Contrast in “The Sailor who fell from Grace with the Sea”
Set in the background of the culturally conflicting modern Japan, “The Sailor who fell from grace with the sea” is a story of contrast, which centers on the tragic life of three characters. From the structure of the novel in two parts entitled, suggestively, “Summer” and “Winter”, to the significant descriptions of the environments presented in the novel, land and sea, the narrative is plagued with evidences of striking differences between two cultures: the western and the eastern one. To both expose his own personal views on the world he lives in and to carry important themes such as the fulfillment of love through death, the relationship between a child and his parent and the undying search for glory, Yukio Mishima carefully constructs his heroes around dissimilarities that prove to be, ultimately, the driving force of the plot. As the complexity of the characters is the main trait of this work of fiction, it would be only sensible to analyze the concept of contrast from such a perspective. To serve the aforementioned analytical purpose one has to investigate the psychological nature and the actions of the three protagonists: Noburu, Fusako, and Ryuji.
Presented as a mere child that has not yet reached his adolescent years, Noburu is, or at least wants to be, the epitome of the traditional man. To accomplish this desire, the character associates himself with a gang of juvenile delinquents that wish to preserve the long-established customs of traditional Japan. The gang, ruled by an erratically bitter chief, apparently fights the anomie of the modern society but, ironically, they are the first to succumb in a world of no moral values. The protagonist, by being a part of this group, is inoculated with their ideas and beliefs and stands as a contrast to the other two main characters that have more flexible views on tradition. While Noburu, nihilistic by nature, struggles to lead a traditional life based on the code of honor, developing some absurd notions for his tender age, as not crying: “he never cried, not even in his dreams, for heart hardness was a point of pride”, his mother and Ryuji are more prone to show their feelings and embrace the westernized style of life. Whether Noburu acts as a nemesis is debatable and clearly related to the theme of contrast in the novel, as the character supposedly fights for a noble cause. Yet so, his idea of a noble cause undoubtedly differs from what the other two protagonists consider righteous. While the two mature characters seek glory or mere happiness through love, Noburu has the pessimistic idea of only being able to gain honor through death. Not completely sane, Noburu is in himself a contrast. While he wants to display only hardened, manly traits, he is deeply affectionate of his mother and the world she lives in: “if this is ever destroyed, it will mean the end of the world”.
