I read a novel by Soseki Natsume, “Kokoro”. It is for people who are still in youth, or people who would like to look back their youth. Although the atmosphere of the novel reflects the end of Meiji era, the regret Sensei made would be vividly memorized by people of any age, who are challenged by social affairs, especially a sort of loving affair and how they would like to confront to it. It is related not only to socio-political affair, and literary-historically it the most read novel in Japan. Soseki confronted the death of the Emperor Meiji and Nogi’s following him to the grave. This is why he would like to mourn the spirit of Meiji era by the novel. In this novel, an egoism comes about from the depth underlying within one’s mind unnoticeably, and one who notices it is embarrassed by the action. This is the summary of Meiji era and rings the bell that tells the beginning of Taisho democracy. In parallel, the textures of human relations are universally observed in human society and this makes the novel timelessly accepted. The main characters are sincere and the lines of text are reliable for the readers. In “I Am a Cat”, there are not so many matters silently shown. What are not described usually have significant meanings in the Western novels of the same age, in contrast to “I Am a Cat”. However, in “Kokoro”, many things are obscure such as what would be the destiny of the main character’s father and what actually happened to Sensei at the last. Soseki also utilized the methodology to the novel seriously written.
From the viewpoint of structuralism the unbalanced weight of Sensei’s confession invokes its importance in the story. The word “Watashi”, which means “I” in Japanese, is at first utilized to symbolize the main character, but in later part it is for Sensei. This shift of the usage fused the identity of the main character and Sensei at some aspects. From the viewpoint of post-structuralism there is not so much to say. The sin Sensei made is succeeded by the main character, clinging to his mind as deaths of somebodies.
Overall, it is a vibrant novel that represents Japanese novel against the world of literature worldwide.
