Following are the themes, ideas, and questions generated by the AP Classes.
Key Characters
Noboru: child of Fusako, “iron heart”
Ryuji Tsukazaki:
Rakuyo: Ryujo’s ten-thousand-ton freighter
Fusako: manager at swank Rex’s upper-class clothing store in Motomachi district of Yokohama; widower & Noboru’s mother
Mr. Shibuya: Rex’s elderly buyer
Fusaka Kuroda: maid in Fusako’s house
Setting
Yokohama: port city in post WWII Japan
Themes
Expectation/ fantasy vs. reality “the ideal” vs. the real
Man vs. woman
Corruption of youth/loss of innocence What has been lost?
Why are the children the cynics?
Rejection of adult world
Westerntization vs. traditional Japanese society/emasculation of Japan following WWI—void = boys/nihilism?
Glory and death
Leadership
Punishment
Power of love vs. power of destruction—murder as ultimate power
Death restores glory/honor—cutting passage
Contrast between what is hidden/what is apparent
“violation” inherent in the spying—later violation
fatherly relationships/influence
life at sea/land (symbolism)
fantasy vs. reality—ocean vs. land, trunk peephole vs. realworld
honor vs. glory & death
power, control & ego—desruction, manipulation, spying & killing
selling—Fusako’s store, Noboru’s observations of Ryuji
Hypocracy, cynacism, judgemental nature
Emotion & stoicicm
Glory vs. love
Romanticism vs. cyncism
Nihilism
Detachment
Completeness/wholeness
Inevitable death—the minute you’re born you are dying….
THEMES/QUESTIONS:
Can the striving for ideals lead to destruction of self? Love and Death, Pain and pleasure, grief and happiness are ineluctably linked. Alienation and separation Completeness/Wholeness Power and destruction ñ Indifference of the world Glory ìThe power, violence, and unpredictability of the sea signal the fundamental chaos of existence, which humankind either ignores by defining a safe haven or tries to control by imposing itself on the world.î ìThe destruction of Ryuji signals that neither have any lasting or final value. The only true freedom is to invoke the chaos that, for Mishima, is the true nature of existence.î SACRIFICE Nakedness ñ come face to face with reality; vulnerability; being stripped of faÁade Inevitable Death Fatherly relationships Life and sea/land Fantasy vs. reality Honor, glory, and death Hypocrisy Emotion vs. stoicism Glory vs. love Nihilism Detachment Selling/selling out
THEMES and IDEAS:
Following are the themes, ideas, and questions generated by the AP Classes.Key Characters
Noboru: child of Fusako, “iron heart”
Ryuji Tsukazaki:
Rakuyo: Ryujo’s ten-thousand-ton freighter
Fusako: manager at swank Rex’s upper-class clothing store in Motomachi district of Yokohama; widower & Noboru’s mother
Mr. Shibuya: Rex’s elderly buyer
Fusaka Kuroda: maid in Fusako’s house
Setting
Yokohama: port city in post WWII Japan
Themes
Expectation/ fantasy vs. reality “the ideal” vs. the real
Man vs. woman
Corruption of youth/loss of innocence What has been lost?
Why are the children the cynics?
Rejection of adult world
Westerntization vs. traditional Japanese society/emasculation of Japan following WWI—void = boys/nihilism?
Glory and death
Leadership
Punishment
Power of love vs. power of destruction—murder as ultimate power
Death restores glory/honor—cutting passage
Contrast between what is hidden/what is apparent
“violation” inherent in the spying—later violation
fatherly relationships/influence
life at sea/land (symbolism)
fantasy vs. reality—ocean vs. land, trunk peephole vs. realworld
honor vs. glory & death
power, control & ego—desruction, manipulation, spying & killing
selling—Fusako’s store, Noboru’s observations of Ryuji
Hypocracy, cynacism, judgemental nature
Emotion & stoicicm
Glory vs. love
Romanticism vs. cyncism
Nihilism
Detachment
Completeness/wholeness
Inevitable death—the minute you’re born you are dying….
THEMES/QUESTIONS:
Can the striving for ideals lead to destruction of self?
Love and Death, Pain and pleasure, grief and happiness are ineluctably linked.
Alienation and separation
Completeness/Wholeness
Power and destruction ñ Indifference of the world
Glory
ìThe power, violence, and unpredictability of the sea signal the fundamental chaos of existence, which humankind either ignores by defining a safe haven or tries to control by imposing itself on the world.î
ìThe destruction of Ryuji signals that neither have any lasting or final value. The only true freedom is to invoke the chaos that, for Mishima, is the true nature of existence.î
SACRIFICE
Nakedness ñ come face to face with reality; vulnerability; being stripped of faÁade
Inevitable Death
Fatherly relationships
Life and sea/land
Fantasy vs. reality
Honor, glory, and death
Hypocrisy
Emotion vs. stoicism
Glory vs. love
Nihilism
Detachment
Selling/selling out