The Bamboo Grove Analysis

Everybody in life has something that they so desire to have in life. Events and happenings in life may inspire the desire in every person at one point in life. These desires may sometimes be shamed or ridiculed in the societal context but that does not deter the fact that it is what someone wants to have or act upon. This paper is going to focus on characters from two stories that have strong desires but their efforts are frustrated by their historical, societal and cultural environments with a clear thesis about: How desires are frustrated by our environments. They are at odds about whether to fulfill their desires or to conform to the social perceptions of the society at the expense of satisfying their needs and fulfilling their most wanted …show more content…
As seen in the story ‘the bamboo grove’ the high commissioner is trying to solve the murder mystery. He comes across the robber who claims to have murdered the suspect. While interviewing him, he asks him if he was the only person who kills people and the robber comes up with an answer that makes the commissioner feel like he and the robber are the same and that if the robber was to be convicted he too was supposed to be convicted. He says, “You, you don 't use your swords. You kill people with your power, with your money. Sometimes you kill them on the pretext of working for their good. It 's true they don 't bleed. They are in the best of health, but all the same you 've killed them. It 's hard to say who is a greater sinner, you or me.” (Akutagawa and Murakami). This goes to show how the society perceives the people in authority, it goes to show that the people in authority may be pretending to protect and safeguard members of the public but in the real sense they are the threat to them. This statement acts upon the conscience of the high commissioner making him feel like a hypocrite convicting this man of murder while he himself is perceived as a