Analysis Of Ruth Ozeki's A Tale For The Time Being

Pain is a certainty in life. Presenting itself in a number of variations, from emotional to psychological to physical, pain and its damaging effects are inescapable. In Ruth Ozeki’s magical realism novel, A Tale For the Time Being, a mysterious lunchbox washes ashore a Canadian island to be found by one of its inhabitants, a struggling author named Ruth. Inside the lunchbox, Ruth discovers an old wind-up watch, a stack of letters written in French, and a diary disguised as Proust’s Á la recherche du temps perdu. The diary is found to trace the painful, intimate thoughts of a sixteen-year-old Japanese girl named Naoko (Nao) Yasutani. Mesmerized by the diary and the accompanying letters, Ruth reads on, slowly unearthing Nao’s steady rise from her depressive and insufferable existence. Through its graphic and raw depiction of three parallel, suicidal lives, that of Nao Yasutani; her deceased great-uncle, Haruki #1; and her father, Haruki #2; A Tale for the Time Being presents a strong case for the necessity of societal pressure, arguing that the pain, suffering, and victimization that arise from nonconformity are essential to the advancement

Nao’s classmates ambush her in the bathroom, snap pictures of her in a stall, kick her, tie her up, and attempt to rape her, all while filming the vulgar incident and stealing her panties to auction off on the web. Although Nao initially wants to “shoot [herself] in the throat,” as they corner her, she remembers her lessons at Jiko’s temple and finds strength and courage in Haruki #1’s memory (275). “They can break my body,” she determinedly thinks, “but they can’t break my spirit” (277). Like her funeral video, Nao obsessively tracks the progress of her online panty auction. However, Nao “no longer feels any satisfaction from the rising hit count” (278). She is no longer reaching for popularity, but instead now has the confidence to be more comfortable in her