji Ishin era.
Kokoro, as explained above, introduces characters that are isolated due to their past. The Narrator of Kokoro is an unnamed male who starts …show more content…
This forced Sensei to break from his uncle and the rest of his family and leave with the remainder of his money; this is when he finds accommodations with Ojosan, his present wife, and Okosan, Ojosan’s mother. However, when K, Sensei’s university friend, came to live with them, he didn’t realize that he would be competing with his friend for the love of his life.
This competition and K’s family situation caused him to go overboard, and he committed suicide. This drove Sensei into isolation; he blames himself for K’s death even though no one says Sensei killed him. Ojosan believed, that because she was part of the problem between the two of them, Sensei hated her which drove a small wedge between them. This shows the struggle that Sensei endures as he tries to find his identity in Japanese society.
While trying to find his identity within his isolated life, it can be seen that Sensei is not modern and is not conservative; he is a mix of both and this shows a discrepancy between isolation, and the Meiji Ishin period because Sensei’s isolation did not help him move forward like everyone else during the Meiji Ishin