The Irony of Death Being a “Happy Incident”
Yuko Mishima elucidates, “At thirteen, Noboru was convinced of his own genius (each of the others in the gang felt the same way) and certain that life consisted of a few simple signals and decisions; that death took root at the moment of birth and man’s only recourse thereafter was to water and tend it; that propagation was a fiction; consequently, society was a fiction too; that fathers and teachers, by virtue of being fathers and teachers, were guilty of a grievous sin. Therefore, his own father’s death, when he was eight, had been a happy incident, something to be proud.” Ordinarily, Noboru would have been shattered by his father’s demise. His pride over the father’s death is an ironic sentimentality which is attributed to his illusions of being a genius. Noboru’s world view is based on unsound perceptions that hearten him to accept the death as a realism that should not be mourned.
“Longing for Something He Loathes”
Yuko Mishima, “But as years passed, he (Ryuji) grew indifferent to the lure of exotic lands. He found himself in the strange predicament all sailors shared: essentially he belonged neither to the land nor to the sea. Possibly man who hates the land should never leave it. Alienation and the long voyages at sae will compel him once again to dream of life ashore, torment him with the absurdity of longing for something that he loathes.” First, Ryuji embarks on sailing as an Avoidant mechanism to elude the land which he abhors; thus, it would be ironic for him to crave land. Ryuji would have been thrilled in sailing because it permits him not to be on land. The irony of Ryuji’s longing stresses that sailing is not an effective Avoidant strategy for him to resolve is antipathy towards land. If he were fanatical about sailing, then it would have been stress-free for him to delight in all the voyages. Accordingly, the sailing is not an unqualified remedy for his repugnance for land because he does not enjoy it.
