Loyalty Obssesion: Patriotism By Yukio Mishima
Vitor Salles
Professor Vazquez
ENC 1102
31 July, 2014
Loyalty Obssesion The obsession of Yukio Mishima about the Japanese tradition is undeniable. In “Patriotism”, and throughout his life, the author criticized the loss of the Japanese identity and Americanization and Westernization of Japan, he also condemns the progress away from the roots and traditional values; to Mishima, the culture and tradition and its millennial deeper meaning faded away when replaced by Western ideals. This short story tells the lives of a young couple, the lieutenant of the Imperial Forces, Shinji Takeyama, and his wife Reiko, as well as their ceremonious and honorable deaths through the seppuku ritual. In this paper I will analyze how Mishima uses and abuses of Japanese culture and rigor of ritualistic ceremonies of love and death to illustrate his dissatisfaction about the lack of traditional principles among Japanese people.
In the beginning of the story, Yukio describes the clothing of the couple in their marriage. Mishima wisely uses the contradiction between the bride and groom vests to show the cultural modernization, while Reiko uses the traditional kimono, Lieut. Takeyama vests are a regular military uniform. As the story goes, a controversial, yet traditional, element pops up in the story, the idea of an arranged marriage, “Reiko felt not …show more content…
The key word of this history is loyalty, both Lieutenant Takeyama devotion to the imperial forces and fidelity of Reiko to her husband. With a profound and full of analogies writing, Mishima portrays the Lieutenant as a person completely loyal to the Emperor and who rather die than kill close friends. His wife, Reiko, through the story end up revealing herself as loyal as her husband or even more, especially when she accepts her fate as a soldier’s wife to die along with
Professor Vazquez
ENC 1102
31 July, 2014
Loyalty Obssesion The obsession of Yukio Mishima about the Japanese tradition is undeniable. In “Patriotism”, and throughout his life, the author criticized the loss of the Japanese identity and Americanization and Westernization of Japan, he also condemns the progress away from the roots and traditional values; to Mishima, the culture and tradition and its millennial deeper meaning faded away when replaced by Western ideals. This short story tells the lives of a young couple, the lieutenant of the Imperial Forces, Shinji Takeyama, and his wife Reiko, as well as their ceremonious and honorable deaths through the seppuku ritual. In this paper I will analyze how Mishima uses and abuses of Japanese culture and rigor of ritualistic ceremonies of love and death to illustrate his dissatisfaction about the lack of traditional principles among Japanese people.
In the beginning of the story, Yukio describes the clothing of the couple in their marriage. Mishima wisely uses the contradiction between the bride and groom vests to show the cultural modernization, while Reiko uses the traditional kimono, Lieut. Takeyama vests are a regular military uniform. As the story goes, a controversial, yet traditional, element pops up in the story, the idea of an arranged marriage, “Reiko felt not …show more content…
The key word of this history is loyalty, both Lieutenant Takeyama devotion to the imperial forces and fidelity of Reiko to her husband. With a profound and full of analogies writing, Mishima portrays the Lieutenant as a person completely loyal to the Emperor and who rather die than kill close friends. His wife, Reiko, through the story end up revealing herself as loyal as her husband or even more, especially when she accepts her fate as a soldier’s wife to die along with