The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea Analysis

The Ways Mishima refutes the gang’s philosophy Yukio Mishima’s novel “The Sailor who fell from Grace with the Sea”, follows a 13-year-old boy, named Noboru. He is lost in searching for his identity in a time where Japanese traditional values were being converted into westernised values. From the very beginning of the novel, we see Noboru being constrained in his room so he would be prevented from going to see the rest of the gang. The gang consists of five other boys who are the same age as Noboru. The gang is led by a boy only known as the Chief, who is very intelligent, but spoiled and is left alone all the time by his family. He becomes bemused by trying to fill up the empty world. The only way he sees that this can happen is by

They believe that life is meaningless, and has no values. For example, “We all know that the world is empty and that the important thing, the only thing, is to try to maintain order in that emptiness.” (Mishima, 162) This shows the Chief who is the leader of the gang saying that life has no meaning but, is important to maintain society and make sure it functions properly. But, Noboru who is also in the gang believes in this but, starts to have second thoughts. In the beginning of the book we see Noboru wanting to become a sailor, he is really fond of the sea and thinks it has important values in life. For example, “ ‘But how about the sea?’ Noboru persisted… I’m sure I caught the meaning of the internal order of life you talked about.’ ” (Mishima. 42-43) Here Mishima uses Noboru to state that life actually has a meaning and life is not worthless, Noboru says to the Chief that the sea is the meaning of internal order of life, he also notices how big and vast the sea is, also all life needs water to survive, without water there would be no life on earth. Which is another reason why Noboru says the sea is the internal order of life, which is not useless. The gang believes that the adults are not smart as they are and the gang are trying to save them. But Mishima refutes this idea by using Noboru as an example of believing in a person, Ryuji, who Noboru sees as his hero. For example “ ‘ That sailor is terrific! He’s like a fantastic beast that’s just come out of the sea all dripping wet…’ ‘And that’s your hero?’ ” (Mishima, 41) Here we see Noboru having a conversation with the gang and is talking about his “hero” who is Ryuji. Noboru takes Ryuji as a role model because he is a sailor, and when Noboru grows up he also wants to become a