Ono's Dilema

From the beginning of the novel, we are given the impression that Ono is a humble artist who made a mistake and has been chewed out by the rest of society for it though they once admired him. However Ono is a senile old man who thinks too highly of himself and is arrogant enough to try and shoulder the blame for leading Japan into war. Through out the novel, it seems that Ono is outcast by society because of his patriotism during the war when in reality he is the one excluding himself from the world.

At one point in his life, Ono believed in the emperor and what he stood for. He believed in a strong Japan that would rise against its fat bureaucrats and prosper. However, before all of this, Ono was a mere artist of a “floating world” of entertainment and pleasure. While working under Mori Ono was content with living a life of indulgence without a care for the world, as Matsuda puts it at the end of the novel Ono had a “narrow artist's perspective” (199). It was Matsuda that turned Ono on to the idea of a corrupt and disgraced Japan that needed to be fixed. It was with the “Eyes to the Horizon” Ono finally embarked down his path to patriotism and stepped out of the floating world. The idea of a new Japan was impressed onto Ono in such a way that he saw it as his own, but when he lost his wife and son to the war, Ono could not help but feel responsible for their deaths because it was similar opinions to his that led to the war in the first place.

This feeling of guilt then ate Ono from the inside and eventually clawed itself to manifest in the real world. Ono feels guilty for the loss of his family and for that reason, he can't help but feel uncomfortable when he sees that his wife and son died in vain. Kenji died in Manchuria, trying to extend Japan's reach, Michiko died as a result of the war, both were the result of ideals that Ono believed in and that is why he feels as if he played a major part in everything that happened.

It seems that this feeling of guilt then drives Ono mad. He sees hate in the eyes of the new generation because he hates himself for supporting the movement that took everything from him. However, Ono can't bring himself to admit his self loathing, his pride won't allow it. Instead, Ono projects his attitude to the people around him. I didn't begin to realize this until Ono mentioned his conversation with Setsuko on pages 192 and 193. How can it be that Setsuko cannot recollect the conversation in which she warned her father of the past when we are given such a vivid account of it? The only answer that I can think of is that said conversation never happened anywhere outside of Ono. When reading the novel, we must keep in mind that everything is being filtered by Ono so it is entirely possible that the events he describes aren't completely accurate he himself even acknowledges this on several occasions. To me all of the pardons on Ono's behalf for digressing and for the accuracy of his words is a clear hint by Ishiguro that Ono might suffer some kind of memory loss and that we should not trust him, since he himself can't remember the events that influenced his life. On page 193 Setsuko even tells Ono, “no one has ever considered Father's past something to view with recrimination.” Yet earlier on in the novel, Setsuko is hell bent on reprimanding her father.

It is entirely possible that Ono's subconscious caused him to imagine such a conversation with Setsuko to help him come to grips with his feelings. By having someone else blame him, Ono can force himself to justify himself. The miai also gives Ono the excuse he needs to come clean with himself and admit his mistakes. Indeed, the family does seem awkward when Ono begins his rantings and his daughters comment on this later on, though it doesn't seem so to Ono. In fact, in Ono's eyes, it wasn't until his confession that the miai took a turn for the best. It's funny how no one else remembers it that way.

Matsuda, who in a way forced Ono to become involved with the new Japan, admits that they never played a crucial part in the whole ordeal. It was the Army officers, politicians, and businessmen that the people followed not a simple artist.

These two instances just caused me to think that Ono didn't play a big a role as he would have us believe and that the most important aspects of the novel are coping mechanisms for Ono to deal with the loss of life in his family. However, at the end, Ono finally crosses the bridge of hesitation and decides to move on with his life for had it not been for the war and the occupation of Japan who knows what would have happened to the small nation.


Well I have to end this somewhere, and this might not have made sense but it was just something that I thought about.

Bridge of Hesitation

The bridge of hesitation is an image that is repeated three times through out the first one hundred pages. This is the bridge that leads to the ruined pleasure district. At the height of the war, the pleasure district was thriving due to the patriotic feelings that were around at the time. The pleasure district allowed the opportunity for patriotic artists to gather and entertain themselves without going against what their country mandated at the time.

The fate of the pleasure district was tied to the World War and as the War ended and the bombs were dropped, the pleasure district disintegrated. The only connection to it is through the bridge of hesitation. My question is why is this bridge named so?

If I had to make a guess as to why dub the bridge hesitation, I would say that it has to do with the hesitation that the Japanese elders have with being associated as patriots in the time before the war. The reason that they hesitate is that there is a huge cultural gap between the generations of people that were active during the war and those that came after. Both generations are Japanese, but the latter was brought up in America’s shadow, whereas the elders are truly Japanese. In Japanese culture, surrendering was a great shame, in fact the Japanese would charge machine gun lines and get mowed down to preserve their honor, but after the war, the younger generations saw this as a waste of life and resented their losses in the war. The younger generations basically became westernized, while the elders held a grudge.

An example of such grudge is seen when Ichiro is pretending to be a cowboy and Oji asks him if it wouldn’t be more enjoyable to pretend to be a Japanese warrior. Oji doesn’t reprimand Ichiro, but it does appear that he isn’t pleased with his nephew’s fascination with western culture. Oji even tries to distract Ichiro from playing cowboy by having him draw, however this fails and Ichiro is soon galloping away.

Another instance that shows hesitation in being connected to the past arises again when Oji seeks out his old acquaintances to ask them to watch their words if they are ever approached by a detective in regard to his past. Things that might have been considered honorable and brought pride in the past only bring shame in the present.

The bridge of hesitation leads to the wrecked heart of Japanese patriotism, however, so soon after the war, people have mixed feelings and hesitate to remember the past because all that exists in the past is pain. Aside from this, if you take a look at the way the younger people feel about the war and their opinions of their elders, it is easy to see why some might be hesitant to show their true colors.

Questioning

"'But your husband?...An intelligent man going on fifty... can he find no other way to express his anger by throwing out the companion of a lifetime and separating her from her children?... O Lord glory to You. Most people get wiser as they get older, while we grow older and become foolhardy. is it a sin for a virtuous woman to visit our master Al-Husayn? Don't his friends, who are just as jealous and manly as he is, allow their wives to leave the house for various errands?...Your father himself, who was a religious scholar and knew the Book of God by heart, permitted me to go to neighbors' homes and watch the procession of pilgrims setting out for Mecca'" (202).

This passage creates an effect of Logos. By questioning Ahmad's motives through Amina's mother, Mahfouz causes the reader to begin reasoning, and to see that logic might not explain his actions, though it was Ahmad's logic that drove him to exile his wife. This passage is included to show the error in Ahmad's own logic, or maybe the culture of which he is a part of as a whole.

The detail presented in this passage also contributes to expressing the degree of error to which Ahmad has sunk in his religious beliefs. The fact that Amina's father was a "well learned scholar and knew the Book of God by heart" means more than if the author would have simply stated that he was a religious man. This then shows Ahmad's oppression of Amina as something that isn't practiced culturally but by a single family. Adressing a large misconception that people may have about Islamic culture.

Looking Into Yasin

Chapter twelve in Palace Walk begins with Yasin leaving home, heading out into the real world. It is here that Naguib Mahfouz first goes into Yasin’s mind. Interestingly, the first paragraph opens with the sentences “When Yasin left the house he naturally knew where he was going, since he went there every evening. He appeared, however, to have no idea where he was heading. He was always like this when walking in the street" (70). It is in this manner that journeys often begin, with a character taking his first steps towards a goal but seeming to be hesitant. These few sentences also help to show how Yasin's life has become an unchaging rutine. Yet in this rutine, Yasin is constatnty searching for something new, more specifically a woman.

Mahfouz uses the first two pages of chapter twelve to give an insight into Yasin's mind. It is here, where Yasin is first introduced that the author chooses to give importance to him. It wouldn't make sense to include so much writing if Yasin wasn't going to be a developed character. It is here that we learn of Yasin's sex drive and how he fears his father. This further enforces the difference of the father in his house and at work, and it also allows for an easy transition into Ahmad's night adventures by creating a parallel between father and son. The fact that Yasin is the eldest son also fits well in this situation because it is usually the elder that resembles the father.