Country and the Stanger Kawabata\'s

¶ … Country and the Stanger

Kawabata's Snow Country and Camus' the Stranger

The Stranger and Snow Country are the products of two opposed civilizations, the West and the East. As such, the two works have sprung from an entirely different background, but, nevertheless, they are also very similar. Through their thematic, the two novels are very similar, yet their style differs very much. Thus, the core of both works is formed by the theme of estrangement or alienation: both Shimamura and Mersault are equally incapable of love and passion or of any other bond with the people surrounding them. Moreover, the two seem entirely disconnected from their immediate reality. In terms of character and how they actually view the world, the two heroes are quite different. While the thematic similarity could form the basis for a comparison, there are other, more specific resemblances that should be analyzed. The most significant one thus is the fact that both authors use the settings of their novels as meaningful contexts, which emphasize the two strangers' absolute loneliness.

Thus, the setting of Kawabata's novel is, as the title indicates, Echigo-Y-zawa or the snow country. Not accidentally, the book starts with the description of Shimamura's train journey to the snow country. Also, the changing seasons play an important role in the novel, and Shimamura's relationship to Komako seems to change with the weather. In Camus' Stranger, the scenery is equally arid and lifeless as that in the Snow Country, but, here, it is the excessive desert heat that seems to correspond to Mersault's state of mind. Thus, the setting is used in both novels as an indicative of the tension between the estranged individual and the hostile environment.

The Snow Country tells the story of Shimamura, a business man from Tokyo who spends some time in Echigo, where he meets Komoko, a geisha, and Yoko, a mysterious woman who is only briefly sketched in the novel. Shimamura becomes interested in both women, but he fails to actually develop a relationship with either of them. There is no real connection between him and Komoko for instance, since he proves incapable of actual feeling and passion. Ambiguity plays here an essential part: the two women that attract Shimamura are both ambiguous characters, remaining ultimately mysterious. Komoko for example is a girl and a woman at the same time, and only half a geisha when Shimamura first meets her. The fact that there are two women character that haunt the hero is also significant, as Shimamura hesitates between the two faces: "[He] felt a rising in his chest again as the memory came to him of the night he had been on his way to visit Komako, and he had seen that mountain light shine in Yoko's face. The years and months with Komako seemed to be lighted up in that instant; and there, he knew, was the anguish."(Kawabata, 174) Despite the contact with the ardent and extremely passionate Komoko, Shimamura eventually returns to Tokyo as unmoved and unblemished as he had come. He cannot form a connection with either of them, and remains abstracted in his own narcissistic world. In this context, the setting becomes symbolic: the Snow Country harbors the flaming personality geisha, but Shimamura is unable to participate in her passion and her ecstasy. He remains distant, cold and unresponsive, just like the absolute whiteness that surrounds him. Through the setting therefore, the author emphasizes the sense of anguish and desolation that pervades the novel. The hero cannot partake of reality in any meaningful way. This is highlighted by the pleasure he takes in writing about a ballet without actually seeing it: "Nothing could be more comfortable than writing about the ballet from books. A ballet he had never seen was an art in another world. It was an unrivaled armchair reverie, a lyric from some paradise. He called his work research, but it was actually free, uncontrolled fantasy [...]it was like being in love with someone he had never seen."(Kawabata, 25) Significantly, Shimamura prefers an uncontrolled fantasy to the actual perception of reality. He is engulfed in his own world and fails to connect to the outward universe. The loftiness of the mountains and the purity of snow hint at an original, untainted world which is altogether different from the usual life: "The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country. The earth lay white under the night sky."(Kawabata, 1) This opening phrase of the novel is very revealing: the hero comes from the intimacy of darkness (the tunnel) into the open blankness of the Snow Country. The setting thus translates the sense of innocence but also that of emptiness and loneliness.

Camus' Stranger also hints at solitude and alienation even from the title. Mersault is already a famous literary character, the modern alien in society. The main difference between him and Shimamura is the fact that the latter has a Romantic bent towards fantasy and a narcissism that keeps him locked in his own world. The common trait that they share is their permanent sense of anxiety. Mersault, unlike Shimamura, is literally afraid of the people that surround him. Incapable of empathy, Mersault feels like a complete stranger not only because he cannot connect with the others but because he find them always puzzling. He is always uneasy around other people, and he over-explains and justifies himself in front of the others. For instance, when he talks to his superior at work about taking two days off for his mother's funeral, Mersault uselessly justifies himself, pointing out that death of his mother is not his fault: "Still, I had an idea he looked annoyed, and I said, without thinking: "Sorry, sir, but it's not my fault, you know."(Camus, 1) This will be again echoed in the end of the novel, when he will actually be incriminated for deserting and neglecting his mother. Just like Shimamura, Mersault is in a permanent sense of alarm, only feeling at ease when he is by himself. The setting here is also important, as the novel is filled with the torrid landscape of Algeria. The almost desert-like setting accentuates the feeling of desolation. A telling example is Mersault's drowsiness all through his mother's funeral and even through the other events. He feels unable to focus because of the heat: "As a matter of fact, I had great difficulty in following his remarks, as, for one thing, the office was so stiflingly hot and big flies were buzzing round and settling on my cheeks."(Camus, 85) the extreme heat is thus a distraction that supposedly only widens the gap between him and the others. Thus, if the absolute emptiness of the Snow Country invaded the spirit of Shimamura, Mersault is terrorized from the beginning to the end of the book by the merciless, glaring sunshine: "The day on which my trial started was one of brilliant sunshine."(Camus, 103) the extreme heat and the bright light impose again a dream-like mood on the scenery. Because of the hot season, everything seems to have a sense of mirage or unreality about it, like that given by the desert. This is the most appropriate context for the alien hero of the novel, who always seems to have difficulty in concentrating and understanding what is happening to him. Again, as in the Snow Country, the opening paragraph is famous: "Mother died today. or, maybe, yesterday; I can't be sure. The telegram from the Home says: YOUR MOTHER PASSED AWAY. FUNERAL TOMORROW. DEEP SYMPATHY. Which leaves the matter doubtful; it could have been yesterday."(Camus, 1) the detached and odd way in which Mersault announces his mother's death without even paying attention to any details indicates the utter state of alienation in which the reader finds him. The death of the mother is chosen here as a trope precisely because it is supposed to move anyone at any time. Mersault however remains unfeeling in front of the tragedy as then in front of his own crime and death. His continuous puzzlement is enhanced by the desert-like setting with its torrid heat and blinding light.