Please post on Deep River for tomorrow's daily. Since you'll have to write your essay on Deep River, it'll be good for you to begin writing about it now. Bring your Mercer Readers to class too, though, and we'll begin the class with Jane Kenyon's poem.
You might want to make connections between your Deep River reading and some of the material we've covered so far in class.
How does this reading relate to the different religious aspects of justice we have talked about?
ReplyDeleteAll semester long we have been talking about justice and injustice in the world, and what we can do about it. Now we are posed with a reading that brings an injustice to the forefront of the picture. Buddhists, once upon a time, were very prominent in the Indian culture, but in Deep River by Shusaku Endo Buddhists “have all but disappeared” (Endo 30). They have become the “Harijans” or the untouchables, yet there are people that are tourists to India that do not know they are no longer as prevalent (29). This is so strange when we have learned that Buddhism treats equality of man. How can a religion that teaches equality be pushed into the lowest class of their society? “Everyone seems to go to India with different feelings. There was that fellow who’s interested in animals, and the man who wants a memorial service for his comrades” (32). This woman knew that no two people were alike, even though they were on the same journey; they were all looking to get something different out of it. Is that not like Buddhists and other religions? Everyone is on a similar religious journey, same religion or not, yet they are all looking for different answers to the same questions. “But my way of thinking is considered heretical in the Church. I’ve been reprimanded. You don’t make distinctions between anything, they insist. You don’t discriminate clearly. That’s not how God is. That’s not what your Onion is like, they tell me” (65). Does this statement not do exactly what the statement tells us not to do? In telling someone to not make distinctions between anything, the church is pointing out that this person has already made distinctions between things. This puts people on different playing fields and no longer makes them equal. I think that through all of the people we met in these first few chapters each one of them will realize the people they neglected or the things that they need to change to get back to the Buddhist idea of equality among men.
Word Count: 346
In Japanese culture, are women internally struggling to justify their existence?
ReplyDeleteDoes the Japanese culture’s focus on male-dominated culture generate uneasiness in women?
One issue discussed in Endo’s Deep River is the issue of male dominance in Japanese society. In the beginning of the novel, Isobe is brought to a halting realization of how wrongly he treated his wife, Keiko. Only on her deathbed does he realize how wrongly he treated her. While she suffered through the chemotherapy, he even believed she was incapable of discovering the state of her condition; to him, the fact that she was a woman negated any argument of self-discovery. “Like most men of Japanese husbands, he was ashamed to present any outward display of love to his wife” (Endo 9). Only after Keiko’s death does Isobe discover the emotional depth of Keiko. She not only had figured out she was dying, but she thought that HE would not be able to handle her knowing.
Another example of this is shown with the character Naruse Mitsuko, who was Keiko’s nurse. Throughout her experiences with Otsu and her new husband, Naruse battles with her an internal want to overpower men, make them vulnerable, and crush them. She tempts Otsu to abandon his religious teachings, seduces him, and makes him leave as soon as he attempts to actual have sex with her, to make her the inferior one. Although she had hooked up with guys in the past, Otsu saw her as a potential life partner. This frightened her because she knew she may be forced to submit to him. She asks herself, “Just what is it you want?,,, just what is it you’re searching for?” (57), and she even tries to justify herself, “This will be my final selfish act. After that, I’ll become a humdrum housewife” (56). Naruse’s will to overpower men shows that Japanese women are internally struggling to justify their existence because of the male-dominated society in which they live.
Word Count: 304
1. Why do the “faces as calm as lakes at dusk” threaten the speaker’s beliefs? (367)
ReplyDeleteMary is weeping because “they have taken away [her] Lord”. She is weeping because her religion is destroyed together with Christ. The speaker also loses her religion, but hers is taken away by “graceful gods, many-headed and many-armed”. There is no converting to Hinduism, no violent threatening. She has seen other gods that prove to be good for their followers and she cannot fight the knowledge.
The speaker does not place Hinduism below her religion or culture. Although she says that the cotton garments from India smell like “tuberculosis, urine, dust, joss, and death”, it is rather a note on the inhospitality of India and her disability to become a part of it, than on her superiority. Their gods do not accept her, they do not care for her.
Why this alienation if she respects Hinduism? Her rational observations cannot take the place of her belief. Although seeing the happy Hindus threat the oneness of her God, she still clings to her faith. This clinging reminds me of Thich Nhat Hanh, who writes that the dialogue between religions is needed, but first one must truly embrace one’s own religion.
I am not sure how to interpret the speaker’s new relationships with God. She writes about “the absurdity of all religious forms”. Perhaps, the last few lines are a realization of God’s endlessness and oneness across religions. She writes that Ganges is where “Gandhi’s ashes once struck the waves/ with a sound like gravel being scuffed/ over the edge of a bridge.” She admires Gandhi – a Hindu religious leader - so, that his ashes are heavy and have a weight of gravel. “Rajiv did not weep” for the dead child. She asks her God as He is leaving her, “What shall we do about this?”. And even though she thinks God is leaving her, He is with her and answers her: “The reply/ was scorching wind, lapping of water, pull/ of the black oarsmen on the oars…”, they are leaving the child. In this interpretation it is God’s will to leave the child, He approves the righteousness of Rajiv’s indifference. He speaks through the rowing men, the Hindu men, the God’s men.
However, I am not sure if I believe this interpretation.
2. Why didn’t Rajiv weep?
393 words
Taylor Garrett
ReplyDeleteDaily 2/22/11
Is deception ever right?
Can deception actually build the human part of Socrates’ beast?
This whole start to the novel “Deep River” is woven around the concept of deceit and lies. Some of them were for the good and some of them for the bad. Mr. Isobe hid the doctor’s prognosis from his wife to spare her the emotional pain of knowing that she was going to die. At the same time though, his wife knew that she was going to die, but did not tell her husband in order to save him the emotional pain. Mitsuko also thrived and lived off of deception in her younger days, but during her adulthood, she moves towards a lifestyle of noncommittal. She avoids having to give a direct answer with yes’s and no’s.
Is deception ok if you are trying to protect someone? Honestly I think most of the time when you hide information from someone to protect them, they either know already what is happening, or they at least have an inkling of what is going on. Does it really make sense to do that then? While Mrs. Isobe was lying in her bed suffering, Mr. Isobe could have been there with her walking with her through the process. Instead he tries to protect her and she goes and turns to the nurse for help.
Mitsuko is the epitome of why deception is a smear on humankind. Her treatment of Otsu is absolutely horrendous. As she tries to seduce him, she realizes it is because she wants to be able to exact power over all men. To do so she tries by any means to entice them, even breaking them away from their religion in order to prove that she commands more power than anyone else. She found her most satisfaction off of breaking Otsu’s heart and making him think he was going to marry her and instead being left out in the dirt.
In both cases deception just hurts people and doesn’t build anyone up. Although if you looked at Socrates’ view on the bestial side of people and human justice, Mr. and Mrs. Isobe’s actions would be building up the human part of the beast because of their care for other people. Contrasting that, Mitsuko’s actions build up the beast instead and shrink the human part of her conscience.
Word Count 376
#13 Deep River
ReplyDeleteIs society the cause of Isobe’s inability to show his emotions?
What is the significance of Miss Naruse?
Mitsuko does not represent the social norm for a woman. She “held her liquor well,” and “her car was flashy” (Deep River 35). She seems to represent the social norm of a man. She hangs with the guys and yet they tease her and say, “we can make it a half a glass since you’re a woman” (40). As if, because she was a woman, she would not be able to hold her liquor. Her and her friends trick a Christian boy named Otsu into coming to a party and pressuring him to drink. He “was doing his best to be docile and keep the mood of the party from souring” (41). This makes Mitsuko angry and screams at him to “dump him” so that they “won’t make him drink anymore” (41). Mitsuko wants him to drink until he forsakes his God but he tells her that “even if [he] [tries] to abandon God . . . God won’t abandon [him]” (42). Otsu cannot make any friends in Tokyo because he is Christian. Since he is a Christian he is persecuted and made fun of and made a social outcast. Similarly, when Isobe and Miss Naruse go to India, the tour guide said that although they were on a tour to visit the Buddhist holy sites, “in India today, adherents of the Hindu religion make up an overwhelming majority, followed by Muslims, while Buddhism has all but disappeared” (30). Although they have all but disappeared, the Buddhists are “devout” and “are to be found among the untouchable class” (30). Isobe’s wife, Keiko, believed that “[she would] be reborn somewhere in this world” and she makes her husband promise that he would find her. This is the belief of reincarnation, a Buddhist idea. Keiko enjoyed the natural world and in her dying days would speak to the gingko tree outside her hospital window. Isobe has no “faith in any religion” and yet like most people, calls on “any gods or buddahs to be contacted” when his life is falling apart in ruins (10).
Word Count: 363
How does this reading relate to recent readings?
ReplyDeleteIn the opening chapters of “Deep River” by Shusaku Endo many different takes on religion are presented. In the first chapter, a man named Osamu Isobe’s wife dies of cancer. On her death bed she tells her husband “I know for sure…I’ll be reborn somewhere in this world. Look for me…find me...” (p17). She wants her husband to find her after she is reincarnated, but Isobe isn’t sure he believes in incarnation. In fact he hardly believes in any form of religion. Likewise, a woman named Mitsuko Naruse has an absolute aversion to religion as a whole. She doesn’t believe in any concept or version of religion and looks upon the religious with disdain. She is enlisted by a few of her friends to seduce a boy, Otsu. At first she isn’t really into the whole thing because Otsu is strange, and particularly unattractive. However, when she sees his devotion and dedication to his religion, like the way he prays to his Christian God every day at the same time, she feels compelled to draw him from his God. So she accepts the challenge and sets out to seduce Otsu. She knows what she is doing is wrong, and a part of her is made at herself for doing it, but a larger, darker side of Mitsuko continues to seduce Otsu until he gives in to her. First she convinces him to stop praying to his every day at the temple. She tells him “You must stop going to that Kultur Heim, starting today. If you do, I’ll let you be one of my boy-friends” (44). Then she invites him to her room several times, an invitation he does not refuse, and allows him to convince himself that they are in a monogamous relationship. When Otsu realizes that Mitsuko doesn’t actually love him, he is heartbroken, and Mitsuko believes she has succeeded. She thinks she has successfully drawn him away from his religion. She felt the need to do so because she did not accept his religion as a valid lifestyle. The students and the university thought he was strange because he was committed to his religion and beliefs. His beliefs were different from hers, and radical compared to hers. This relates to the other readings in the way that one may not accept another’s religious beliefs. Mitsuko despised religion so much that she plotted to corrupt a believer. Isobe was uncertain about his wife’s religious beliefs as well as his own. Both Mitsuko and Isobe end up on the same trip to India, presumably going to make sense of their troubles with religion.
[442 words]
Is this speaker someone who has been coerced by tradition of his/her home country even though she lives in England?
ReplyDeleteWho is this ‘they’ the speaker refers to?
When Jesus died he was buried in a tomb, not too long after he rose from the dead. His mother came to see the body of Christ but found the stone entrance rolled away and the body missing. Then two angels appeared and asked her why she was weeping and she replied she was sad because she didn’t know where He was. Now, this piece is about someone who has been away from the chapel for a long time “[returning] from long travel” (Mercer Reader 367). But as this person sits in the pews of the chapel the “old comfort does not rise” within him anymore only hints of “apathy and bafflement”. It seems that this person was a Christian who believes in Jesus Christ, but parents, peers or superiors of his home country, India, have forced a traditional religion. This traditional religion consisting of “graceful gods, many-headed and many-armed”, has replaced his/her personal savior, Jesus Christ. Just as Mary asked where her Jesus had gone to this person also inquires of his/her Jesus Christ, because it’s as if He has been “stolen” from him/her. One thing that is intriguing though, is how this person was converted to this new religion. If this person still yearns for Christ then she hasn’t been fully converted and must have been a true Christian because she describes how she “saw [Jesus] heal, and teach, and eat among sinners” as well as “knowing his anguish when he called,’ I thirst!’ and received vinegar to drink” (368). This is because Jesus Christ mentioned how deeds done to others was indirectly done to him in The Parables of Sheep and the Goats from Matthew 25. Jesus was taken from this person like “luggage had been stolen” from him/her I believe this is some form of injustice.
Word count 328
*Couldn't really include Endo because I don't have it
Why does Otsu eventually beat Mitsuko?
ReplyDeleteDoes Mitsuko regret her actions?
In the novel Deep River by Shusaku Endo the volunteer at the hospital, Miss Mitsuko, provides comfort to those who are dying but in her own life she was quick to tear someone down for their lifestyle. In her years at college Mitsuko latched onto the idea of tormenting someone for her own pleasure. She targeted a young man with a faith rooted in Christianity. Her personal beliefs were against it so she did everything in her power to try and convince him to abandon his faith. She used means that defiled herself to reach a means. Not only did she defile herself but she also did so on the wishes on someone else. She was not the original one who wanted to “come on to that fellow Otsu,” but instead it was a group of younger boys at her school (Endo 34). They were not only using Otsu for their personal enjoyment but they were using Mitsuko as well. They were trying to see how far they could push someone to do what they wanted them to do. Just as Mitsuko pushed Otsu, she was being pushed by the boys. While Otsu eventually resisted her push to abandon his religious faith, Mitsuko was never able to abandon the need to torment Otsu. Even after she was married and away from school, she still went out of her way on her honeymoon to track him down and keep with her pursuits from college. This is because of the motivations they had for their tasks. Otsu was someone who Mitsuko could never conquer. While she tried so hard to use her feminine ways to convince him to abandon his faith, it was not enough to make him abandon it. Her conviction to making him suffer only drove her further and further into unhappiness and ultimately let him beat her in her pursuits.
Word Count: 311
I do not think the thoughts of losing one’s true love can even be imagined. The expression “You don’t know what you got till it’s gone” really makes me wonder about loneliness and the suffering and pain of losing a spouse to illness. Without my belief in Christianity and salvation, I do not know what I would even do in that kind of situation because it really emphasizes on what is there really to live for. I believe this is the focus of what Endo is trying to come across for Isobe and others like Mitsuko. Isobe can not believe his wife is gone and he states that if he believed in gods then he would ask “Why are you bringing this misery upon her? My wife’s just an ordinary woman of goodness and gentleness. Please save her. I beg you” (Endo 10). Endo creates a setting of conflict but then shows that all accounts of happiness or salvation point to a faith and spirituality. I know that someday I will find the woman who I will spend the rest of my life with, that I will love completely and enjoy every aspect of her life joined with mine. Without a sense of spirituality or faith though, there seems to be no point in finding true love or finding someone who you love so much and more than anything because if you know that someday they will be gone just as you will be gone with no understanding of eternity, then what would be the purpose? Without an understanding of eternity, love seems to have no weight because it would be just as much pain equal to the happiness in love. But, with a knowledge of eternity, like how Keiko believes in her reincarnation, then there is hope in the fact that the love people share will last forever through all forms of life.
ReplyDeleteDoes love to people who have no spiritual beliefs mean a similar meaning or purpose as to people who do and if not how does it differ?
If a nonbeliever asks rhetorical questions to the “gods” like Isobe does, then does it have meaning for him or does nonbelief naturally tend to lead to spiritual belief?
word count: 315
Robert Akers
ReplyDeleteThich Nhat Hanh, from the excerpt in the Mercer Reader from Living Buddha, Living Christ, makes the assertion that "in fact, sometimes it is more difficult to have a dialogue with people in our own tradition than with those of another tradition. Some of us have suffered from feeling misunderstood or even betrayed by those of our own tradition" (Mercer Reader 364). There is a strong correlation between this idea and Mitsuko from Shusaku Endo's Deep River. More specifically, when Mitsuko and Otsu cross paths in France, after many years, there is a blatant undercurrent of emotion that resides from their past encounters (Endo 61). This, of course, emanates from Mitsuko's previous manipulation of Otsu during college. The dialogue that occurs between the two, however, appears to be as fruitful as that of, for instance, the dialogue between Mitsuko and her husband. While Mitsuko's husband takes the Walker Percy rout of the honeymoon, Mitsuko gains insight toward knowing that the individual she married was not the correct match for her. With this fresh in her mind, she determines to find out what her purpose is in life. This originates through the examination of how Otsu is "throwing his life away for a useless hallucination" (66) and how it compares to her inability to "relate to it" (63). She begins engaging in this thought process because it originates from the idea of what it means to be happy. It is not until she reconsiders Otsu's question, with regard to friction of beliefs with those of different traditions, that she finds, "I don't feel any friction at all. I wish I didn't have to go back to Japan" (66). Though Mitsuko frequently disguises her being uncomfortable with coming to terms with her situation as being "fed up" (66) or bored, friction is caused whenever she comes in contact with an individual who shares a common tradition. It seems that the dialogues that involve friction are those that are the most fruitful for both individuals.
{332}
Is it safe to assume that more difficult dialogues will arise in Deep River? Which will be more fruitful: those with differing traditions or those with similar traditions?
Will Isobe's haikus be an outlet for him during his travels?
In “Deep River,” religion and the position of women were looked upon greatly. In the beginning of the book, there was a man name Osamu Isobe whose wife died of cancer and when she asked him to “look for me, find me” because she wanted to be with him again. However, Osamu Isobe doesn’t fully believe in reincarnation because his faith and his religious views aren’t as strong as her (17). In class, we’ve talked about several religious views and how important they were to certain people. In “Deep River,” there was a man who was continuously praying to his God at the same time every day because he was so sure in his God. Although he was a just man who prayed to his God many times, there was a woman name Mitsuko Naruse who succeeded in seducing him. At first, he thought it was because she was in love with him, but when he realized that she had succeeded in her “seducing schemes,” he became heartbroken.
ReplyDeleteOverall, she was drawn to him because she was interested in challenging his religious views. She believed that she had the authority to change him to someone that she wanted him to be. Although she tried and succeeded in breaking his heart, he showed that no matter the situation, religion will always be the most dominant force that drives a human being. This is similar to all of the stories that we have read in class previously. Religion made a huge impact on many people’s lives because they feel a strong connection with someone higher than themselves.
Religion seems to affect the way people think or act in society as a whole. Even in “Deep River,” all of these characters some type of influences or affection from religion. Although there are many things that this story can be portrayed as, but the idea that religion can be connected through any situation is also reflected in this book.
What internal debates are present within Isobe regarding the sickness of his wife?
ReplyDeleteThe work “Deep River”, by Shusaku Endo, begins with a Japanese man named Isobe receiving news that an incurable cancer has spread throughout his wife’s body, and that she has only a few months left to live. Throughout the early part of the story, Isobe is faced with many internal debates about how to approach the looming and certain death of his wife Isobe. One of the first debates he is faced with concerning his wife’s predicament is the decision whether or not to tell his wife of her impending death. Isobe chooses not to tell his wife that she will soon die, which ultimately causes both he and his wife more sorrow and agony. Endo writes, “Aware of the clumsiness of his lie, he felt a faint layer of perspiration beading on his forehead” (Endo 8). This quote conveys the added pressure and guilt that is placed on Keiko in not telling his wife the truth. In not telling his wife, Isobe gives her a somewhat added sense of hope that she might be able to beat the disease that is slowly destroying her. This sense of hope is conveyed when Keiko states, “It’s like a miracle. I wonder what kind of medicine it is” (Endo 12)? The medicine she is describing is morphine which is simply prolonging her life by temporarily taking away her pain. Another of Isobe’s internal debates is whether or not to put Isobe out of her misery instead of letting her fight a lost battle. Isobe decides to let his wife live for as long as possible even if it meant living through pain. Shusaku writes, “Although Isobe realized that in the long run his wife could not be saved by such treatment, in his heart lurked the wish for her to live one extra hour, even one extra minute” (Endo 11). This decision is actually one of great selfishness because he is thinking of about what is best for him instead of what is best for his wife.
Word Count: 334
What a tangled web of stories before us. Shusako Endo has truly woven a net of interlocking characters, which gives us a complicated and intriguing novel. Endo covers the troubling topics of death, loss, and religion. I want to focus on Mitsuko’s story involving her personal search for meaning. The story of Mitsuko, the nurse who cared for Isobe’s dying wife, begins in college. It is easy to describe Mitsuko. Endo states, “Mitsuko herself was at the age where she wanted to stretch her wings” (Endo 35). Mitsuko was in an emotional struggle with herself. She wants to find her own religion and her classmate Otsu completely complexes her. She says, “if anything, the whole thing had started from the rather childish desire to make fun not of Otsu, but of the God in whom he believed” (37). It seems Mitsuko’s personal struggle with religion causes her to want to disprove what Otsu believes. When the subject of Christianity comes to the table, Mitsuko asks, “Do you really believe in it? (37). This shows us that although Mitsuko appears to despise Christianity, it somewhat intrigues her. After humiliating Otsu and turning him away, Mitsuko moves on with her life and marries a dull man in order to lock herself away from “true feelings” (56). Even though she tries, she cannot help but question herself. She asks, “Just what is it you want . . . Just what is it you’re searching for? (57). What is causing Mitsuko to go out of her way to look for this intangible answer. What is she searching for? This internal struggle happens in our lives. How do we decide what religion to believe and what to reject? Do we base our systems of beliefs on what our parents did, or do we forge our own path? This is truly a perplexing idea set before us by Endo.
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 313
What does this reading reveal about the identity and role of Japanese women? Is it the same as or different than that of “No Name Woman,” also about the identity and role of women in Asia?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the feeling that all of the people going on the India trip sense inside themselves? Is it loneliness? A need for accomplishment or to “tie up loose ends”? Or a sense of belonging, a sense of worth and value to the world?
I must admit, the first chapter kind of made me mad. Isobe expresses that he never really talked to his wife (he only “began…after she entered the hospital”), never paid her any attention (he feels “his lifelong neglect of this woman”), and even is embarrassed that he touched her hand in public when he left the hospital on day (“never once had he done anything so embarrassing…he was ashamed to present any outward display of love to his wife”) (9, 11). She always smiles in such a sweet, loving way, “welcome[ing] him with this enfolding sort of smile” that she wore for him almost all the way to her grave, except when physical pain prevented her (8). So why did he neglect her? It was my impression that a husband and wife were supposed to love each other outwardly and unconditionally, but this is not the case. The reader does not even learn her name until near the end of the recount of her suffering—she was refered to as “woman,” or “wife” up to that point—and even then it is only mentioned once (11). I was mad that after she died, he thinks, “where are you, you idiot” or plays a game with himself that she is on a trip and will return to him so that he does not have to deal with the reality of the situation (21). However, I then began to see him as “the very image of a lonely man who has lost his wife” and that is his way of grieving, which is different for each individual (32). She knows how helpless he will be without her; she leaves him directions on how to continue his life. The reader can see how much he really does love her though, when he does research, although he does not believe it, about his wife’s last dying wish, to “look for [her]…[she’ll] be reborn again somewhere” (17). She leaves him with this mission, one that will hopefully be life-fulfilling so that he can redeem himself after neglecting to appreciate Keiko’s worth as a person, partner, lover, and friend. I think that is what all the people going on the trip seek—fulfillment. Mitsuko, the volunteer nurse that helped Keiko in her last month, “wanted to live fully…unlike her [college]-friends who thought only of the commonplace lives they would be leading in the years ahead” (33). Like Claiborne in his search for the true meaning of a Christian life and purpose to that life, they look for sustenance of the soul; they journey to discover the purpose of and fulfillment in their life.
Word Count: 437
In Shusaku Endo’s book, “Deep River”, many of the themes expressed in Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Living Buddha, Living Christ” are brought to attention and explored through each of the individual characters and their situations. “The Case of Isobe” (Endo 7) details the life of a man that ignores his wife in life only to realize as she’s dying how much he loves her. After her passing, his life is never the same because he neglected “the practice of deep looking and deep listening” (Hanh 364). Endo describes the lack of interaction Isobe had with the people in his life and the little relevance he had to meaningful existence by including phrases such as “the empty days continued in procession” (Endo 21). Isobe’s case closes with the hope for finding a way to reconnected with the part of him that has been lost, represented by the death of his wife. For Mitsuko, the question she continually asks herself is “just what is it you want?” (57). She is searching for meaning in her world and, presented as a side plot, cannot come to a way of reconciling the “European Christianity” (46) with any religion at all. Hanh, like Otsu, looked for a way that the two may co-exist. Hanh’s solution is that it is not necessary to worship the Christian God in order to “[be] able to touch the depths of Christianity” (Hanh 363). It is more action in a Christ-like way that one feels the divinity of Christ without abandoning an individual’s traditional faith. The final case we examined in Endo’s “Deep River” was the case of Numada. He finds that he relates to animals far more easily to animals as a result of a severe distrust in humans to show compassion or loyalty. Numada comes to the conclusion that “in every companionship there remains a mutual insoluble loneliness” (Endo 78). For Hanh, this would most likely be a result of a failure to recognized the inter-connectivity of all things living. Hanh describes the phenomena as “when we see the nature of interbeing, barriers between ourselves and others are dissolved, and peace, love, and understanding are possible” (Hanh 366). If Numada feels isolated, he has not looked into the people around him, felt them as people, in order to become part of them and allow him to become a part of them. He fights to hard to maintain the distance that he loses part of what it is to be truly alive, to connected to the world around him. He feels lonely because he forces himself to be separate from others.
ReplyDelete[431]
Does Otsu experience the same kind of discrimination Hanh describes of his personal struggles in “Living Buddha, Living Christ”?
What really drives Mitsuko: fear, loathing, guilt, emptiness, jealousy, curiosity? Anything? Is she incapable of true emotion, much like a psychopath?
Daily #14
ReplyDeleteIn Deep River, Endo describes the travelers visiting the Ganges river in a way showing how they all are fleeing from aspects of their life they do not know how to handle but in turn are searching for something that they do not know as well. Not only with the case of traveling to the Ganges, but in all of the travelers lives they deal with similar situations of looking for something to replace their denial and suffering. Kiguchi fought in the war in Burma and now “grimaces when asked about it” (Endo 85). Later after the war, he finds his friend Tsukada who saved his life and tries to find comfort in him through his love. The travelers flee from their nightmares, like Kiguchi from the suffering of war, and deny the love they search and desire in their life. Kiguchi searches for love from his friend who he consoles with but finds more pain as Tsukada drowns himself in liquor (Endo 92). Much like Kiguchi, Tsukada also tries to hide from his deep torments in the war and tries to find love, but can only resort to drinking to “blind himself” from the horrors of his past. Tsukada searches for the grace that will free him of his guilt and pain, but when he confides in alcohol, it restricts him from the love he needs from his wife and best friend Kiguchi, and eventually kills him. In the same way, the others traveling with Kiguchi to India deny the love they need while fleeing from their pain and sorrow. Isobe failed to show emotion and affection to his wife while she was alive out of embarrassment in Japanese culture. He regrets his failures and even though he still denies her claims of rebirth in this world and everlasting love, he still travels to India to find the love of his wife (Endo 109). Mitsuko denied the love of Otsu, but still she travels to Varanasi where he lives even though she claims “I’m not going to go looking for him, even if I am here in Varanasi” (Endo 110). The pain and suffering of peoples’ lives lead them to search for love even though they may still deny its existence. (372)
1. Does the love shown by Gaston exhibit the same love Claiborne tries to convey by the same close ties people share with one another?
2. Do people always seek out love when they suffer or when does isolation start to change how people view love from others?
This is my daily for Friday, February 25th. I could not find the one for Friday.
ReplyDeleteWhat does Endo mean when describing a higher network of spirituality?
What is the significance of seeing truths in all religions?
In a letter from Otsu to Mitsuko, Otsu writes that he is not able to become a priest because of his eastern views of Christianity. His teachers “claim that [he] lack[s] obedience and [is] wanting in true faith… because” he does not believe “that the European brand of Christianity is absolute (Endo 121). According to Patel, in order for conversation to remain conversation and therefore, productive, one must not think that one “monopolizes the truth;” one must listen just as well as one speaks, in order that the truths within someone else’s thinking or religion may be brought out. One scene in particular helps to illustrate this point. At the river Ganges, Indians who have traveled from all over, come to dump ashes of their loved ones into the river. The river not only symbolizes rebirth, but it symbolizes one’s journey into an eternal network of souls, all connected spiritually. A wonderful example of this would be from James Cameron’s Avatar! The native Na’vi on the planet Pandora are believers in a higher spiritual power, which consists of all spirits of deceased animals and people, but has a direct connection to every living thing. Once the individual Na’vi dies, he is absorbed by the ground, and his soul becomes part of a larger network of spirituality, which can be accessed by the living members on the planet. When a member of the Na’vi kills or eats anything from the planet, a thanks must be given to the spiritual power. Much like the system on the planet Pandora, Tsukada participates in this when he is forced to end the remains of a fallen soldier. He had to “eat the flesh of [the man’s] body. . . whether he wanted to or not” (102). The deceased member of humanity, now a part of spirituality, serves as a spiritual and physical boost, allowing Tsukada’s life to prosper.
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ReplyDeleteGuilt has its way of building up inside a human being and then personally kills them on the inside. In “Deep River,” the character Kiguchi begins to have flashbacks on the critical conditions of the war that he fought for in the Burma jungle. As he described it, it started to rain and “every member of the unit was suffering from malnutrition” (Endo 85). Although the doctor had specifically told all of the members to be careful about the things they are eating because it might contain some type of poison, one character name Tsukada never forgave himself for something he did. In order to forget about what he did during that time, he continuously drank heavy loads of alcohol to the point where doctors were concerned about his lungs. Although Tsukada feels like he is fine, doctors are telling his family and friends that he may be suffering a mental breakdown or disorder.
ReplyDeleteFinally, Tsukada decides that he would tell Kiguchi the guilt and the main reason why he started drinking. He began to drink heavily to hide the fact that he ate his friend’s body part during the war because of starvation. He was tricked to thinking that it was lizard meat, but it turned out that “thepaper the meat was wrapped in was one of those letters” from the soldiers wife that “he always carried around” (Endo 98). Because of this, Tsukada was never at peace with himself. Even with Tsukada’s strong religious beliefs, he was never at peace with himself because Kinguchi himself “could not tell wehter such comfort eased Tsukada’s pain” (Endo 99). Kinguchi tried to encourage Tsukada so that he would get better, but it seems as though Tsukada was onl getting worse until he finally died. As the author described it, “his face was more at peace than anyone had imagined it could be, but a look of peace always comes at last to the dying” (Endo 99). This speech is a reflection that those who feel a sense of remorse and guilt will only be peaceful after they feel as if they have already paid off what they’ve done wrong. In this case, Tsukada’s confession to Kinguchi finally set him at peace again.
What is your opinion on Kiguchi’s wish for vengeance?
ReplyDeleteHow can a person’s search for vengeance ruin him/her?
I believe that one of the main themes in this book is that each character seems to be looking for something that is very hard or almost impossible to find. For example, Kiguchi goes to India to pay his respects to Tsukada, who died from suffering from the war he was in (Endo 103). Kiguchi feels that he is supposed to avenge his friend (Endo 101). Oddly enough, it seems as if his heart isn’t truly in it. Sometimes when a person is too bent on vengeance, they begin to lose sight of what they really want: justification for their friend or family. Also, if a person tries too hard to accomplish something that they cannot do, they may end up hurting himself more than the person he is trying to seek vengeance on. If Kiguchi does not take care of his heart, he may fall victim to his own goals.
When one searches for vengeance, it is usually for a good reason. However, it can be easy to lose sight of that reason. It is at that point when vengeance turns to revenge. The difference between vengeance and revenge is that revenge requires hatred, where vengeance does not. Seeking vengeance can transform into revenge because all it may take is one action to fill a person’s heart with hatred. It is important that one does not lose sight of his sense of justice and to be careful not to let his feelings consume him. The human heart can easily be influenced by the outside world; one should be very careful not to succumb to those influences when trying to justify another’s death, otherwise the search for vengeance may end up corrupting him.