In the fiction novel, “The Samurai's Garden” by Gail Tsukiyama, readers explore how a samurai slowly becomes recognized. Stephen, a 20-year-old boy is sent far away from his family to explore a completely new world away from the ongoing war. He lives with Matsu, the caretaker of the family property in Tarumi. Suffering from a terrible sickness, Matsu helps Stephen grow and get back a normal life. In a town named Yamaguchi, he develops friendships and grows appreciation to those with leprosy, especially Sachi, a beautiful young women and one of Matsu’s friend. He starts to love what he can call his new home and all the people around him. Is this all because of Matsu? Matsu might definitely be what one could call the real samurai of the novel because he shows traits of a strong samurai, both character and physical and owns a significant garden in which correlates to the title. Throughout the novel, Matsu’s character gets dug into and one can notice the many valuable traits he has that corresponds with a samurai's.
Some character trait he deeply expressed is loyalty and dedication. Readers could tell how much he cared for Yamaguchi and was truly there for Sachi and the town and remained loyal to his friends. Sachi explains to Stephen that it was Matsu who built her house for her in Yamaguchi from complete scratch. Ever since he has come back many times to visit people in town and help them all no matter what they are going through. He has dedicated himself to the world of
While ongoing change became the status quo in late-Tokugawa era Japan the ideals of the samurai—and the respect they receive—endured. And, because samurai could still fall back on the prestige their class represented, members of society still
“The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life” (Zwick). These are the words of Katsumoto, an important samurai warrior. The movie The Last Samurai directed by Edward Zwick is about an American War Captain named Nathan Algren who is hired to train, lead and modernize a group of Japanese soldiers to defeat a rebellion of the country's remaining Samurai in 1876. Algren is captured by the Samurai and soon becomes part of the village he is being held hostage in. There, Algren learns from the Samurai and comes to respect them. He finds that his true warrior is becoming unleashed as he trains to become a Samurai with the very people we once called his
The fight for justice is not always unequivocal or favorable, sometimes justice is given by means that do not seem fair at all. William Styron says in a novel that life “is a search for justice.” It is blatant that throughout Khaled Hosseini's novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, female characters are continuously battered with injustices. Hosseini hones into the oppression of women and the fight for women empowerment through the life of one of his main characters, Mariam. Her journey is shown throughout the novel where she struggles to search for and understand justice.
Like walking through a barren street in a crumbling ghost town, isolation can feel melancholy and hopeless. Yet, all it takes is an ordinary flower bud amidst the desolation to show life really can exist anywhere. This is similar to Stephen’s journey in The Samurai’s Garden. This novel is about an ailing Chinese boy named Stephen who goes to a Japanese village during a time of war between Japan and China to recover from his disease. By forming bonds with several locals and listening to their stories, he quickly matures into a young adult. Throughout the novel, Gail Tsukiyama shows how disease forces Stephen into isolation; however, Matsu’s garden and Sachi lead him out of solitude.
Is competition allowed in a friendship? Or should two friends be just friends or just rivals. According to many studies, competition is healthy for a friendship. It allows for a group of friends to push each other and get better. But what if there was a friend who took the competition to heart and viewed the friendship more like a rivalry? In John Knowles, A Separate Peace, the protagonist, Gene Forrester, and his best friend, Finny, grow from a great friendship to a full out rivalry. Can a friendship be a rivalry?
The gardens of both Matsu and Sachi symbolize them, and this gives the reader an insight on each of their respective personalities. Matsu’s garden turns more riveting and reveals more secrets as one goes deeper through it while Sachi’s garden illustrates that beauty can be in all forms. These descriptions of the garden mirror their owners and give more information about them. One example is that in the later portion of The Samurai Garden, it is revealed that Matsu was one of the primary founders of Yamaguchi. Like his garden, Matsu’s tale only becomes more
The Samurai’s Garden, written by Gail Tsukiyama, incorporates the various aspect of myth throughout the plot, from how the Japanese worship to the rituals they perform. Stephan-san, a young Chinese man, when he first arrived in Tarumi Japan, discovered the Japanese ritual of being clean. The Japanese in this book had a strong desire to be sanitary in every aspect of their life both physically and morally. They used to be physically clean to visualize being spiritually clean. Another part of the mythology in this novel was the worshipping of the kami deities. These deities dwelled in the shrine near Tarumi and Stephan-san along with Matsu traveled to the shrine to worship and pray to the kami fox deity, the Inari. Two facets of The
Musui 's Story is a samurai 's autobiography that portrays the Tokugawa society as it was lived during Katsu Kokichi 's life (1802 - 1850). Katsu Kokichi (or Musui) was a man born into a family with hereditary privilege of audience with the shogun, yet he lived a life unworthy of a samurai 's way, running protection racket, cheating, stealing, and lying. Before we discuss how Musui 's lifestyle was against the codes that regulated the behavior of the samurai, it is essential that the role of the samurai in Japanese society be understood.
Secrets fill the garden. In Gail Tsukiyama’s novel “The Samurai’s Garden”, she uses metaphors to show the audience the garden and its’ curator in a mysterious light. Tsukiyama’s character Stephen gazes upon Matsu’s garden with wonder and amazement. He compares it to another world, “The garden is a world filled with secrets… Matsu’s garden whispers at you, never shouts; it leads you down a path hoping for more, as if everything is seen, yet hidden” (Samurai 31). Tsukiyama creates another world within the fences of the garden. She integrates the secrets of its’ caretaker into the aura of the garden. The metaphor to another world impacts the reader by allowing the reader to see the mystery and beauty that shrouds it. The cloak of beauty shows
Gail Tsukiyama’s The Samurai’s Garden is set in 1930s Japan, the theme of war and peace is developed through Character interaction. Characters in the story have very different reactions to the same circumstances. Through the character of Stephen, one can conclude that outside forces do not control a person’s life because in life, people can take what has been given to them and do with it what they wish. In other words, life is what you make of it. Even though the war in China is very important to Stephen, he does not let it interfere with his descisions in Tarumi.
The training of a samurai depends on the wealth of the family. Training is a lot of loyalty and honour.
Throughout the book, The Chosen, there are four major qualifying characters for the role of “The Chosen One”. David Malter is the father of Reuven Malter, and is an active Zionist. Reb Saunders is the father of Danny Saunders, and doesn’t talk to his son with the hopes of teaching him compassion. Reuven is Danny’s friend, and is a bridge among all the characters. Danny becomes friends with Reuven after hitting him in the eye with a softball, and also works with David in the library in secrecy. While all these characters have major roles, only one can be crowned with the winning title. Reuven Malter is “the chosen one”. Through the development of the character, Reuven, we see a sheltered young boy learn to find compassion in his heart all
The samurai were a warrior class in feudal Japan who served the lords of clans in Japanese feudal society. They were highly respected elite warriors in both grand military strategy and individual martial arts. The warrior code that they embodied and the myth of the samurai warrior are still alive in modern Japan today. In his book American Samurai: Myth and Imagination in the Conduct of Battle in the First Marine Division 1941-1951, Craig Cameron draws parallels between the United States Marine Corps and the feudal Japanese samurai. Writing from a post-Vietnam view, Cameron
The Other Side of Paradise explores topics society refuses to speak about today. The author Staceyann Chin grows up as an outcast in Jamaica. The memoir begins with Chin at a very young age, her and her brother Delano both live with their grandma. Chin was left alone after being born by her mother and her father refuses to claim Chin as his own child. Throughout the memoir, Chin experiences sexism, classism, racism and strict religious standards. Furthermore, The Other side of Paradise, along with bell hook’s article, provides insight towards the roles of race and class, as we see in the memoirs characters, Staceyann and Delano.
Heike Monogatari, with its multitude of battles and skirmishes, provides a wonderful chance to analyze the way of the warrior in ancient Japan. There aren't a great number of surviving works from this period that show in such great detail both the brute and the compassion of the Japanese warriors. They followed carefully a distinct set of principles which made up the well-rounded warrior. Loyalty to one's master, bravery and glory in any situation, strength, martial skills, compassion, and interest in the arts were all held with the highest esteem. Few warriors could become well known without possessing each of these skills. Religious beliefs shaped a warrior's behavior tremendously.