Junichiro Tanizaki's The Thief

A thief is defined as “a person who steals, especially secretly or without open force”. This relates to the main character the narrator who is stealing throughout the story without his friend’s knowing. The author of “The Thief”, Junichiro Tanizaki, proves the theme of how people should not trust one another so easily based on his main characters.
Nakamura, the thief's friend plays a great role in the theme of “The Thief”. Nakamura does not suspect the narrator of being the thief like Hirata does. He instead comforts and supports him. This shows that he trusted and confided in his friend that was going behind his back the whole time. Nakamura comments “But it’s happened so often it must be an inside job.”. this shows that he suspected the thief to be someone close to him but yet continues to trust those around him. This pertains to the theme because Nakamura believed and trusted the narrator's word on the fact that he was not the thief. As soon as Nakamura took the narrator's word that he was telling the truth he became a victim of gullibility. This gullibility led straight into the theme of trusting someone so easily as to look past who they truly are. …show more content…
Higuchi defended the narrator to the judge when the robbery was being investigated. this is important because he trusted the narrator when it came time for him to testify that he was not the thief. When Higuchi defended the narrator to the judge he had no idea he was actually defending the thief who he never thought would steal from him or anyone else. He is also the one who states “But don’t ever believe i'd steal-I just couldn't do it.”. This shows that he is highly against theft and this is ironic because he defended a thief without knowing it. This plays into the theme because he trusted someone so easily and didn't get to know who they really were before doing something big like defending for