Gail Tsukiyama, the author of The Samurai’s Garden, focuses on many topics in this novel but she zeros down on human fallibility and the way these mistakes were dealt with. Through the direct characterization of Stephen coping with the grave mistake his dad has committed and talking to Sachi about her life before and after she became afflicted with leprosy, the author conveys the message that making mistakes is normal but the way they are dealt with will show a person’s character and this message is important because without dealing with mistakes the right way, nothing is being learned from them. Although Stephen has never had a close relationship with his father, he is being forced to cope with his father’s affair with another woman to prove
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Sachi explains her past life where she tells Stephen that Tomoko and her valued outer beauty more than inner beauty, and after Tomoko was afflicted with leprosy she committed sepuku and Sachi tried to end her own life also, “But at the moment I knew I didn’t have the courage of Tomoko, nor of this woman dying before me” (Tsukiyama 137). Sachi explains to Stephen that even though she did not know why she ran away from the ocean, knowing that death was the greatest honor she could’ve given her family, there was a voice in her head telling her to run away. Sachi had put her outer appearance value above her inner beauty, which caused her to want to commit suicide just as Tomoko had. After Sachi ran away from the ocean, she forgot her family, she could not have gone back. Matsu went to look for her and brought her to Yamaguchi, here Sachi tried to live out her past. Matsu and Sachi worked together to find Sachi’s will to live which was her garden. This showed that even though Sachi had made a mistake of trying to kill herself, she overcame her disease because she had people that loved her for who she is all around her. “I spent hours rearranging those stones, as if they held some strange, mesmerizing power that brought me calm.” (Tsukiyama 150). Sachi has found her will to live, she knows her worth and values her friends that love her for her inner
Sachi explains her past life where she tells Stephen that Tomoko and her valued outer beauty more than inner beauty, and after Tomoko was afflicted with leprosy she committed sepuku and Sachi tried to end her own life also, “But at the moment I knew I didn’t have the courage of Tomoko, nor of this woman dying before me” (Tsukiyama 137). Sachi explains to Stephen that even though she did not know why she ran away from the ocean, knowing that death was the greatest honor she could’ve given her family, there was a voice in her head telling her to run away. Sachi had put her outer appearance value above her inner beauty, which caused her to want to commit suicide just as Tomoko had. After Sachi ran away from the ocean, she forgot her family, she could not have gone back. Matsu went to look for her and brought her to Yamaguchi, here Sachi tried to live out her past. Matsu and Sachi worked together to find Sachi’s will to live which was her garden. This showed that even though Sachi had made a mistake of trying to kill herself, she overcame her disease because she had people that loved her for who she is all around her. “I spent hours rearranging those stones, as if they held some strange, mesmerizing power that brought me calm.” (Tsukiyama 150). Sachi has found her will to live, she knows her worth and values her friends that love her for her inner