Rashomon

974 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: What is the impact of the west on japan

In Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short story “Rashomon”, Akutagawa uses many symbols in order to add deeper meaning into his work. One of the prominent symbols in “Rashomon” is the crow, which a dark obnoxious bird, and it is used in order to provide a commentary on the period of rapid Westernization occurring in Japan during the time that the piece was written. It adds another gruesome and ugly element to the story. The crows are first mentioned at the beginning of Akutagawa’s story, when he is describing the city of Kyoto after its economic downturn. This period of instability is caused by a series of natural disasters which leaves the city and the Rashomon in ruins. Kyoto was once the capital of Japan during the golden age of imperial rule. The …show more content…

The Rashomon is the entrance to the old capital city Kyoto, a symbol of the traditional Japan. This gate is a physical barrier that separates the old and new. It is a passageway between the two; a transition period. However, this gate is falling apart. The shiny gold paint is peeling off, revealing what the structure is truly made of. The Rashomon is decorated with high “fish-tail ornaments”, which ts are some typical Japanese elements and remnants of the original magnificence that the gate once had before the downfall of the city. The crows symbolize Westernization, obnoxiously circling the remains of the traditionalism, greedily trying to peck it apart. Akutagawa uses the abandoned bodies to emphasize this further. Instead of there being some honor or respect for the dead, they are left in a tangled mess for the crows to peck apart. Even with the absence of the crows, the results of their visit still remain with the birds droppings still staining the ground even after they fly away. Similarly, during this period, the West has a huge impact on Japan. The people started to abandon their traditions in favor for the new Western way of life. These people are shown through the woman, who seems to imitate the crows because of her desperate situation. Even after the island entered isolationism, it could never truly go back to its original lifestyle because remnants were still there, just like the white bird droppings remaining on the

Show More
Related

  • Ambrose Bierce's Use Of Imagery In Chickamauga

    289 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the short story “Chickamauga,” by Ambrose Bierce, there are several examples of imagery throughout the passages that help to describe the horrors of war. Bierce sets the story with a young boy playing war in a forest, who is then approached by a “formidable enemy,” a rabbit. The sudden appearance startles the boy into fleeing, calling for his mother in “inarticulate cries,” and his skin getting “cruelly torn by brambles.” The selection of these details leaves a lucid image in the mind of the reader, allowing them to see a sobbing boy running through the forest, covered in cuts and scratches. It represents the innocence and fear of a child, lost and alone in an unknown place. The birds above his head “sang merrily” as the boy was “overcome

    Read More

  • When The Emperor Was Divine Literary Analysis

    793 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ideally, the author and the audience must share mutual feelings, and the use of universal symbols in the novel is crucial in understanding the tragic that the family faces (Duckart n.pag). However, the use of universal symbols in Otsuka’s book takes a different dimension by attaching personal symbols to the ideas and feelings of the reader. In the end, nature, colors, and animals are recurrent symbols that are integral in embracing individual symbols that are attached to the tragic times that the Japanese-American family

    Read More

  • Literary Devices In A Barred Owl By Richard Wilbur And Collins

    935 Words  | 2 Pages

    The ability of words to calm a child’s fears is shown in “A Barred Owl.” Additionally, the author conveys the idea that even though one may say everything is alright, what one makes up in one’s mind is often worse than reality. The rhyme scheme in “A Barred Owl” helps depict the simple and soothing tone of the poem. Not only the rhyme scheme but also the repetition of certain consonants and sounds such as, “the warping night air having brought the boom / of an owl’s voice into her darkened room” help emphasize Wilbur’s i...

    Read More

  • Sword In The Stone Feudalism

    827 Words  | 2 Pages

    T.H. White’s novel, “The Sword in the Stone,” took place in the Middle Ages, when feudalism was the dominant political structure and knighthood held a high prestige. Thus, White wrote the novel stemming from the theme of warfare. However, he combined the themes of Medieval warfare with the contemporary warfare of the early-to-mid 20th century, the time period in which the novel was written. As a result, the historical allegories can be drawn between episodes in the book and warfare in the 20th century, especially World War 2. The episodes of the pike and the ants reflect totalitarian, fascist, and communist views, respectively in that order, whereas the geese serves as a society absent of violence, therefore demonstrating White’s pacifist values

    Read More

  • Fly Away Peter by David Malouf

    581 Words  | 2 Pages

    The birds show symbolism in more than one way throughout the text. As the soldiers are travelling from all over the world to fight for their countries in the war, the birds are similarly migrating for the change of seasons. The birds however, will all be returning, and many of the soldiers will never return home again. This is a very powerful message, which helps the reader to understand the loss and sorrow that is experienced through war.

    Read More

  • Dorianne Laux’s “Bird”

    1108 Words  | 3 Pages

    The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.

    Read More

  • The Scarlet Ibis Analysis

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Scarlet Ibis bird symbolizes Doodle; this symbolism can be seen by the authors description of both Doodle’s and the Scarlet Ibis’s appearance after death. After the Scarlet Ibis fell from the bleeding tree his “long, graceful neck jerked twice into an S, then straightened out,” (Hurst 4) and he died. After Doodle’s death his brother finds “him huddled beneath a nightshade bush beside the road,” (Hurst 4) where he lay dead. The way Doodle fell made “his vermilion neck appear unusually long and slim,” (Hurst 4). Much like the long legs of the Scarlet Ibis, “his little legs bent sharply at the knees,” making them seem “so fragile, so thin,” (Hurst 4). This description of Doodle allows the reader to imagine him like the Scarlet Ibis, with his seemingly long neck and thin, fragile legs. Both Doodle and the Scarlet Ibis have this appearance after they fall to their death. Hurst utilizes very similar descriptive words when describing both the Scarlet Ibis and Doodle’s appearance after death, so that readers can better see the symbolism of the two.

    Read More

  • In which ways does golding portray blah

    1010 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Lord of the Flies, Golding extensively uses of analogy and symbolism like the dead parachutist in Beast from Air to convey the theme of intrinsic human evil through the decay of the character’s innocence and the island itself. In this essay, I will view and explain Golding’s use of specific symbolism to explain the novel’s main themes.

    Read More

  • Savagery Lord Of The Flies Analysis

    1720 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of British schoolboys are stranded on an island, and soon find that fending for themselves and staying civilized is not as easy as they thought it would be. Although they start off with an organized society, through interactions with each other and objects around them, they become completely savage over time. Golding employs the symbolism of Jack, the conch shell, and the beast to serve the purpose of the allegory of the inherent evil of the human race.

    Read More

  • Essay On Symbolism In Lord Of The Flies

    1469 Words  | 3 Pages

    Symbols: we see them on the street, on the walls, and in our homes, plastered on backpacks, jackets, and even fast food receipts. From the generic images that guide us through our daily lives to the shapes we see on television screens, these symbols are everywhere—and their importance as guides that tell us how to live, what to do and whom to believe is undeniable. Of all of these symbols, perhaps some of the most important are the symbols found in literature. In using simplistic symbols to represent profound ideas, authors construct a kind of “key”: one that allows readers to look past the surface of a story and reflect on the deeper messages beneath. Such is the nature of the symbols found in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. As a group of boys stranded on an island struggle to survive without adult supervision to maintain order, Golding uses a variety of objects to convey their descent from civilization into brutality, violence, and savagery. Of these objects, three hold particular significance. In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the conch, the signal fire, and the Lord of the Flies to symbolize civilization, hope for rescue, and inner evil while conveying an overall theme of innate human evil.

    Read More

  • report on letters from a father

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...t is arguable that the birds fight is also a metaphor, implying the fight exists not only between birds but also in the father’s mind. Finally, the last part confirms the transformation of the parents, from a life-weary attitude to a “moving on” one by contrasting the gloomy and harmonious letter. In addition, readers should consider this changed attitude as a preference of the poet. Within the poem, we would be able to the repetitions of word with same notion. Take the first part of the poem as example, words like death, illness

    Read More

  • Self-Destruction In The Black Cat By Edgar Allen Poe

    330 Words  | 1 Pages

    Edgar Allen Poe was one of the darkest poets/authors during The so-called “Age of Romance.” His stories were all about sorrow, and self-destruction. One of his more self-destructive stories was titled “The Black Cat.” That story describes an alcoholic, who murders his wife, and deals heavily with his own conscience. His conscience is represented by two cats; a black cat who represents the evil, and a black/white cat who represents the goodness in him. The narrator’s conscience is tearing him apart with the guilt from killing his wife. That conscience eventually drives him to killing one of the cats. This essay is going to explain two ways that self-destruction destroyed the narrator.

    Read More

  • The Art of Symbolism

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    Readers in the twenty-first century can learn from classic and outdated works that human behavior is the same regardless of the time period. Humans can and may resort to violence if the social and environmental conditions are right. History and current events show the thoughts of Golding are still valid today. Over the years symbolism, has played a role in the years prior and today in the book. In this paper, I will analyze the use of two important symbols in the book; the conch shell and the pigs head. Each object brings meaning to each group, ...

    Read More

  • Rashomon Comparison

    1796 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Akira Kurosawa’s film “Sanshiro Sugata” (1943) it follows a young man who wants to learn the ways of Judo, but instead he goes on to learn more about himself. Even though this film had scenes that were taken away from it, because of the censorship the government placed on cinema during that wartime in japan. It shows what ability Kurosawa had in telling a story in way that would make audience think. There are five major fight sequences in this that repentant the traces of the moral growth of the protagonist. As the film goes on you can tell that the protagonist character becomes more selflessness.

    Read More

  • The Hungry Tide Analysis

    787 Words  | 2 Pages

    The values and work ethic provided by the country help create a connection and sense of place for its inhabitants that they cannot receive within the confines of the city. In the story The Hungry Tide, the reader is introduced to Kusum. The story shares her experiences in the city, and why she ultimately returns to the tide country. After the loss of her father,

    Read More

More about Rashomon

Open Document