Botchan

First thing I have to say is, im not really sure what the main theme of the story really is. In my opinion it seemed to be more about how unfair life can be than anything else. the main character from Tokyo although he was a major trouble maker (and still is) as a child seemed to always be honest about what he had done when ever he was caught after doing something wrong. In fact he even says it himself that he expects the punishment. However in this new country it seems like everyone is completely different there. No one seems to be honest, the teachers, the headmaster, the headteacher, the women, and even the students themselves seem to be completely crooked in terms of their morality and i don't see "why" that is either. If theres one thing that this story made me think is, that there really are some crooked people out in the world.  The only person who I have any sympathy for is probably Uranari/Koga who seemed to be the only decent person in the story other than botchan and porcupine. Not only was his Fiance taken from him, but he was also forced to leave the town he grew up in so that the head teacher could take his fiance from him. Other than Koga... I guess I would have to sympathize with Botchan. Although he was very very very stubborn and very very very quick to start a fight it is clear that he was also very straight forward and very honest. And yet he somehow ended up in a town where everyone seemed to be the exact opposite of that, Sly and cunning. In multiple parts of the book Botchan gives references to his inability to speak eloquently despite the fact that logically he had every reason to be angry at the time, for example when he was disrespected and was pranked by the students during the night shift. By just the facts there is no way anyone could disprove that what the students did was wrong, yet somehow the headmaster and headteacher managed to twist things in their favor. I think this highlights the major theme in Botchan, "Might makes right". Although it took until porcupine to say it for him, I think Botchan finally realized that there was nothing he could do about the situation and left the country altogether .

I guess my only question for this entire story is.. Was it worth it? Was not admitting to himself that he couldnt "win" against the unjust worth putting himself through all this drama? I feel that Botchan knew all along that he would be happier with kiyo in tokyo doing something else entirely yet.. out of pride he tried to tough it out with the crooked school system. If anything he would have been able to spend more time with the soon passing Kiyo...