Literature Circle Responses - Part I

Pages 1-72: The Sailor who fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukui Micshima is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. From this one bookk, I have learned a great deal on the life of Mr. Mishima. It is a fictional book that covers physiological and philosophical topics. The main characters are Noboru, Fusako, and Ryuji. Noboru is a 13 year old boy who has a huge interest in ships. Behind that nice and childish mask is a dark person who has a hatred for mankind. He has no belief in any kind of morality. He does show some respect towards Ryuji, a sailor, because Ryuji does not let anything distract him from finding glory out there in the sea. Ryuji is a lonely sailor who has appears to be a tough man with no emotion but behind that mask is a man who desires comfort. After a long time of searching for the glory that he believes is his, Ryuji starts to feel like giving up and doesn’t want to waste his time searching for glory when he can stay on land and start a family. I admire the way Mishima writes the perspectives of his characters and how they misinterpret each other. For example, in each chapter the reader gets to learn a great deal about the character from their actions and their thoughts. But when they talk to each other they hide their true personalities and put on their masks, so to speak. This way the reader has a sort of hindsight bias on the way the characters interact with each other. Noboru is fooled by Ryuji’s mask and so he sees Ryuji as a tough, emotionless, and a “true” man. Ryuji sees Noboru as a normal 13 year old boy that has an interest in mechanical things, likes to swim, and is just like any other normal 13 year old boy. But from their inner thoughts of the characters, the reader can truly understand the character. This is an interesting way to write the story because Mishima could possibly be suggesting the darkness in people. The more challenging aspects of this book are the metaphors, similes, and symbolism. Mishima describes love, nihilism, glory, and death in some of the figurative language he uses but it is very difficult to decipher the true message behind it. Knowing that Mishima came from a samurai family, I can somewhat assume he had a different approach on death than most people. To die honorably must have been a beautiful death to the samurai. Perhaps that is why Mishima describes death so beautifully. Such as on the scene where a kitten was mercilessly killed by Noboru to show how meaningless life is. I was confused as to why the author made Noboru compare a kittens death to watching Ryuji and Fusako have sex. There are a lot of parts where the characters describe their philosophical beliefs in-depth using figurative language that really confuses me. As for the rest of the book something negative must happen. Knowing a little about Mishima, I can assume the Ryuji will betray his search for glory and trade it for a simple life on land and start a family. Noboru has already started to develop hatred towards Ryuji for acting like such a typical human. So Noboru will probably do something extreme to quench his thirst for betrayal. And in the midst of this someone will get hurt but I am not exactly sure who will get hurt. Overall, this book is a good intellectual change from most of the non-fiction books I am used to reading. This book has made me think harder than most non-fiction books I have read. The way the message is delivered in this book is unique and so it makes deciphering the message a great challenge.