Summary Of Shusako Endo, Silence, New York : Taplinger Publishing

The novel “End of Days” by Eric Walters starts off with a Soviet satellite’s travels. It first traveled to Jupiter and eventually left our solar system. The satellite reached a huge asteroid with the diameter of 500 kilometers roughly 1/6 the diameter of the moon. The satellite orbited the asteroid, just by accident the satellite’s messages were received on earth. Those messages revealed that the satellite was on its way home and the asteroid was coming with it. If it hit earth all of life on earth cease, if it missed then the earth would be pushed too close to the sun and life would never be able to survive on Earth again. An organization called the International Aerospace Research Institute planned to use the nuclear weapons of every nuclear-capable

“Silence is violence” is a common phrase used by people nowadays which references people who lack initiative when it comes to speaking out against oppression. The same phrase could be applied to the ideas within Shusaku Endo’s novel, Silence. Endo was clever to name his novel Silence, because the word is a very prominent symbol within the story. In fact, it plays a crucial role to the development of the main character. Although some readers may argue that the role of silence in the book is neutral, I claim that silence plays a negative role for the characters because it is what causes protagonist Rodrigues to renounce his faith. In the story, it represents the silence of God, which induces Rodrigues to question his religion through the torture of innocent Japanese Christians.

Chaim Potok uses many different types of silence in The Chosen. He utilizes many of them to facilitate illustrating the characters’ beliefs and emotions. The silence helps to buoy the imagery and strength of the emotions and assists in adding depth to the moment. Each silence also helps to clarify the messages that pass through the story, making them sharper and additionally refined.

The motif of silence is used to support the theme of bearing witness. This is exemplified by the quote, “Not a sound of distress, not a plaintive cry, nothing but agony and silence” (89). The prisoners are trying to stay silent even though they are in pain. They were looking at the dead but

“To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, to gain all while give, to roam the roads of lands remote, to travel is to live”- Hans Christian Anderson. This is what the Mongolian nomads follow throughout their lives. They move from place to place looking for livestock, they live in yurts, but they all value family and love. Mongolians’ lifestyles are different from New Yorkers. Everywhere in New York looks similar, you see and hear people all the time. Everyone transports the same way like by bus or car. Everywhere you look there is somebody who is like you. However, Mongolians are never in the same or similar place;instead, their lives depend on traveling.

There are lots of examples of a silence of victims in the book. They beat Elie’s father, when he asked about the toilets. They all had to just stay in a train and not say anything at the beginning. They separated them on men and women and told them their new fake ages. They took all the things that mattered to them away. They took off their golden teeth. They shaved them, stripped them. They could not get more of any food. They had just to run from barrack to barrack even though they did know why. They hanged two people and people had to look at them and walk by. They were forced to run more than fifty miles to the Gleiwitz concentration camp. They physically abused Elie’s father at the end. In all those examples

Throughout the Novel Silence, Shusako Endo depicts the cultural clash between Christianity and Japan. We feel the frustrations that this brings, and are provoked to ask questions such as, why is God silent in the midst of his people’s suffering? But the greater question it begs is what cultural implications have we placed on Christ? Do we expect him to act as a hero in our culture would? He transcends time and culture, but do our expectations and experiences cast a shadow on our impression of God? The theme of the silence of God, suggested by the title is brought to light throughout the novel, and perhaps the reader can see this as one cultural expectation placed on Christ by a particular group of people based on their perceptions or experiences. Their experiences in life cast a shadow on their impression of God, and Jesus is to be a cultural hero in their frame.

The oppression of the Holocaust and being in the concentration camps led Elie’s faith in God to decrease. Elie states, “Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What

Deep within the trees little hooded men walk along a path to meditate and pray dressed in brown robes tied with nautical rope. They dwell in silence and live a life of celibacy. This is what most of think of when we hear the word monk. Throughout the years, monks have always been people of intrigue. They live a different lifestyle than most. They live a life of seclusion far from the mores of modern society, which often makes people ponder who these people really are and why they choose to participate in such a foreign religious movement. This paper will attempt to unravel the mysteries of this peculiar movement of by researching it's origin, the true meaning of a silent lives, and how key leaders have helped to

The phrase, “silence fell again” brings out the lack of voice that the Jews had during this time. They had to stay in the shadows, following every command. Not only does the silence pertain to physically, but emotionally he lacked communication to his God through prayer.

Silence happens a lot throughout the book because they all are scared so no one talks. Silence happens a lot when someone is being hanged because they can’t do anything about it or they will be hung with that person and no one want to be in that situation. Elle is forced not to talk about something an officer did because if Elle talked he would be put to death, so basically he didn’t have a cause to be silent at that point well he did but Elle didn’t want to die. Silence has a lot to do with self-preservation because in self-preservation they choose to be silent and not do anything about the

In addition to the silence of God, Elie’s fellow victims face the consequences for their quietness when a “sad-eyed angel” (64) was condemned to death. Even though the Jewish victims were observing a horrific act, there was “total silence in the camp” (64). The silence of the Jewish victims suggest that no one ventured to revolt against the SS officers; thus, the “little pipel” (Wiesel 64) was hanged to death, which exposes that the victims have no motivation to start a rebellion, and these cruel acts are uninterrupted. Finally, in one particular scene, Elie’s father, Shlomo, is suffering from dysentery, and his son attempts to relieve him with water; but then, an SS officer begins to blow Shlomo with a club. Even though Shlomo “continue[s] to call [for his son]” (111), Elie “was afraid of another blow” (111), and he “didn’t move”

Is silence really an important factor in ife? Silence is described as complete absence of sound, however is there more to it? In The Chosen the theme is taken on with great significance. In the book “The Chosen” by Chaim Potok, silence isn’t ordinary, for it can teach various lessons, and can be looked at in a good way.

An older samurai tells the villagers to turn over any Christians in the village. If not, three hostages will be needed to overturn the informants statement, and they will all need to travel to Nagasaki the following day. Mokichi and Ichizo volunteer to go, and Kichijiro is forcibly persuaded to go through guilt. Before they leave for Nagasaki, Rodrigues advices the chosen to trample the fumie if they are faced with that choice. Father Garrpe is shocked by Father Rodrigues’s advice and lack of hesitation to denounce one’s faith, which illustrates the beginning of Father Rodrigue’s denial of his own faith.

In the essentially dual religious system in Japan, ideologies and traditions play a heavy role in the everyday life of the Japanese people. Shintoism and Buddhism intertwine and complement themselves in Japanese culture, despite Buddhism coming in from mainland Asia. A particularly powerful idea from Buddhism is mono no aware, the realization and acknowledgment of the impermanence and its place in the world. This idea that nothing stays the same forever manifests itself heavily in Japanese literature, whether in personal writings or fictional works. Despite spanning hundreds of years, each work was shaped by and include manifestations of mono no aware. I intend to underline and pinpoint instances that mono no aware is influencing these works, and discuss similarities and differences between them. In this paper, I have three works that I will explore, each one corresponding to a different time period before the pre-industrial revolution; The Diary of Lady Murasaki comes from the classical period, Essays in Idleness from the medieval, and the immensely popular play Chushingura from the pre-modern era.