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Saturday, January 3, 2009

Book Discussion: Beauty and Sadness


I. Introduction
Beauty and sadness is kind of literature, which catering to aesthetic enjoyment and
pleasure indeed. In this novel, readers have the opportunity to learn about the deeper and broader meanings of the words, such as love, hate, sex, intimacy, marriage, family, young, old, art and so on. Moreover, the positive and negative parts of love; similarities and differences between love and intimacy; interesting relationships between old and young, single and married, different sexes and same sexes, also could be fondly explored in this book.


II. Main Characters
Oki Toshio:
He is key character of the story. Oki is a novelist who became well-known with the book, which has ordinary and straightforward name – ‘A Girl of Sixteen.’ He is a married man and has two children; Taichiro and Kumiko. Oki fell in love with a teenage girl, Otoko who gets pregnant but the child was not born. Oki also has intimacy with Keiko, an artist who is a pupil and roommate of Otoko. Any part of the story is related with Oki Toshio as one way or another.
Ueno Otoko: Otoko is a teen girl who is the lover of married man, Oki Toshio. She is main shadowed character of the book, ‘A Girl of Sixteen.’ She grown up in Tokyo but later moved to Kyoto and becomes an artist. She has a pupil and roommate, Keiko. After Otoko moves to Kyoto, she has several opportunities to get marriage but she stay as a single artist, lives together with Keiko.
Keiko: Keiko is a young female artist who is a pupil and roommate of Ueno Otoko. Actual relationship between Otoko and Keiko is more than the relationship between roommates, or, more than the relationship between pupil and teacher, or, more than the relationship between friends. Keiko strangely but deliberately tries to revenge on Oki and his family, for her teacher, lover, Otoko. She tries to have sexual relationships with both of Oki and his son, Taichiro. It is assumed that she did something dastardly in Taichiro’s death in the water, while they are boating.
Fumiko: She is novelist Oki’s legal wife. They have two children, Taichiro and Kumiko. Fumiko is some intelligent and she has sharp intuition about the relationships, especially for her husband, Oki’s. She knows unseen, but real stories of Oki. Because of children and family ties, she lives as Oki’s wife, but with sadness and doubts. She lives her whole life in darkness with unclear feelings and trusts.
Taichiro: Son of Oki Toshio and Fumiko. He is some educated person. He introduced with Keiko when she came to visit at his father, Oki. Later, Taichiro has intimacy with Keiko when he visits in Kyoto. He dies in the water, while he is boating together with Keiko.
Kumiko: Daughter of Oki and Fumiko. After she graduates from the university, married with somebody from London and she moves and lives there.


III. Opinion and Analysis
Love, especially sex is like a fire. When we use it in the right and appropriate way, it works fantastically and creates beautiful lives with win-win conditions. If we practice it in the wrong and unsuitable way, it makes blunders dramatically and generates lose-lose situation. At the same time, when we have enough chance and condition to control or avoid the touch between different sexes is very tough. Since then, people often fell in love; have the wrong intimacy or immoral sexes, and it also often produces worse consequences. Sometimes, it destroys certain persons’ lives. Sometimes, it destroys society and morality of human being. That could probably be theme of this book, ‘Beauty and Sadness,’ which Yasunari Kawabata primarily wants to give us.
The protagonist of this story, Oki who is a married man with two children has the immoral sex with a teenage girl till that girl gets pregnant. Love and attachment between the old man and teenage girl destroy lives, trusts, truths, clear feelings, respects of all family members of both sides. All lives are buried in darkness.
The unborn child of Oki and Otoko dies. Otoko’s family has to move to the different place. Otoko’s mother gets psychological suffering from it, till she dies. Otoko, by herself gets huge pain from it. Oki, by himself also has to live with the lies for the rest part of his life and could never trust by himself because we all know firstly - which is right and which is wrong; which is real and which is fake; which is true and which is lie, before we practice it over someone. He could not have true enjoyment and clear feeling and thinking in his life, after he makes the wrong sex, because that black shadow is following him in his mind and heart, all the time, as a backlash of its consequences. Fumiko, Oki’s wife is living with pain for the whole her life. Keiko, the pupil and roommate of Otoko is also mentally ill with Otoko’s life and untold feelings. Even she decides to take a revenge for her teacher, and she really does. Taichiro, Oki’s son has to give his life as part of consequences of it.


IV. Conclusion
Beauty and Sadness; Sweet and Suffer; Short Term Gain for Long Term Pain.

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