The Sun sets elsewhere
Hello, happy October!
So I've just finished Osamu Dazai's book, The Setting Sun (henceforth referred to as TSS). I'd like to preface before I say anything that most of my interpretations are just that. Interpretations. Another thing is that I'm 15; I'm distant from adult life and even still I don't know adults quite like the adults in the book. Unsure if I got it right but enjoy anyways. Spoilers ahead
To summarise: The Setting Sun follows a family in the early years after the war. Talks much about how the social and moral climate is rapidly changing, given by way that the main protagonist (Kazuko) is a former aristocrat. They struggle to adapt to the changes and poverty after the war. Themes include guilt, shame, embarrassment, and breaking normalcy.
What was most interesting to me about the book was that it stuck to one perspective. I dislike books that change because I get confused, so this was very lovely! The way Osamu writes hopelessness, despair, and desolation in the book is striking as well. I'm fortunate enough to not have experienced the things she experienced, and I generally live well off -- but even still It's like I could feel being Kazuko -- probably because it's written slightly autobiographically making it a little more personal. The book presents many different characters and their characters, what they represent too. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was delightful to read though incredibly depressing.
You can also see Osamu's life sort of reflected in the book. Of course the main work that does this is No longer human but you still get the sense of Osamu's thoughts and feelings about the moral and social climate after the war. Especially the commentary about a moral revolution, and leaving behind the old of everything. I love how realistic everything is though it centres on Kazuko, and she's very idealistic. I say that Osamu wrote of her hopelessness well because even though there are times she is happy, and she feels joy, and she is getting what she wants or just getting through another heavy day, you are forced to remember how crazily desperate her situation is.
Kazuko's Mother
Was never referred to by name. I think that she was what the book wanted to be the image of the correct or good kind of woman. She carries attitudes from old moral standards and is generally described by Kazuko to be an elegant woman. She is what a woman aristocrat should be, elegant and placid. However this also carries that she also carries the dependency women of old carried. She relied on her husband before that, after his death she did rely on her brother (referred to as Uncle Wada). She relied on him not only financially, but also to make big decisions about where she will live, where she will go, what will happen to her after they lose their house in Tokyo. She is also a symbol of Kazuko's idealised life. Like I mentioned above Kazuko often praises her mother as elegant and sophisticated. She is the one as well fully unadapted to the current post-war world, her grace prevents her so. She dies a little more than halfway into the book, even still is her death marked by elegance. -- ... her face in death was almost unaltered. When my father died his expression had suddenly changed, but Mother's was exactly the same as in life... -- so even still then afterwards Kazuko regards her mom greatly. I've also heard the thing that her illness represents the passing of good and the finally departure of the aristocracy which. I can't argue with. I just don't think I noticed it at first which is a bit sad, but that's alright. Lots of subtle things and symbolisms to be said...
Kazuko
The main protagonist. She's a 29-year-old divorcee who loses a lot of her sense of meaning after the war, and the fall out of the Japanese aristocracy. I should mention now that every person in the book has different reactions to the aristocracy, but hers is pretty on the fence-ish. She recognises it's falling but still clings to that identity via her Mother. But it's that clinging to that changes after her Mother's death; throughout the book she contemplates pursuing a man we come to know as MC, but his real name is Uehara. This spotlights the themes of breaking through standards or rebelling against her former class -- rather, better wording would be fully abandoning it. When her mom was alive, she only talks a lot about thinking of having the affair but once her Mother dies she pursues him in Tokyo. It's not mentioned elsewhere but it's something I did notice after thinking about the last few chapters. Having her Mother leave her is the final impression of the aristocracy. It's when she talks about God, it's when she starts to talk about modern ideas. Her affair as well is kind of driven by a desire for purpose - at least that's how I understand it -- it's so that she has something to grapple on after the fall of everything she's known. She feels helpless because of the financial situation, they've lost the house, and in the first part of the book she didn't even know where her brother was (more on him later). She needed something to be like an anchor besides her mother. If her mother tethered her to old ideals then Uehara tethered her to new ones. She needed a goal, which was to have Uehara's child, to pull her out of her despair and attempt at starting a new life. She does eventually and it becomes her symbol of hope so to speak. This child as well does a lot to symbolise her final departure from old values. In the last chapter of the book (which is written as a letter) she communicates to Uehara about the kid to be born. I say she abandons her old values here because she 1. had this kid with a married man whom she had an affair with 2. now a single mother which didn't fly much in society. ...Victims. Victims of a transitional period of morality. That is what we both certainly are... I also find when she justifies her actions (pursing the affair) very interesting. ...and I haven't a trace of guilty consciece. Man was born for love and revolution... -- like, actions done to satisfy oneself are actions are somehow morally justifiable. This is bad wording yes, I can't think of different phrasing. But I understand it's deeper than that. Verbalising emotion is just hard sometimes. This is not to discount the fact that Kazuko is a fighter. She survived so much and infact is literally the only survivor. She will continue on after the war, afte the transitioal period of morality. She is defiant. She will go on despite the changes.
Naoji
Kazuko's brother. He is the most similar to Osamu himself in the book but with how the story is written he is distinguishable from the author in such a way. I was inclined to dislike Naoji at first. He squandered most of the family's money on opium and went missing for a long time before just. Showing up? This causes many trysts mostly because they thought he was dead so to just show up and bombard the new life they have, the new fresh start they have, is kind of insane. I was more inclined to dislike him because he relapsed as well. Because he is so harsh and 'coarse'. But he is complex as are most of the characters and motivations. Naoji is a failure of adaptation, in contrast to his sister. His sister succeeds in coming into the modern world but he meets his tragic end detailed in the chapter before the last, but more specifically his suicide note. He is trapped between his past and the new vulgar world, and to adapt he turns to substance abuse among other things -- to become a common man. There's an excerpt I really enjoy from it, which goes; ... When I pretended to be precocious, people started the rumor that I was precocious. When i acted like a idler, rumor had it I was an idler. When I pretended I couldn't write a novel, people said I couldn't write. When I acted like a liar, the called mme a liar. When I acted like a rich man, they started a rumor I was rich. When I feigned ignorance, they classed me as the indifferent type. But when I inadvertently groaned because I was really in pain, they started the rumor that I was faking suffering. The world is out of joint... It's on the tip of my tounge, I can't describe it, but this perfectly exemplifies or is like a first warning to Naoji's attempts at assimilation and failure at becoming coarse. In his suicide letter to Kazuko, he talks about many things. He mentions that there is ann element which is lacking to let him live, I think that's the aristocracy or at least the structure of it. In the sense of foundation for a person's character. He also talks about how much all of it -- the opium and all -- was an effort to become a "friend of the people" or at least an emulation of it, but he still failed. He failed genuine-ness and fake-ness. Where Kazuko had her moral revolution for her struggles and realisations, Naoji's caused him to give it up and die. He feels lost because he lost his ability to do much of anything after the aristocracy fell. The bulk of this letter, however, is about a woman. Her name is Suga, and she is the one woman Naoji truly loved. She was perfect in his eyes-- I think he thought her to be another true symbol of the gentleness he saw in his mother. Naoji is unsurprisingly a sensitive character, it's mostly revealed though in his letter to Kazuko. Probably throughout the entire book anyway but I might've just missed it. I say this because Naoji is in love with a married woman. It hurts a lot to love her and not say anything, but he doesn't knowing the effect it'd cause. Disgrace her and disgrace him further. He doesn't want to die with Kazuko in the house in the horror that she may be the one that discovers him. So he does with a random dancer girl he brought home. He goes through so much alienation (wow Osamu book with alienation who would've thought) BECAUSE he can't assimilate.
Uehara
So this part'll be a bit short because I have said so much about Uehara but mainly what I think he represents is modern Japanese society after the war. He is very different from Naoji and Kazuko in the sense that is far removed from the aristocracy. He is the son of a farmer, and (it seems to me) that he has fully accepted the reality of things. This makes him pretty cynical. He is described as a debauched writer, his courses of action are far removed from old traditional society too. Multiple lovers whilst having a wife and child, criticising the aristocracy and those who try to emulate being common (I.e inderect comment on Naoji in the book) is so different from the values exemplified by Kazuko's mom, what Kazuko clings too, and what Naoji is chained by. It's a bit jarring in the book -- at least when you meet him. I should mention that the way Kazuko goes about her affair is that she writes letters. She showers Uehara with love and hope for a future and a new start and dare I say she praises him a little but when we meet him, he's absolutely drunk and maybe a little unbearable. I didn't expect him to be like that when reading about him in the letters. Maybe I should've expected it given how much Kazuko talked about him and her love for him. Of course this lends to the theme of disillusion. How after everything and getting what she wanted, Kazuko's feelings seemed to diminish. Her only thing now is the baby -- what she originally wanted. It's also weird a little because Uehara, after Kazuko tracks him down in Tokyo, reciprocates her feelings attracted to her but resentful toward her aristocratic background.
The snake
another short part but it's good to mention that one of the major symbols of the book are snakes. They are like, omens of death and guilt for Kazuko specifically. She is plagued by the imagery of snakes -- appearing when her father died, seemingly cursing her when she burned snake eggs, 'twisting' in her chest when she does something shameful -- Okay for that point when she burns the snake her guilt manifests in the form of a sensation of a snake growing in her chest which symbolises her internal struggles with everything though she appears strong for her mom and to keep everything together on the surface. It's symbol of grief of what was the aristocracy. It's a symbol of grief of everyone she's lost.
So that's what I gathered from the book. I might've missed a lot but that's alright. Arguably the most important chapter is the testament, it reveals a lot and confirms a lot of what I was thinking reading the first few chapters. But it is also Osamu's direct message to the world, the suffering Japanese society faced post-war.
As always, hopes be many and woes be few; fortunes be abundant to you and your crew.