Absurdism is the philosophical idea of humanity tries to find the absolute meaning of anything such as the existence of human. The Woman in the Dunes is written by Kobo Abe, a Japanese writer who is uniquely in his writing includes dreadful expedition of individual people in the society. The book is taking place in the 1960s. In the twentieth century, it was a time period prevailed absurdism ideology. In this book, absurdism appears when Niki and other characters lose their identities in the dune. Niki Jumpei who is the main character loses his identity in the path of finding himself shows absurdist. In the beginning of the story, the author Kobo Abe wrote, “One day in August a man disappeared.”(Abe, 3) The first sentence of the book gives
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Especially the main character rather than his name, the author provides a few information about the character, unlike other authors that the main characters are always well introduced and explained. The author gives readers the capacity of imagination about who Niki is. As an illustration, Niki’s insurance paper and birth certificate are the only way to know about him. The characters are nameless, and lack of personal traits. As well as the woman and the town where Niki lives do not have a name. They are nameless or anonymous. In addition, the country Japan does not mention in the novel. All of these evidences show absurdism, and it is astonishing that the book does not have the name of characters. In absurdism, everything does not have meaning, which shows in the book that whatever the name of people or place is, it cannot change anything and it does not have any meaning. The author Kobo Abe reflects on the Japanese society during that time, even though he does not mention any specific historical things. The book uses the time and place very well for the story. For another thing, the book is lack of characteristics, nevertheless there is detailed information about the sand. The author uses a lot of description to describe the sand in the dune to show absurdism. “Sand, which didn’t even have a form of its own-other than the mean ⅛-mm. diameter. Yet not a single could stand against this shapeless, destructive power.” (Abe, 31) As an entomologist, Niki is also observant to the sand. Sand describes a lot in the book, which express the difficult and absurd situation in the
Especially the main character rather than his name, the author provides a few information about the character, unlike other authors that the main characters are always well introduced and explained. The author gives readers the capacity of imagination about who Niki is. As an illustration, Niki’s insurance paper and birth certificate are the only way to know about him. The characters are nameless, and lack of personal traits. As well as the woman and the town where Niki lives do not have a name. They are nameless or anonymous. In addition, the country Japan does not mention in the novel. All of these evidences show absurdism, and it is astonishing that the book does not have the name of characters. In absurdism, everything does not have meaning, which shows in the book that whatever the name of people or place is, it cannot change anything and it does not have any meaning. The author Kobo Abe reflects on the Japanese society during that time, even though he does not mention any specific historical things. The book uses the time and place very well for the story. For another thing, the book is lack of characteristics, nevertheless there is detailed information about the sand. The author uses a lot of description to describe the sand in the dune to show absurdism. “Sand, which didn’t even have a form of its own-other than the mean ⅛-mm. diameter. Yet not a single could stand against this shapeless, destructive power.” (Abe, 31) As an entomologist, Niki is also observant to the sand. Sand describes a lot in the book, which express the difficult and absurd situation in the