The Great Wave Analysis

Conor Gray
Erica Washburn
9 AM Section
A Great Wave Review

Christopher Benfey’s work The Great Wave is a narrative driven by a collection of accounts, stories and curious coincidences tying together The Gilded Age of New England in particular with interactions and connections to the Japan of old and new. In the context of The Great Wave, Benfey's own personal journey to Japan at the age of sixteen should be understood. Embarking on this voyage to learn traditional writing, language and Judo, his story can also be seen as a not only a historical continuation, but also a personal precursor to the vignettes he discovers and presents to the reader.
Starting in the Post-Civil War period, The Great Wave brings to light a cultural schism and pivot to the, at the time, unknown East. As Commodore Perry’s ships pried open Japan to the outside world, out with it came the cultural interactions that make up most of these stories. These make up a cultural wave, much like the title implies, of which all characters seem to be riding upon in one way or another. In a way it can be viewed as two separate waves. First, the surge of the Japanese characters who newly exposed to modernity, seek to process, learn and move forward with these foreign interactions and experiences. Then there is the American wave, an unguided movement of sorts driven by disillusionment with the industrial west, which finds hope and solace in old Japanese culture. The intersections of these two waves is what makes up the two-hundred some pages of Benfey’s book but ultimately it is the unspoken single wave, on the forward path to modernity, that encompasses them both and is the true backbone of the stories.
The strengths in Benfey’s argument of mutual cultural intera...

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...of Empire, a wider more in depth cultural and historical perspective is not something Benfey provides, or aims to for that matter. Instead for a reader with a more complete grasp of the period, it presents a more nuanced view at compelling cultural interactions of the time. For this reason the book can frustrate to a degree. As was discussed with the idea of a wave moving towards modernity, there is an underlying tension between the reader and the book. The reader knows how the stories of these nations ultimately progresses towards fascism and war; yet Benfey backs away from addressing the cultural build towards this greater theme. For whatever deficiencies these shortcomings may present, ultimately The Great Wave is an enjoyable read that offers a fascinating perspective into often overlooked social dimensions and influences of the American Gilded Age.