Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human

No Longer Human (Ningen Shikkaku) is a Japanese novel written by Osamu Dazai and was published in 1948. The novel was intended as an autobiography, with some fictituous details, about the author’s life from his childhood to his adulthood, shortly before he committed suicide. The novel told the story of Yozo, a young Japanese man who believed he was disqualified as human being since his birth. He was abused and oppressed as a child and, in order to survive through his childhood, he learned to lie to please others. These lies and pretensions carried on to his later years when he met various women and ruined their lives. During this time, he also became addicted to alcohol and morphine, which abolished his ability to work. In the end, being devastated by his addiction and feeling alienated from society, Yozo was confined to an insane asylum and later sent to a remote part of the country where he spent the rest of his life. Osamu Dazai was an author respected by many, and this particular novel, No Longer Human, was considered one of the masterpieces of …show more content…
Being an exchange student from a Western country, I may find myself estranged by the native Japanese people. I could find their traditional values and cultural norms difficult to understand or impractical. Vice versa, they could find my ideas wild and unacceptable. I understand that becoming accepted by the host country and learning from their culture are an important part of the study abroad program. In order to quickly assimilate, I need to understand that there will be fundamental differences in expectation between cultures and prepare for any criticism. I will have to seek out to comprehend the underlying virtues of each tradition and act according to their norms. At the same time, I will play my role as an ambassador who represents American people and culture. I will eagerly answer any curious question, clarify any misunderstanding, and build positive images about