Post by Teng Lai Chang on Sept 17, 2015 2:52:02 GMT
The story, "In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom," by Sakaguchi Ando, was very intriguing and left me in awe with its dark, ambient atmosphere and malevolent, spiteful characters. The characters were not, in any way relatable, but I felt that these chracters represent some sort of dark, subconscious side that everyone has within them. I also love the narrator's interpretation of cherry blossoms, which definitely surprised me. I've never known that cherry blossoms were depicted as "scary" and "something to be afraid of" (187) in the past, as I have always seen them as a pleasant and auspicious sight. But it made sense to me how cherry blossoms can be so fearful as it slowly reveals the ugliness of one's soul, as is exemplified in the book when one of the friends abandons the other because he or she was only concerned with his or her safety.
However, the cherry blossoms also seem to have a dual meaning. Not only do cherry blossoms seem to reveal humans' darkness and their inner desires and greed, but also humans' loneliness and fear. Each and every character has flaws or an ugliness inside of them. The man, who is a bandit, is a cruel and ruthless man as he steals other people's property and even takes other people's lives to satisfy his own desires and wishes. While he is filled with evil, he is also lonely. He tries to please his beautiful wife with her endless requests for hairpins and rouge, but she is never satisfied and always asks for more. He moves to the capital to end his wife's boredom. And while that relieved her boredom, it created feelings of loneliness for the man instead, as he felt he doesn't belong in the capital but in the mountains instead. In a place where he was unfamiliar and distant, he felt lost and fearful because he lost all authority and comfort he had when he was in the mountains, which therefore, resulted in feelings of loneliness.
The beautiful woman, who only cares about herself, ruthlessly demeans and belittles other people's lives as we can see in the story when she ordered the man to kill his six wives. Throughout the story, she only cared about her hairpins and combs and was never satisfied with her gifts and food. Her lust and interest with human heads is discomforting, grotesque, and sick: "shove up the nostrils of his snub nose....clasp it to her breast and force a nipple between its lips, laughing all the while she 'suckled' it" (198). The description and imagery that the author uses in portraying the ugliness of the woman's heart are mind compelling and effective. The only time we see her in demise and loneliness is when the man tells her he wants to go back to the mountains. Only at that time does she feels despair and loneliness, and this very desperateness may derive from the fact that she lost her only source of income and resource for her unfulfilled desires - hairpins and humans heads. Thus, this loneliness comes from the fear of losing everything she desires.
I feel that towards, the end, the absorption and disappearances of the man and woman into the cherry blossoms represent some sort of karma or punishment for those who have hurt others. The reason why cherry blossoms are so feared is that people are afraid of their inner darkness and greed, and thus, are afraid to go near the cherry blossoms, in fear of witnessing their flaws. Or the absorption of the man may be a represention of one becoming with the cherry blossoms, which represents loneliness. The line, "He no longer had to fear loneliness, he was lonliness itself (205)," could have meant that even though he fought loneliness, as he was finally able to go near the cherry blossoms, defy his wife's wishes, go back to the mountains, he wasn't able to win against himself for killing his beautiful wife, thus, the death of his wife was the final blow to his becoming "loneliness."
Discussion Question: Was the beautiful woman actually a demon or was it an imagination from the man? Could it have been the cherry blossoms that created the demon? If so, did the man really want to kill the woman?
However, the cherry blossoms also seem to have a dual meaning. Not only do cherry blossoms seem to reveal humans' darkness and their inner desires and greed, but also humans' loneliness and fear. Each and every character has flaws or an ugliness inside of them. The man, who is a bandit, is a cruel and ruthless man as he steals other people's property and even takes other people's lives to satisfy his own desires and wishes. While he is filled with evil, he is also lonely. He tries to please his beautiful wife with her endless requests for hairpins and rouge, but she is never satisfied and always asks for more. He moves to the capital to end his wife's boredom. And while that relieved her boredom, it created feelings of loneliness for the man instead, as he felt he doesn't belong in the capital but in the mountains instead. In a place where he was unfamiliar and distant, he felt lost and fearful because he lost all authority and comfort he had when he was in the mountains, which therefore, resulted in feelings of loneliness.
The beautiful woman, who only cares about herself, ruthlessly demeans and belittles other people's lives as we can see in the story when she ordered the man to kill his six wives. Throughout the story, she only cared about her hairpins and combs and was never satisfied with her gifts and food. Her lust and interest with human heads is discomforting, grotesque, and sick: "shove up the nostrils of his snub nose....clasp it to her breast and force a nipple between its lips, laughing all the while she 'suckled' it" (198). The description and imagery that the author uses in portraying the ugliness of the woman's heart are mind compelling and effective. The only time we see her in demise and loneliness is when the man tells her he wants to go back to the mountains. Only at that time does she feels despair and loneliness, and this very desperateness may derive from the fact that she lost her only source of income and resource for her unfulfilled desires - hairpins and humans heads. Thus, this loneliness comes from the fear of losing everything she desires.
I feel that towards, the end, the absorption and disappearances of the man and woman into the cherry blossoms represent some sort of karma or punishment for those who have hurt others. The reason why cherry blossoms are so feared is that people are afraid of their inner darkness and greed, and thus, are afraid to go near the cherry blossoms, in fear of witnessing their flaws. Or the absorption of the man may be a represention of one becoming with the cherry blossoms, which represents loneliness. The line, "He no longer had to fear loneliness, he was lonliness itself (205)," could have meant that even though he fought loneliness, as he was finally able to go near the cherry blossoms, defy his wife's wishes, go back to the mountains, he wasn't able to win against himself for killing his beautiful wife, thus, the death of his wife was the final blow to his becoming "loneliness."
Discussion Question: Was the beautiful woman actually a demon or was it an imagination from the man? Could it have been the cherry blossoms that created the demon? If so, did the man really want to kill the woman?