Yasunari Kawabata Essays (Examples)

Studying the girl's physical appearance, and smelling her scent, Eguchi was experiencing mixed emotions. he smell reminded him of babies, but he realized that a young woman approaching twenty could not smell like milk. He might have actually returned to his own age of the innocence, "a passing specter" (idem, 20).

he author creates a very strong contrast between everything that old and young symbolize. Old age is represented only trough ugliness, decay, coldness, dark, bad smells. On the other hand, youth, the thing that Eguchi and all the rest of those visiting the house were hoping to find, is full of nursery smells, warm feelings, nice, melodious sounds. he story further unravels another possible explanation for the smell of milk Eguchi first sensed lying beside the girl. He was almost senile, but he still had something left from his virility that made him slightly different than Kiga, his friend…

Country" by Yasunari Kawabata

"The Dead" by James Joyce and "Snow Country" by Yasunari Kawabata are literary works that uses the technique of imagery in depicting the occurrence of death. "The Dead" by Joyce is a short story that depicts life in Ireland and the unfulfilled love between Gabriel and Gretta Conroy. "Snow Country," meanwhile, illustrates the gloomy life of Shimamura and Komako, as they lead dissatisfying and unfortunate lives, respectively. Death is a common theme between the two works, and through the characters of each story, readers are able to identify the meaning of death for Joyce and Kawabata. In "The Dead," snow serves as a symbol and image of dead, primarily because of the attached meaning given to snow -- it represents stillness and coldness, characteristics that are apparently found in death. Furthermore, through the characters of Misses Kate and Julia, death becomes even more evident. It is…

Country by Yasunari is a story that depicts a variety of diverse and rich imagery that is presented through symbolization of the natural setting. From the snow to the rocks and the cedar and the equally important presence of the human life the story takes on an allegorical form that touches the emotional psyche of the reader. Thus, this paper will explore the symbolic representation that has been lost or forgotten through translations of the story and present it as a segment of the plot. In short the paper will explore how symbolic imagery adds to the plot of the story.

Yasunari Kawabata novels were set in environments depicting loneliness, emptiness, symbolizing unsatisfied yearning, and transient or unattainable love, with a backdrop of wild and beautiful nature. His novels were written in a free associative and unconventional style, usually over long periods of time. The bulk of 'Snow Country' was…

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…

All is forgiven. Eventually, both of them disappear into one of the trees that the old man's ancestors have looked after, for hundreds of years.

Is the story emotionally positive or negative in tone? On one hand, the old man was a failure in life, and drove a woman to suicide. Yet in death, everything seems to be forgiven, and he returns to her and the spiritual resting place of his ancestors. Both her and his saving grace was that he remembered her. Misako says that so long as he lives on and remembers her, she is still alive. The author resists judging his characters, either the formerly suicidal girl or the deaf old man who betrayed her when he was young. It suggests that there is absolute forgiveness after death for everyone, and the dead live in a state of unity with the natural world. So long as a…

person's perception changes their reality, by comparing the two stories "In a grove" from ashomon by yunosuke Akutagawa and "A thousand cranes" by Yasunari Kawabata

Akutagawa yunosuke, born in the year 1892, was a short story writer and a poet and an essayist, who was also one of the first few Japanese writers whose works happened to be translated into English. He was a perfectionist, and an extremely stylish one at that, and he often wrote on macabre themes. The author was born in Tokyo, which is famous for its rich and varied cultural heritage, and this heritage is reflected to a great extent in all his writings. Akutagawa yunosuke style of writing has been described as being highly expressive and explicit, and this is usually in evidence when he describes sensations, like for example, he describes the touch of a butterfly's wings and said that for many years afterwards,…

The umbrella is a symbol of protection. It begins in the boy's hands and ends in the girl's. At first he is reluctant to share it with her, though he wants to -- his shyness does not allow him to be so bold. She simply wants to share in the holding of the umbrella with him -- because it is his and he is holding it. By the end of the story, she is holding the umbrella, and she cannot bring herself to return it. Her taking it suggests to the boy that now they are united -- she can share in the protection the umbrella affords against the weather. In this sense, the umbrella becomes a symbol of marriage -- which is a kind of institution that offers protection to two people against the inclemency of time and space. Her nature causes her to want to be close to…

All year-round, the smells of a coffin and coffin nails hover over her. Great-Grandmother does not brush her teeth. Great-Grandmother does not believe in airplanes. Great-Grandmother does not watch television

Great-Grandmother simply stands in front of the window of her Garret, or sits in the sun, a sun that does not penetrate her but simply casts a shadow behind her. She is very pale and does her hair in an archaic fashion, and has a face that the narrator describes as a set of wrinkles with archeological significance.

Each family treats the situation with different tactics but all show an inherent disdain for the very old, to the point of seeing and treating them as if they are inhuman, and with an irreverent lack of respect that is contrary to the culture from which they came. The only piece that offers a consoling look at the very old, throughout is…