Post by angelina kurganska on Oct 21, 2015 23:00:23 GMT
In the short story LEMON by Kaiji Motojiro I think that the lemon and its yellow color symbolize cheerfulness and positivity. Before the main character of the story stumbled upon the grocery store with the lemons, he was completely enveloped by depression. H would wonder around the less populated Kyoto streets and would find consolidation in the “shabby back alleys with their grimy laundry hanging out to dry and paths of scattered trash” (p.149). The lemon was too found in a small green grocer in one of the back alleys located alongside a busy shopping street. The main character mentions that the lemon itself wasn’t so special as you can find lemons in all kinds of fancy grocery stores. What was special about it was that he found it in a regular green grocer, among the mundane vegetables that one finds every day. I think that seeing this bright yellow citrus fruit in this setting made him think that you can find wonderful things in the most dullest of settings. Perhaps when he bought the lemon he started feeling like the lemon. Although lemons are sour, as a citrus fruit they are known for being able to print positivity to the people who eat them, as well as health.
Motojiro also mentions how “among these tottering houses with their moldering earthen walls, which wind and rain would soon return to soil, the vigor of life could be glimpsed only in the vegetation, in the occasional shock of a blossoming sunflower or canna” (p.149). It seems as if the author is describing the character’s surroundings to have us associate the surroundings with the character, with his withering body stricken by disease; and life is only seen in the rarely blossoming yellow flowers.
Question:
Why do you think is the significance of the main character stacking up the art books and putting the lemon on top?
Why do you think he finally left the lemon in the store?
Motojiro also mentions how “among these tottering houses with their moldering earthen walls, which wind and rain would soon return to soil, the vigor of life could be glimpsed only in the vegetation, in the occasional shock of a blossoming sunflower or canna” (p.149). It seems as if the author is describing the character’s surroundings to have us associate the surroundings with the character, with his withering body stricken by disease; and life is only seen in the rarely blossoming yellow flowers.
Question:
Why do you think is the significance of the main character stacking up the art books and putting the lemon on top?
Why do you think he finally left the lemon in the store?