reflective statement: snow country
To what extent does the student show how his or her understanding of cultural and contextual elements was developed through the interactive oral?
(Word count: 399)
My interactive oral was based on Yasunari Kawabata’s book, Snow Country. I found it very useful to have learned facts about Japanese literary history, but especially about the author’s life, because his background is what influences how his works turn out as well as their characters because sometimes authors use them to express their gpast/feelings.
Time and place had a great impact on the plot and the understanding of the characters. The book mixes modern and traditional Japanese concepts, such as a geisha not being traditional and professional because she falls in love with a friendly client. Komako is a combination of modern and traditional Japan, as she dresses and practices as a traditional geisha, but doesn’t behave as one. Kawabata had a complicated childhood; this can be shown through both Shimamura and Komako’s behavior. Komako is an unstable woman, who drinks excessively and Shimamura doesn’t approve, "You're lucky you've never fallen downstairs, drinking the way you do” (53). As their relationship became more distant, reflecting Kawabata’s childhood path, Yoko come’s in action, where he expresses is thoughts about her in a descriptive matter such as that “[Yoko’s] clear voice [is] so beautiful that it was almost sad.” (56). Once I read the book, and had done my oral activity the things I found a correlation between the authors’ past and the characters, as he reflected his childhood on Shimamura’s actions with Komako.
I struggled when terms such as geisha or katutso came up on the book, even though the plot wasn’t very confusing, nevertheless the social and cultural context was quite different but Kawabata made sure to incorporate universal themes, such as love, which every culture can relate, but Komako became too obsessed with Shiamura when he didn’t know how to in a sense
(Word count: 399)
My interactive oral was based on Yasunari Kawabata’s book, Snow Country. I found it very useful to have learned facts about Japanese literary history, but especially about the author’s life, because his background is what influences how his works turn out as well as their characters because sometimes authors use them to express their gpast/feelings.
Time and place had a great impact on the plot and the understanding of the characters. The book mixes modern and traditional Japanese concepts, such as a geisha not being traditional and professional because she falls in love with a friendly client. Komako is a combination of modern and traditional Japan, as she dresses and practices as a traditional geisha, but doesn’t behave as one. Kawabata had a complicated childhood; this can be shown through both Shimamura and Komako’s behavior. Komako is an unstable woman, who drinks excessively and Shimamura doesn’t approve, "You're lucky you've never fallen downstairs, drinking the way you do” (53). As their relationship became more distant, reflecting Kawabata’s childhood path, Yoko come’s in action, where he expresses is thoughts about her in a descriptive matter such as that “[Yoko’s] clear voice [is] so beautiful that it was almost sad.” (56). Once I read the book, and had done my oral activity the things I found a correlation between the authors’ past and the characters, as he reflected his childhood on Shimamura’s actions with Komako.
I struggled when terms such as geisha or katutso came up on the book, even though the plot wasn’t very confusing, nevertheless the social and cultural context was quite different but Kawabata made sure to incorporate universal themes, such as love, which every culture can relate, but Komako became too obsessed with Shiamura when he didn’t know how to in a sense