The novel The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, by Yukio Mishima, focuses on the story of Ryuji. Ryuji, a young naive Japanese male, believes in glory being obtained at sea. Yet nevertheless he falls in love with Fusako, a lady of the shore. Fusako's son, Nuboru and his gang, reject the adult world as sentimental and hypocritical, preferring to believe in objectivity. Noboru and Fusako's ideals remain unchanged throughout the novel. The novel is divided into winter and summer, representing the before and the after of the Ryuji's aspirations.
The novel has three main characters: Fusako, Noboru and Ryuji, who also represent three diffrent stages in Japanese history of ideals. Noboru and his gang represent the old traditional Japanese values of honour, glory, etc., while Fusako, his mother, is the embodiment of …show more content…
Glory is an important theme, and arguably the main, is portrayed by the main character Ryuji and a central philosophy of Noboru and his gang in Mishima’s novel. Glory and the search for it is one of the defining features of Ryuji’s character. For him it is the “one thing”1 he “is destined”2 for. This is despite Mishima asserting that “the world would have to topple if he was to attain the glory that was rightfully his”3, thus resulting in a situation that is impossible. In the novel, the theme of glory, is intertwined with love, contrary to traditional. This is different to the traditional Japanese idea that dying heroically would eventually lead to glory. Ryuji transmits his beliefs through his speech; “glory merged in death and in a woman"4 where Mishima shows how Ryuji is unable to distinguish which of these three conflicting ideals is most important to him. This confusion felt by Ryuji reflects that confusion felt by many of the Japanese males after the Second World
The novel has three main characters: Fusako, Noboru and Ryuji, who also represent three diffrent stages in Japanese history of ideals. Noboru and his gang represent the old traditional Japanese values of honour, glory, etc., while Fusako, his mother, is the embodiment of …show more content…
Glory is an important theme, and arguably the main, is portrayed by the main character Ryuji and a central philosophy of Noboru and his gang in Mishima’s novel. Glory and the search for it is one of the defining features of Ryuji’s character. For him it is the “one thing”1 he “is destined”2 for. This is despite Mishima asserting that “the world would have to topple if he was to attain the glory that was rightfully his”3, thus resulting in a situation that is impossible. In the novel, the theme of glory, is intertwined with love, contrary to traditional. This is different to the traditional Japanese idea that dying heroically would eventually lead to glory. Ryuji transmits his beliefs through his speech; “glory merged in death and in a woman"4 where Mishima shows how Ryuji is unable to distinguish which of these three conflicting ideals is most important to him. This confusion felt by Ryuji reflects that confusion felt by many of the Japanese males after the Second World