The Narrow Road to Deep North/ Matsuo Basho

Literature about a person’s experience should be a detailed description of the writer’s emotions. It should tell the reader how the writers feels from what they see and do. Matsuo Basho wrote a journal about his five month journey exploring the Northeast of China. It is called, “From the Narrow Road to the Deep North”. In his journal Matsuo Basho described how he feels along the way. Basho describes what he sees along the way through many haikus in his journal. His writing helps the reader understand what it was like to go on this journey, and witness all the beauty that was around him. Basho lets the reader know his fears before he goes on his journey by saying, “I wanted to view those places that I had heard of but never seen and placed my faith in an uncertain future, not knowing if I would return alive” (The World of Haiku 326). He knew the journey would not be an easy one or safe. Throughout the whole journal, Matsuo tells all the highs and lows of his journey. He describes when he was bored sitting on mountains, and in pain from heat and exhaustion. Matsuo describes his joy as he sees cheery blossoms, and his sympathy for the “women of pleasure” he met along the way. Basho’s writing makes his journal entry very real and personal (The Narrow Road to the Deep North). I believe this kind of literature represents life. In “The Narrow Road to the Deep North”, the reader only knows what is going inside the writers head. Basho lets the reader know how he feels and sees. He doesn’t give a history lesson on the places he went too. This is what makes this piece of literature more lifelike. It is equilvent to reading a girls diary about a road trip she went on with friends. The journal is a piece of Basho life.