The Walk Up the Mountain
“The Wise Old Man” is a retelling of Japanese folk tale about a warlord who decrees that ever person over the age of seventy-one will be banished from the village he rules because old people are useless. One man dares to defy the banishment only after the labor of carrying her up the mountain in a scene presented through imagery which conveys the alienation and isolation he cannot abide:
“Up and up he climbed, until the trees clustered close and the path was gone. There was no longer even the sound of birds, and they heard only the soft wail of the wind in the trees. The son walked slowly, for he could not bear to think of leaving his old mother in the mountains. On and on he climbed, not wanting to stop and leave her behind. Soon, he heard his mother breaking off small twigs from the trees that they passed.”
It’s Raining Men
The entire experiential concept that Hana has crossed an ocean and traveled halfway around the planet to marry a man she’s never met is encapsulated in the imagery of the moments leading to the moment in which that statement is no longer true. The icy anxiety of the cold anonymity of this intimate situation is subtly conveyed:
“The early morning mist had become a light chilling rain, and on the pier. black umbrellas bobbed here and there, making the task of recognition even harder. Hana searched desperately for a face that resembled the photo she had studied so long and hard…took a deep breath, lifted her head and walked slowly from the launch. The moment she was on the pier, a man in a black coat, wearing a derby and carrying an umbrella, came quickly to her side. He was of slight build, not much taller than she, and his face was sallow and pale.”
Beginnings
In a book of folk tales retold for modern audiences by the author, the template is established and pretty much unbroken. The opening paragraph sets the stage the stage for tale by introducing either the protagonist or antagonist. Imagery is then utilized for the purposes of characterization and exposition. One such example is the opening paragraph of “The Ogre Who Built a Bridge.”
“Long years ago, there was a small village that stood beside a swift and rumbling river. The river was so fierce and strong, in fact, that no one had ever been able to bridge it. Although many, many men had tried, not one could build a bridge that was strong enough to withstand the roaring waters of the great river.”
Heart of Darkness
“The Necklace” recounts the dark heart of America’s treatment of Japanese immigrants to the country: the internment camps of World War II. The horrors of this chapter in our history is made all the more palpable as a result of it being told by a young child:
“What scared me most were the soldiers standing at the doorway of the church hall. They were carrying guns with mounted bayonets. I wondered if they thought we would try to run away and whether they’d shoot us or come after with their bayonets if we did.”
