REVEALING MESSAGES THROUGH THE CHARACTERS IN
YASUNARI KAWABATA’S
BEAUTY AND SADNESS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
LINANGKUNG SRI INDARSIH
Student Number: 984214144
Student Registration Number: 980051120106129142
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
ACKNOWLEGMENTS
First of all, I give my deepest thanks to Jesus Christ for His guidance so
that I could finish my thesis. I believe He has planned everything for me.
My deepest gratitude is for Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M. Hum, my
Advisor, who has guided me in writing this thesis. Thanks for the time and chance
that he has given to me. I also thank all the lecturers of English Letters
Department for assisting me in going through the years of my study in Sanata
Dharma University. Thanks to the Secretariat staffs for helping me in
administration and giving me all information that I need.
My gratitude is dedicated to my beloved father F.X. Sayadi and mother
M.G. Sri Indarti who always call me in their prayer, for the loves and supports.
Thanks to my brothers and sisters for their supports. To my nieces and nephews:
“You are wonderful children, I love you all”. I would thank Mbak Devi and staffs
of the Japanese Foundation for allowing and helping me to get all data that I need
in writing this thesis. Thanks for B. Jazz, Dewi, Mayrina, Lesty, Endang, Lince,
Feliz, Regina and Rayung for the wonderful friendship that we shared in Sanata
Dharma University. I miss you all. My last thank is for Lothrees who helps and
supports me in writing this thesis. Thanks for the endless love, patience and jokes
and for always being in my side and for understanding me.
ABSTRACT
LINANGKUNG SRI INDARSIH (2007). REVEALING MESSAGES
THROUGH THE CHARACTERS IN YASUNARI KAWABATA’S BEAUTY
AND SADNESS; Yogyakarta: Department of English letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.
This study concerns with Yasunary Kawabata’s Beauty and Sadness. This novel tells the love story between Otoko and Oki. The novel tells how Otoko sacrifices her life for the love that will not belong to her. This study wants to convey messages that are reflected in daily life through the characters.
The writer formulates three problems that will be analyzed in this study in order to achieve an understanding about the novel. The first is the description of the characters that give contribution to the messages of the story. The second is to find out the view of the characters about love. The third is to find out the messages that are conveyed through the characters.
The method of research applied in this study was library research. The writer obtained the primary data from the novel itself. In answering the problems, the writer applied some theories on message, character and characterization. The approach that is used in this study is formalistic approach to analyze elements in the problem formulation.
ABSTRAK
LINANGKUNG SRI INDARSIH (2007). REVEALING MESSAGES
THROUGH THE CHARACTERS IN YASUNARI KAWABATA’S BEAUTY
AND SADNESS; Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma
Skripsi ini membahas novel karya Yasunari Kawabata yang berjudul
Beauty and Sadness. Novel ini menggambarkan tentang kisah cinta antara Otoko dan Oki. Dalam novel ini di gambarkan bagaimana Otoko berkorban untuk cinta yang tidak bisa ia miliki. Skripsi ini ingin menyampaikan pesan-pesan yang tercermin dalam kehidupan sehari-hari melalui para tokohnya.
Penulis membahas tiga masalah yang akan di analisa untuk memperoleh pemahaman tentang novel ini. Pertama adalah gambaran dari para tokoh yang memberikan peran penting pada pesan-pesan dari cerita. Kedua adalah untuk mengetahui pesan-pesan yang di sampaikan melalui tokoh-tokohnya.
Metode penelitian yang di gunakan dalam skripsi ini adalah metode studi pustaka. Sumber utama yang dipakai adalah dari novel itu sendiri serta sumber-sumber lain yang berkaitan dengan novel ini. Dalam menjawab rumusan masalah, penulis menerapkan beberapa teori tentang pesan, tokoh dan penokohan. Pendekatan yang digunakan dalam skripsi ini adalah pendekatan formalistik untuk menganalisa unsur-unsur instrinsiknya.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
When we talk about literary work we usually also talk about the writer
also. As we know a piece of literary work cannot be separated from its author
or its writer because the author or the writer has a lot effect for his works. The
writer is the main cause so that the literary work exist. The author writes a
literary work as a product of his or her imagination by operating his or her
perception, thought, and feeling. As Hudson says,” Literature is a vital record
of what men have seen in life, what they have experienced in life, what they
thought and have left about life through the medium of language” (Hudson,
1958:10)
Every man always tries to make his life become meaningful by all the
experiences in his life and he will record it for a reminiscence. Every man has
different ways to express his experience. A painter will express his experience
in his painting. A writer will express his experiences through his novels and
plays.
Novel is one of literary genres and it is the right tool for an author to
present the experience of human being. Novel can give the readers the
enrich the readers with human involvement in his surrounding and how he
finds the way out of his conflict. Novel is a fiction and it is the author’s
imagination that presented in it. Imagination usually comes after he undergoes
a meaningful experience and it can be his own experience or another person’s
one.
In this thesis, the writer wants to analyze the novel of Yasunari
Kawabata, Beauty and Sadness. However there are several reasons that I have
considered as my specific idea, that makes the writer choose to analyze one of
Kawabata’s novel entitled Beautyand Sadness in this study.
Firstly, I am interested in reading literary work especially novels. I have
taken Kawabata’s Beauty and Sadness because of my admiration toward
Kawabata. Most of his works are talking about love, loneliness, and death and
it becomes his typical characteristic in writing a novel that the emphasized
idea is on his life experience.
Secondly the writer interested in the way of Kawabata in combining
between emotion and love in the novel through his characters. Talking about
the character, the writer has some curiosity about Kawabata’s characters.
Almost in all his novels, Kawabata uses the women character as the major
characters also as in Beauty and Sadness that will be analyzed.
In this thesis the writer limits her analysis on the characters, the
character’s view of love, also the revealing messages through the characters.
get the messages because message is an important element in a work of
literature.
Beauty and Sadness talked about a girl named Otoko. She lives with her
mother because her father died when she was eleven. Her relationship with
her mother is very close, because she is the only child of her mother. It
changed when she met Oki, a married man. Otoko fell in love with him.
Through this thesis, the writer tries to convey the messages through the
characters. The major character in this novel is Otoko Ueno, and the minor
characters are Oki Toshio, Keiko, and Otoko’s mother.
Yasunari Kawabata is one of the greatest modern writers of Japanese
Literature. Kawabata was born in Osaka on 11th June 1899. Since he was two
years he began losing his family. When he was two years old his father died
from the tuberculosis disease and then his mother died a year after his father
with the same disease. Kawabata lives with his grandparents since his parents
died. When he was seven years old his grandmother died. Three years after
his grandmother his only sister died. Kawabata lives with his grandfather
only who also died when Kawabata was sixteen years old. Kawabata lives as
an orphan. His suffer because losing his family give some effect toward his
works.
Philippe Robert says that Kawabata’s subsequent loneliness combined with a
weak physical constitution cast a delicate shadow over all his writing (1974:
B. Problem Formulation
The analysis is about the relationship between the title and the main
character. The writer found two problems to be analyzed in this thesis. The
problems are formulated as follows :
1. How are the characters in this story characterized?
2. What is the character’s view of love?
3. What messages are revealed through the characters?
C. Objectives of the Study
Observing the problem formulation above, there are three aims of this
study to achieve. First, this study attempts to find the characteristics of the
characters in Kawabata’s Beauty and Sadness. Second, this study sees to
identify the relation of the title with the characters, and the last one this study
aim to convey through the characters and the title of the novel.
D. Definition of Terms
There are some terms needed to be clarified to provide an accurate analysis
and a clearer explanation to answer the problem formulations that are mentioned
above. The terms are:
1. Message
According to Beaty and Hunter in New World of Literature.
be simply stated or summarized inside a work of art (189:899)
2. Main Character
Koesnosoebroto notices that main character is the important person in the
story. It can be the center of the story. Usually, the acts of the story are focused
on this character from the beginning to the ending parts. Main character can not
stands on his own; he needs other characters to make the story more convincing
and life. That is why the existence of minor characters are needed although they
are less important than those the main (1988:67).
In A Glossary of Literary Terms, Abrams defines character as a person
presented in a dramatic work, who are interpreted by the reader as being
endowed with moral and disposition qualities that are expressed in what they
say-dialogue and by what they do-the action (1981:20).
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
This chapter is divided in two parts. The first is review of related
studies. In this part the writer will discuss about the criticism of Yasunari
Kawabata and the novel which will be analyzed. The second is review of
related theories. In this part the writer will discuss about the theories that will
be used by the writer to analyze the novel. These theories are the basic
guidance to answer the problems.
A. Review of Related Studies
The writer finds some criticism and comments on Yasunari Kawabata
and his works. The first comment is from Ronald B. Shwartz in his book, For
The Love of Books. He said that every Kawabata’s work can give the readers
the peace room in reading so that the readers feel comfort to read his work.
I love Kawabata and I think that what his novellas taught me was the place of silence in prose, the way that space and silence operate in the line. He says that it is may be obvious in a poem, but in the writing of prose, especially in America, it kind of gets lost. His work also gave a view into the whole Japanese sensibility, or esthetic, that hadn’t gotten anywhere else (2000:77)
Ivan Morris gives his opinion that he said in The New York Time Book
Review about Kawabata.
Swedish Academic gives the Nobel Prize to Kawabata as the convince
for his ability to serve the story with the high sensibility in expressing the
Japanese way of thinking.
John Updike in his book Hugging the Shore Essays and Criticism says
his critics on Yasunari. There is other author who has long, vigorous and
varied career and many thought that Yasunari Kawabata should not have been
the first Japanese writer to receive the Nobel Prize (1999: 730).
Some comments and critics also come from the other novelists that
written by Gwen in his book The Moon In The Water.
A novelist Kukichi Kan gives his opinion to Kawabata that much of
Kawabata’s early works was literary criticism however, and it was as a critic
rather than a novelist that many of his contemporaries saw this” young lover of
literature” (1979:122).
One other critic declares that Kawabata’s favorite theme is that of a
woman who lives by selling her artistic talent (1979:123).
Other Japanese novelists have published their works in serial form and
under various titles, but Kawabata is further noted for his habit of rewriting,
adding segments, and making changes in titles and content alike (1979:125).
Kawabata’s fiction carries more symbolic layers than most foreign
readers can hope to appreciate. But an understanding of his technique of
meaning while novel losing their traditional Japanese values (1979:146). Many
of Kawabata’s early works are specifically concerned with death (1979: 156).
Beauty and Sadness are in fact linked in the title Utshukushisa to
Kanashimi to, a novel that seemed to surprise some Western readers by its
sensuality and frankly described sexual encounters (1979: 185).
Some commentators stress Kawabata’s early wish to be a painter,
although we have clear records that he turned to a writing career while still in
the Middle School. His images are not limited to the visual: Scent and sounds
are more important than his rather limited palette of red, and white and greens,
and yellows with a perception of the qualities of colors that suggests both
painter and writer (1979: 187).
Other modern Japanese writers – even when using the themes and
symbols we find in Kawabata’s work quite succeeded in matching his delicacy
of sentiment (1979:187).
A fictionalized version of the one playing the original match – display
the qualities that make Kawabata’s other lonely, aging men such memorable
figures (1979: 188).
Unlike the Meiji writers who tended to deny their tradition even while
their work shows how far they were from escaping it, Kawabata responds to
the past proudly and without excuse. Not that he is confined by tradition: he
delight of the artist. At the same time, he can appreciate the visual charm of
beauty and convey the deepest mystery of yugen (1979:187).
Tanizaki said in his comments about Kawabata that Kawabata has that
gentle perception, the smile of okashi. And above all, Kawabata has expressed
in countless ways the sensitive, reflective tone of the thousand year old
aesthetic: aware, the traditional linking of beauty and sorrow.. All these links
with traditional aesthetics, with Buddhist thought, and with ancient Japanese
literary forms and symbols should not, however, obscure Kawabata’s timely
psychological insight (1979:188).
Although the qualities of Kawabata as man and artist can be fully
appreciated only in the Japanese context, even the pale words of translation
reflect the qualities of beauty and sadness that characterize his work
(1979:189).
Review of Related Theories
1. Theories of Character
In his book Glossary of Literary Terms (1981:53) Abrams defines that
characters are “the person presented in dramatic or narrative work, which are
interpreted by the readers as being endowed with moral dispositional qualities
that are expressed in what they say and what they do”.
Blair says that character is description of figures in the story that
The purpose of character is such as his behavior and how he lives (Blair,
1948:5)
Foster explains in his book Aspect of the Novel that actors in a story are,
or intended to be, human being. He says that the novelist is a human being, and
there must be an affinity between him and his subject matter. He also explains
that a novelist is a creator who makes up a number of characters then give
them names and sexes, and assign them to be similar to human, and causes
them to speak and perhaps to behave consistently (1974; 30-32). Foster’s
statement implies that the characters in fiction are the same ones with those in
the real life.
According to A Handbook of Literature, character means a complicated
term that includes the idea of the novel constitution of the human personality,
the presence of moral uprightness and the simpler nation of the presence of
creatures in art that seem to be human beings of sort or another (Holman and
Harmon,1986: 81).
According to Roger B. Henkle in Reading the Novel (1977:87, 97), the
character can described as major and minor. Major characters as the most
important and complex characters. They can be identified as such through the
complexity of their characterization, the attention given to them, and the
personal intensity that they seem to transmit. It is the major characters who
deserve our fullest attention because they perform a key structural function:
According to Stanton, most stories contain a central character who is
relevant to every event in the story; usually the events cause some change
either in him or in our attitude toward him (1965:17)
Abrams states that based on the importance characters are categorized
into major character and minor character.
A major character is usually the center of the story. He or she is the
most important character in the story. Usually, this character plays an
important role from the beginning to ending of the story.
A minor character appears in a certain setting, just necessarily to
become the background for the major characters. Their roles are less important
than major characters because they are not fully developed and their roles in
story are just to support the development of the major character.
According to M.J. Murphy (1972: 161 – 173), there are nine ways in
which author attempts to make his characters understandable and alive for the
readers. Those are:
a. Personal description
The author can describe a character’s appearance like the face, body,
clothe of the character. The personal description is very important because it
can give clues to the character.
b. Character as seen by another
Instead of describing a character directly the author can depict him
c. Speech
The author can give some clues or insight to the characters through
what a person says. Whenever he is in conversation with another and
whenever he speaks and put forward an opinion, he is giving us some clues to
his character.
d. Past life
By permitting the readers learn something about people past life, the
author can give some clues to the events that have helped to shape a person
character.
e. Conversation of others
The author can also give the reader some clues to person’s character
through the conversation of other people and the thing they say about him.
f. Reaction
The author can also give the readers some clues to a person’s character
by permitting us know how that person reacts to various situation and events.
g. Direct comment
The author can give the readers direct knowledge of what a person is
thinking about what is the person’s mind and he feels reflect on his character.
h. Thought
The author gives the readers direct knowledge of what a person is
thinking about.
The author can depict a person’s mannerism, habits or idiosyncrasies
which is may also tell us something about the character.
In Beauty And Sadness, The writer studies that Kawabata uses personal
description, character as seen by another, past life, conversation of other people,
reaction, and mannerism in giving clues to understand the character’ behavior.
Characters in the novel can be distinguished based on their roles,
characteristics and importance:
a. Major characters: The characters who are prominent in the novel, or those
whom we observe most often in the novel, and whose appearances are
frequent. Basically, a story tells about, or centered on this character
(Heckle, 1997:88).
b. Minor character: the characters whose function are largely supportive or
projective (Heckle, 1977:88).
c. Flat characters: the characters which is build around a single idea or reality
and is presented without much individualizing detail (Forster,
1974:45-47).
d. Round characters: the characters which are complex in temperament and
motivation and are presented with subtle particularity. These characters are
difficult to describe with any adequacy as a person in real life (Forster,
1974:45-47).
e. Protagonist: usually the central or leading character; he is the most
f. Antagonist: the force that opposed the protagonist himself, or it may be the
outside forces, such as, another character, circumstances, nature and
environment, fate, or providence (Redman, 1964:363).
2. Theoryon Characterization
According to Encyclopedia Americana (1978:290), literature is the
presentation of the attitudes and behavior of imaginary persons in order to make
the readers understand the author’s idea. Therefore, characterization is a unique
feature of such fictional forms as the short story, novel, drama, and narrative
poetry. Criticism regards good characterization as important criteria of excellence
in fiction.
Perrine in his book Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense say:
“Characterization must follow three principles in order to be convincing. Firstly, the characters in the story must have consistency in the way they behave. This consistency might be broken if only there is a sufficient reason to explain this change of behavior. Secondly, whatever the characters do, they must have clear motivation especially when they break the consistency of their behaviors. Finally, the characters must appear life like or plausible” (1974:69).
Abrams (1981:21) states that there are two methods of characterization,
namely showing and telling, In showing method, the author only presents his
character’s conversation and action and leaves the reader to infer what motives
and disposition lay behind what they say and do. In telling method , the author
himself becomes a land of narrator in order to describe and evaluate the motives
Holman and Harmon in their book, A Handbook to Literature
(1986:81-82), said that characterization as the creation of these imaginary persons so that
they exist for the readers as life like. It is how the author presents his or her
characters in the story. Holman adds that there are three ways to present
characters. Those are:
1. The explicit presentation. The author presents characters through direct
explanation, it is illustrated by action.
2. The presentation of characters through action with little comment or no
explicit comment by the author. It is expected that the readers will be able to
deduce the attributes of the actor from the action.
3. The presentation from within a character with nominee on the character by the
author. Through the impact of the actions and emotions on the character’s inner
self, hopefully the readers will come to clear understanding of the attributes of the
characters. Personality has role in characterization. Furthermore, Holman explains
that the author may concentrate on a dominant to the exclusion of other aspect of
personality.
Sylvan Barnet in his book Literature for Composition: Essay, Fiction,
Poetry, and Drama (1988: 172) states ways to understand the characteristic of a
character through:
a. What the character (figure) says.
How the character says will help the readers interpret her or his
b. What the character does.
The readers or audiences can learn the attitudes or behaviors of a character
and they may guess how actually the author creates the character. A character
interacts with other character such opinion and comments may reflect the
characteristics of the character drawn.
According to Encyclopedia Americana, the chief character or hero of a
fiction is usually three dimensional and is known as the protagonist. His
adversary, if any, is known as antagonist. Most novels and plays have flat
characters to offset round ones (1978:290).
When a protagonist is involved in a conflict with other character, the other
is called antagonist. Whereas, conflict is not confined to a struggle between
people. The antagonist may be in conflict with fate or the environment, or his
struggle may be an inner one whereby he battles with a part of himself or with
conflicting value system or desires, or his inner conflict may be objectified in a
conflict with someone or something outside himself
(Rohrberger and Woods, 1971:20-21).
According to M.J. Murphy (1972:161-173), there are nine ways in which
author attempts to make his characters understandable and alive for the readers.
a. Personal description.
The author can describe a character’s appearance like the face, body,
cloth of the character. The personal description is very important because it can
give clues to the character.
b. Character as seen by another.
Instead of describing a character directly the author can depict him
thoroughly the eyes and opinion of another.
c. Speech.
The author can give some clues or insight to the characters through what a
person says. Whenever he is in conversation with another and whenever he speaks
and put forward an opinion, he is giving us some clues to his character.
d. Past life
By permitting the readers learn something about people past life, the
author can give some clues to the events that have helped to shape a person
character.
e. Conversation of others
The author can also give the reader some clues to person’s character
through the conversation of other people and the thing they say about him.
f. Reaction.
The author can also give the readers some clues to a person’s character by
g. Direct comment
the author can give the readers direct knowledge of what a person is
thinking about what is the person’s mind and he feels reflect on his character.
h. Thought
The author gives the readers direct knowledge of what a person is thinking
about.
i. Mannerism
The author can depict a person’s mannerism, habits or idiosyncrasies
which is may also tell us something about the character.
3. Theories of Love
People say that love is a beautiful thing. Love is an abstract thing that can not
be touched or seen, however, people can feel it. The word love itself contains a
lot of meanings so there is no fix definition about it.
According to Paul Hauck in his book How to Love and be Loved, he pointed
out that love is that powerful feeling one has for persons, animals or things that
has satisfied, is satisfying or will satisfy our deepest desires and needs. The
definition clearly indicates that it is not people that we love, it is rather what the
people or animals or things do for us that we love. If the persons you love does
not satisfy you in ways that are extremely important to you, you will simply fall
Rollo May in his book Love and Will explains that love is a kind of tragedy
because it can bring both joy and destruction. He states” … that sexual love has
the power to propel human beings into situations which can destroy not only
themselves but many other people at the same time”. He adds that it is a fact
which has been known all through man’s history but now we forget about it
(1969:109).
In Loving Each Other, Buscaglia writes many definition of loving
relationship. Loving relationship is like an ideal “home” within it you can totally
be yourself, be accepted, understood, trusted, and respected as a valuable being.
It is a nurturing environment where effort is made to provide enough caring and
security so that one can share hopes and fears and where one is encouraged to
learn and grow. It is also a place where the lines of communication are kept open,
where the good in each is maximized, and the minimized (1984:47-48).
According to Zick Rubin, in his book Liking and Loving, he pointed out that
love has three elements. They are attachment, caring, and intimacy. Here is his
theory about that:
Attachment refers the powerful desire to be in the other presence, to be cared for. Caring is the willingness to sacrifice oneself for the sake of the other person. Intimacy is the union and bond between these two individuals (1973:261).
The writer chooses the definition of love from M. Scott Peck that is written in
self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another spiritual growth, love is as
love does”. He completes the idea of love by stating that love is not a feeling but
an action, an activity people take on their own or someone else’s behalf
(1984:107). Fromm strengthens the idea of Peck. He says, “Love is an activity,
not a passive affect; it is a “standing in” not a “falling for”. Generally, the active
character here is described by stating that love is primarily giving, not receiving.
Therefore, love is a kind of commitment about something people choose to do
rather than just a feeling they have (1956:22).
In his book Think on These Things, Khrisna Mukti states
“If I love you because you love me that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in market, it is not love. To love is not to ask anything in return. Not even to feel you are giving something (1970:28).
4. Theory of Message
Beaty and Hunter in their book New World of Literature said that message
is the real meaning or some easy conclusion that can be simply stated or
summarized inside a work of art (1989: 899).
Richards, Platt, and Weber in Longman Dictionary of AppliedLinguistics
say that message is what is conveyed in speech or writing from one person to one
or more other people (1985: 1760). While Oxford Advance Learner Dictionary
John Sinclair in Collins Cobuild Essential Dictionary defines message as
an idea that someone tries to communicate to people, for example in a play or a
speech, or the meaning, the thought or idea that is intended to express (1988:490).
According to Jeremy Hawthorn in A Concise Glossary of Contemporary
Literary Theory, the author sends the messages in the form of the text in his or
her literary work. It means that a literary work is not only a form of word but it
also has meaning. It has messages that are presented through words in a literary
work (1992:73-74).
When ones are talking about message, they are also discussing moral. It
can be said briefly that generally moral means a teaching of good and bad
(Kenny, 1966:89).
Hudson says that a good message that disclosed new a large possibility
they do not realize, a writer would try to tell and to show those possibilities by
using his work. In fact, he even tries to create those possibilities themselves. A
good message does not tend to follow general pattern or norm but it creates new
patterns based on human values (1958:23).
Blair and Gerber in Better Reading Literature 2 offer some ways to
discover message. They are direct expression and the other one is through the
media of character and conflict of the novel. They also give three ways of stating
explicit statement, the author simply tells the readers or has an attractive
character expressing his point of view.
Ironic statements are not so frequent, but their possibility should be kept in
mind. The author will say playfully, or allow an attractive character to say
seriously, exactly, the opposite to what the author means.
Symbolic statements are those in which the meaning is communicated in
figurative language. Such a statement may be a single simile or metaphor
(1948:111-112).
Sometimes, message is considered identical with theme though it does not
always refer to the same thing. Both message and theme can be interpreted as two
elements that have a kind of similarity. Kenny says that theme has more
complexity than message. Message becomes one of the elements that makes or
forms a theme. But it has no direct value as suggestion aimed to the readers.
Message can be seen as one form of the theme in simple form but not all themes
are considered a message (1966:89).
The type of the moral lesson itself, we may say, includes an endless
problem. It involves all problems in life, especially those that are related to
human right and dignity. In broad line, problem of human life is divided into
three problems, namely: the problem in the relationship between a man and
himself: a man and his fellowman including his relationship with his
are two ways in expressing message. The first is in the direct form and the second
is in indirect form.
a. Direct conveying form.
Direct conveying form of message can be said identical with the
description of the character’s characteristic way that has telling or expository
quality. It means that the message is conveyed directly and explicitly. The author
seems to teach the readers, and directly give his advice. This direct technique has
its own superiority. This form is more communicative, meaning the readers can
understand what the author means easily. The readers do not find any difficulties
to interpret the message of the work by themselves. Nevertheless, this technique
has its shortcomings. The readers would feel that the author seems to compel
them to accept the message. This method is also less coherent with the other
elements considering its position as an esthetical work that has function to
entertain and to give emotional and intellectual pleasure. A work of an art must
have a whole unity among its elements. It will reduce the value of the work itself.
b. Indirect conveying form.
In comparison to the previous form, the conveying form here has an
indirect nature. The message is presented explicitly and in united coherence with
another story element. When a writer wants to convey or show something, he
C. Theoretical Framework
In this thesis, the writer will use some books that consist of many theories
to help the writer in analyzing the novel. Those are the theories about message
and character. Each theory will be applied in the analysis.
This is the part of the explanation on how the theories above are applied in
the analysis. Since the study is aimed at finding the characterization of the
characters and revealing message through the characters, the writer applies the
theories of characterization and message which have been mentioned in the
previous subchapter.
To analyze the first problem that is to find the characterization of the
character, the writer employs the theories and terms that proposed by
Koenosoebroto (1988), Abrams (1981), Blair (1948), Foster (1974), Baldick
(1996), Heckle (1977), and Murphy (1972). Their theories will help the writer to
classify each character into the suitable type. Using Murphy’s theories on
methods of characterization, the writer will be able to probe on how each
character is depicted.
To reveal the message, the writer utilizes the theories provided by Beaty
and Hunter (1989), Richards, Platt, and Weber (1985), Sinclair (1988), Hawthorn
(1992), Kenny (1966), Hudson (1958), Blair and Gerber (1948) and Nurgiyantoro
(1995). Their theories propose the definition on the element and its significance
in the story. The theories also help the writer to identify the message.
Chapter 3
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
This thesis deals with a literary work, namely novel as the object of the
study. The work that will be analyzed is Beauty and Sadness. Beauty and Sadness
written by Yasunari Kawabata in 1954. It is consider as a romantic novel.
Beauty and Sadness published in 1961 by Chuo Koronsha, Tokyo. This
novel consists of 206 pages and divided into nine chapters. Beauty and Sadness is
translated from the original story entitled Utsukushisa to Kanashimi to.
Beauty and Sadness describes the love story of the main character Otoko
with Oki whom she loves since she is still young. They are separated because
Otoko’s mother brings Otoko to move to Kyoto. They are separated for twenty-
four years. After her mother died, Otoko decided to become a painter. In her life,
Otoko always remembers about her mother and her child who died in birth. She
always drawsthem.
Otoko has a girl pupil named Keiko whom she lives with. Keiko knows
what Otoko’s suffers and she wants to make a revenge on Oki for what he has
done to her teacher. Because of Keiko’s revenge, Oki lost his son.
B. Approach of the Study
This study applies the formalistic approach because the study deals with
intrinsic elements which are messages, characters and characterization. The
formalistic approach only focuses on the literary work, which is going to be
analyzed.
According to Guerin, the formalistic approach has literature as its sole
object. It has the discovery and explanation of form in the literary work (Guerin,
1999:70).
Rohrberger and Woods state that formalistic approach is the approach that
concern itself with the harmonious involvement of all parts to whole and by
pointing out how meaning is derived from structure and matters of technique
determines structure.
They stated that formalistic approach merely tries to examine the literary
work without reference to the facts of the author’s life, the genre of work, the
society at the time of the novel was written, and the literary history. The
formalists believe in the idea to the work it self (1971:27).
The writer chooses formalistic approach because messages, character and
characterization are parts of the intrinsic elements. The writer will not deal with
the extrinsic elements such as the social historical background of the literary work
C. Method of the Study.
There were many steps in analyzing this novel. In this analysis, the writer
focused on the major character as the object of the analysis. The following were
the steps that the writer used to analyze Beauty and Sadness. The method of study
that used in this thesis was library research. The primary source in this work was
the novel itself, Beauty and Sadness, from which the data were taken and
analyzed. The secondary sources were from some books and internet, from which
the writer had found the important data about the author and also his works.
However, several other books are also used as the additional sources from which
the data were taken in analyzing this work.
There were some important steps that the writer had done to analyze this
work. The first step is reading the novel for many times and understand it. From
my reading, I had made notes or summary of each chapter of the novel to keep the
important points that were used to lead me finding the important data of the novel.
The writer observed the characters of the novel. The writer finds the main
character of the novel. The main character named Otoko Ueno. The second step
was reading to find the characteristic of the main character and the minor
character. This step will help the writer to learn the characteristic of each
character The third step to be done was sorting the needed sources by reading the
theories related to the study. From all the sorting ones, the next step to be done
was by lodging all the needed and chosen ones into the analysis. In general I
sources of information I wrote an appropriate and important information, and
finally relating them to the whole part.
The last step that I finally done was makes a conclusion. The conclusion
contained the statement of my findings into analysis that was presented in this
study. The conclusion was, therefore, the answer to the problem formulation of
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter will discuss about the answer of the problem formulation in
the previous chapter. This chapter will be divided into two parts. The first part is
the description of the characters.
A. The Characteristic of the Characters.
1. Otoko Ueno
Otoko Ueno is the protagonist character in the story. She is the central
character of the novel. She is presented as a beautiful girl. Her beauty makes her
become the ideal woman and make other women feel jealous. “I know. There
aren’t any lovely girl exactly like that” (p.38).
Otoko lives with her mother only because there is no family she has
except her mother. Otoko is the only child of her mother who loves her much.
Some of Otoko’s characters she got from her mother.
Something you inherited from me- it’s finally come out. We have the same kind of weaknesses. I have always thought you were strong-minded, but physically you are my own child. There’s no arguing about it
Otoko only lives with her mother because her father leaves them when
Otoko still a girl. Her mother is the only family she has and her mother work hard
In her young age, Otoko like other girls and as a normal girl has the
feeling to love. She falls in love with a man who should become her father than
her lover because he is much older than her and he is married. Otoko never
complains about his status. The relationship between Otoko and Oki make Otoko
come to pregnancy in her sixteen years old, in the age where she begins to grow
up. Otoko’s mother cannot accept that her daughter is pregnant. As a mother, she
cannot let her daughter face her problem that is not supposed to be by herself
because Otoko is still young. Otoko and her mother are arguing to each other and
make Otoko in depression that makes her baby died.
For the time being Otoko’s mother have suppressed her anger and resentment toward him. Her daughter was all she had, and once her daughter was pregnant, even by a man with a wife and a child of his own, she no longer dared reviled him (p.13).
The arguing between her and her mother cannot make Otoko realize that
her love to Oki cannot be continued because Oki has his own family who need
him. Otoko cannot stop her love to Oki. Otoko’s mother understand that her
daughter is in the difficult position but what happens to Otoko makes her ask
Oki to marry her daughter because she is worried about Otoko’s condition after
her baby died.
I know you have a wife and child and Otoko must have known that too from the very beginning. So maybe you’ll think I’m crazy, at my age asking it of you. Won’t you please marry her? (p. 28).
Otoko’s mother knows that Oki will refuse her request to marry her
from Tokyo, the place that she thinks is not good for Otoko after what happens to
Otoko. Otoko’s mother does not want her daughter to live in her memory of Oki.
Otoko’s mother wants to separate Otoko from Oki because she thinks that it is the
best way to make Otoko forget Oki.
Within a year Otoko’s mother sold their house in Tokyo and took her daughter to live in Kyoto (p.29).
The effort of Otoko’s mother to separate Otoko from Oki is successful.
Since Otoko and her mother move to Kyoto, Otoko and Oki never contacted to
each other for several years until Otoko finish her study. After finishing her study,
Otoko’s mother died and Otoko decided to be a painter.
Otoko had not written to him since she had moved to Kyoto, but by now she established herself there as a painter in the classical Japanese tradition. She was still unmarried (p.5).
Since Otoko becomes a painter, she becomes popular. Oki tries to find
Otoko again. One day in a New Year Day Oki visited Kyoto. Oki invite Otoko to
hear the New Year’s bell in Kyoto after their separation for several years. In her
meeting with Oki Otoko brings her pupil to accompany her because Otoko feels
that the meeting will be so strange for her since the last they meet to each other.
Otoko feels herself nervous to see Oki again but she tries to calm herself
as she can to make an image to Oki their separation can change her and give her a
new life.
She had avoided being alone with him, but she might very well have wanted to calm her own emotion for this unexpected reunion (p.23).
Otoko knows that her pretending will make her feeling hurt because she
knows what she feels to Oki. She never stops loving the man who sits in front of
her no matter what. His memory still fills her heart.
Her imagine of Oki flowed along with her trough time, and perhaps her memories of their love had been dyed by the color of her love for herself, had ever been transformed (p.167).
Otoko’s mother always hoped that Otoko will forget Oki and she asks Otoko
to get married because it is the only way to make Otoko forget the man who gives
her suffers. But until her mother died, Otoko never fulfils her mother’s request.
Otoko’s mother died without having seen her daughter follows her advice. No doubt that was her last regret (p.263).
Otoko remembers the entire think that her mother has said to her to forget
Oki. Her life is not happy because she insists to love the man who makes her life
unhappy. Otoko never complains about her feeling of sadness. She keeps all the
sadness in her life and she does not want to share her sadness too.
In Otoko’s life the deep effect is from Oki. Her mother brings Otoko move
from Tokyo to Kyoto in order that Otoko can forget Oki and she can start her new
life. She can change Oki’s place by loving another man because the still young
she is beautiful, there must be another man who will love her and will marry her.
Otoko cannot let herself just waiting for Oki because it is means that she meant
that she is waiting something that impossible and just wasting her time. She can
be the woman who has her own family and children.
Still, Otoko had had many opportunities for love and marriage since coming to Kyoto wit her mother. But she avoided them. As soon as she realized that a man in love with her, memories of Oki ware revived. Rather that mere recollections, they were her reality. Distraught by sorrow, she could hardly plan a heat to the next day, much less to distant future.
But the thought of never marrying had crept into her mind, and in time it became an flexible resolution (p. 119).
All memorize of her mother, her baby, and Oki still fills her along her life
because they are the important people in her life. Otoko remind them in her
painting. She usually spent most of her time to paint her mother and her baby
because it is the only way to express her feeling of losing them.
What she wanted was to express her sense of loss, her grief and affection for someone she had never seen. She thought of it whenever she felt sad. Also the picture was to symbolize herself surviving all this years, as well as the beauty and sadness of her love to Oki (p. 165).
After losing her mother and her baby, the memories of them and also her
love to Oki that still gives her strength for her to survive her love and trough all
the sadness in her life because that’s all she had in her life. “I wonder way I’ve
Just like her mother who only loves one man in her mother’s life that as
her father, Otoko also loves one man only in her life although there are many
proposals of married when she young but she always thinks that her chance to
marry gone since she separated from Oki. May by it be able to be called that her
love is plain because all that she knew was that she loves Oki with all the
sequences no matter what the people said about her.
Otoko, women are beautiful creature, aren’t they? A young man would never have a sixty year old woman, but sometimes even teen-age girl fall in love with the man in his fifties or sixties; Not just because they wont to get something out of it……Isn’t that right? (p.95).
The memory of her mother, her baby, and her love to Oki makes Okoko’s
life is between reality and imagination. In reality, because Otoko still alive but her
mind was fell of the memory of her pass life that cannot be back. In the
imagination because she always reminds what she should forget about her pass
life which not gives anything in her life except the sadness. it seems that her pass
life was united within her and it can’t be separated from her like when she was
separated from Oki because since she moves to Kyoto and when her mother died
she feels lonely and there’s nothing she had except the memories.
Otoko’s love to Oki also makes her ill both mentally and physically. In her
mind her memory of Oki has united within her and makes her life always under
his memory because Otoko does not want realizes that her love to Oki was ended
since they were separated. Otoko can accept that Oki has his own life with his
Because I’m not a fool like you, for twenty years loving someone who spoiled your life. Even though Mr. Oki deserted you, you’ve refused to recognize it (p.113).
Otoko’s physically illness is that Otoko never care about herself. What she
thinks is Oki.
Summer by summer, Otoko weakness and loss of weight and seemed more severe (p.162).
Otoko in her life always believes that Oki will be back for her because she
thinks that Oki loves her no matter how long she has to wait. Otoko never
listening what her mother always said to her and who always asks her to stop
waiting for Oki. Otoko’s mother always reminds her that she still young and she
has her future.
There’s noting you can do. Waiting for Mr. Oki is like waiting for the past-time and the river won’t flow backward (p. 121).
Otoko’s baby born before the time and it makes the baby can not live longer.
At that time Oki really feels sad why he makes Otoko’s life in suffer in her really
young age she has face so many trouble that he give to her and he can not do
nothing to help her and the baby. Oki can understand that Otoko’s mother became
angry and hates him because he thinks that it’s a natural that a good mother will
not leaves her daughter face the trouble her self. Otoko will not be pregnant and
lost the baby if he really loves her because if he really loves her he will protect
Oki felt a sharp pang at the thought the baby’s life might have been saved
if it had been cared for in a good hospital (p.14).
2. Oki Toshio
Oki Toshio is the male character of the story. Oki presented as a married
man. He has two children. In this story, Oki described as a novel writer. Oki fell
in love with a young girl named Otoko. His love to Otoko makes her life suffer
after what he had done to her in her very young age.
You were only a child when he seduce you-an innocent child, if you ever there was one-so many that’s why it’s left a scar. I used to hate him for being cruel to such a child (p.121).
Oki described as the man who not responsible for what he had done to the girl.
He makes her pregnant and he leaves her when she needs him after losing her
baby and it makes him separated from the girl. Oki’s wife knows about her
husband’s affair and makes his wife feel jealous. At that time Oki’s wife also
pregnant his daughter and it makes him has to convince his wife that Otoko has
moved to Kyoto and there’s no reason for her to feel jealous anymore.
Otoko is gone. You and I will be living together for a long, long time (p.37).
In Oki’s mind, there still Otoko who fills his memory although they’re
separated. He lives with his wife and his children but he still can’t forget to the
her. As the remembrance of her, Oki writes a novel to remind their love affair. In
his novel, Otoko can give him the inspiration to write.
Of all his novels, the one that had had the longest life, and was still widely read, was the one that told the story of his love affair with her (p.30).
The novel that Oki writes gives some bad effects for Otoko because
people will know about her affair with Oki and people will also want to know
more about her life and it makes her feel not comfort because once again Oki
makes her life is disturbing.
The publication of the novel had caused her further injury, eventually turning the eyes curious on her (p.30).
Oki’s novel about her affair with the girl becomes popular among the readers
than Oki’s other novels. The novel becomes the best seller. The readers attracted
with the affair story where Oki makes it seems a real story and Oki can makes the
readers believe and feel anxious in reading the novel.
Still the girl in his novel was Otoko. The novel could not existed without their love affair. If he had never met her he would never have knows suck a love (p.31).
The novel that he wrote makes Oki famous as the novel writer. The novels
that he wrote become popular among his readers. The selling of his novels gives
Otoko. Oki wrote his affair whit Otoko without any consideration about Otoko’s
feeling. It seems here that Oki is the kind of a cruel man.
I wonder how my parents feel about that. I’ve been living on many from that sacrifice of a girl’s whole life…(p.181).
Oki not only use his affair with Otoko but also using his wife as his typist
to type the story of his affair without thinking about his wife is feeling. His wife
must be hurt knowing that her husband has an affair with a young girl and it gives
bad effect for their household. At least he makes his wife feels jealous and a little
pain in her heart.
To have Fumiko type it would be to cause her pain and humiliation. It would be cruel (p.35).
The publication of his novel gives him and his family much many support
their financial for his family needs.
Fumiko could scarcely have forgotten her jealousy, but she showed only pleasure at her husband’s success. And was this novel, reputedly the finest of his early writing, which continued to outsell all his other work. For Fumiko it had meant new clothes, even jewelry, to say nothing of helping to pay for the education of her son and daughter (p.40).
The popularity that Oki got can make him stop to thing about his wife
jealousy for a while after what she got from his affair novel. Oki can make her
believe that his affair really ended and it is just in the novel. Oki makes his wife
be jealous. Oki feels satisfy for what he and his family got. He is happy that he
can makes his family happy.
Fumiko was still his wife: she had a normal recovery from the miscarriage, and in hue time she gave birth to a baby girl (p.41).
Otoko never complains about what Oki has done to her because her love
to Oki is true. Otoko does not mind if she has to pregnant Oki’s child. Otoko
defense Oki from her mother’s criticize when she and her mother are arguing to
each other about Oki. Otoko thinks that it is the part of her love and she has to
sacrifice for her love.
His own tears of pity and bitter shame feel on them, and he swore to himself that he would save her, that he would never part from her, come what might (p.21).
3. Keiko.
Keiko in the story presented as the Otoko’s pupil. Keiko is the young girl.
Keiko presented as a beautiful girl.
The moment she spoke to him at the hotel he had aware of her beauty and now he noticed how lovely she was in profile. She had a longish slender neck, and charmingly shaped ears. Altogether, she was disturbingly beautiful (p.19).
Keiko just as her teacher also lives alone. She has no family she can live with.
Keiko goes to Kyoto and she lives with her teacher Otoko.
Keiko has some bad characteristics that makes people do not like her
because of her temperament and her habits.
Four or five days after Keiko settled down whit her, Otoko receive a letter from the brother saying that she was a wild, headstrong girl, and probably would not even make a good main, but that he hoped Otoko would take her in. Keiko’s clothing and other belongs also arrived. They gave impression that she come from a well-to-do family (p.109).
Keiko goes to Kyoto after she leaves brother house. She thinks that her
brother does not love her. She thinks that her brother only loves his family
moreover when their parents died. Keiko heard about a young woman come to
Kyoto and become a painter. Keiko decides to go to Kyoto and wants to be her
pupil. Keiko’s teacher permits her to live with her after she knows that she has no
family in Kyoto.
Keiko’s teacher loves Keiko as her pupil. Keiko loves her teacher more
than what she suppose. People see them that in daily life, they live normally, but
sometimes they do something strange to each other.
I don’t know. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they were lesbians. Living together at an old temple in Kyoto, both of them insanely passionate, it seem (p.48).
Keiko idealized her teacher and it makes her know much about her
teacher. Keiko know about her teacher life, how her private life with the novel
teacher’s life make Keiko become sympathy for her teacher and make her wants
to make revenge to the man who had make her teacher’s life not happy. “I want to
break up his family, to get revenge for you” (p.88).
Otoko does not want to let her pupil make a revenge for her because
revenge is not good and it will not make anything better. Keiko is still so young
and she doesnot know what she does, Otoko doesnot want Keiko’s heart filled
with hates, so as a good teacher Otoko tries to stop Keiko to do her ambitions.
If you go on like that you’ll end up unhappy for the rest of your life (p.90).
Just as like what Keiko’s brother has said to Otoko about Keiko’s
characteristics that Keiko is a wild and headstrong girl, Keiko never listed to
Otoko. Keiko insists with her ambitions to make revenge for Otoko. Otoko also
doesn’t understand how Keiko become so hates to Oki although Keiko doesn’t
really know about Oki but why Otoko her self can’t be so hates to Oki who makes
her life broken. “You have lots of hates, haven’t you?” (p.90).
In her action to make revenge for her teacher, Keiko starts to attract Oki.
Keiko tries to act like what Otoko done when Oki seduce Otoko. Keiko lets Oki
do what he has done to Otoko. Keiko tries to make Oki fell in love with her
because it will be easier for her to make revenge if she can make Oki fell in love
whit her.
As what she firstly planned, that she will make Oki and family broke up,
Keiko not only tries to attract Oki but she also tries to attract Oki’s son Thaichiro.
When Oki tries to seduce her, Keiko mention Otoko’s name and it make Oki
thinks what will Keiko do and why she mention Otoko’s name. Keiko thinks that
she fails to attract Oki so she does to Oki’s son.
He felt a little self-conscious being whit a girl who attracted so much attention (p.202).
Keiko thinks that it was easy for her to attract Taichiro because she thinks
that Taichiro has already fells in love with her. Keiko makes Taichiro to do what
she wants. Taichiro’s parents know that Keiko is a bad girl and they worry about
their son. They try to make Taichiro leave Keiko but Keiko does not let him go
because her revenge has not finish yet. Keiko has to kill Taichiro.
It’s a evil women’s scheme. At least she’s evil as far as we’re concerned (p.200).
Keiko realizes that her teacher will get any trouble whit Taichiro parents
but she has no other choice to make revenge for her teacher. Taichiro’s parents
will blame her teacher for what she has not done about Taichiro’s death. “So
B. The character’s view on love.
The characters in the novel have different way in viewing about love.
Otoko has different view about love from the other characters. Otoko views love
as a sacrifice. For Otoko, love is sacrifice for the man she loves. Otoko sacrifices
her life for Oki, the man she loves. “I’d gladly give my life for yours, anytime”
(p.161).
The view that love is sacrifice makes Otoko never complain when Oki
makes her become his affair. She never blames Oki when he takes her virgin and
makes her pregnant in her very young age. She called what she had done is her
sacrifice for the man she loves, because she believes that her sacrifice will give
her what she wants that is can makes Oki belongs to her although she has to wait
for along time because Oki has his own family and she knows that what she wants
will not reliable because Oki’s status.
Of course she became worn and thin, with a strange look in her eye, after all the troubles caused by her love affair (p. 162).
Oki has different view about love from Otoko. Oki views a love as a
passion and money. Oki doesn’t really love Otoko. Oki loves Otoko because she
is young and beautiful and her beauty is different from other girls. Otoko has
something that makes Oki interested.
about it”. To a spontaneous young girl like Otoko it had been inconceivable that a man would plan in advance his love making techniques, their sequences, and the like (p. 121).
Oki’s love is for money because his experience with Otoko can be his
inspiration as a writer to write novel. His experience can be the source for him to
make him famous and earn much money.
Thanks to her, he wrote, he had experienced all the ways of making love (p. 122).
Keiko views love as an obsession. Keiko is a possesive girl. When she
love something she will take care it with her life. Her possesiveness makes her
emotion unstable. When she still live with her brother she did it to her
brother’s baby. “I’m fond of it, naturally. They don’t like my way of cuddling
it” (p.109).
She did it also to Otoko when she moves to Kyoto and lives with Otoko.
Do you love her that much? Enough to die for her (p. 156).
C. Revealing Messages through the Characters
This is the last of the analysis. In this part, the writer intends to reveal the
messages that might be found in this novel through the main character description
Firstly I want to look back to the meaning of the message which is defined as what is conveyed in speech or writing from one person to one or more other people (Richard, Platt, and Weber; 1985: 176).
It means that through the story, the author tries to communicate a moral
lesson to readers, and it depends on the way the author delivers the message, in
direct or indirect form.
In this study, the message was delivered in indirect form. The author does
not directly give his advice, he expresses the message implicitly, and through the
story, the readers have a chance to interpret the message by themselves so that it
is needed for the readers to understand the story well. The reader in this case is
the writer herself who will try to interpret the message inside.
As a fiction, Beauty and Sadness is a portrait of human life. The
experiences and social problem in the novel are true to life, meaning they can
happen to or experienced by someone at a particular time and place.
This novel is not only made to create beauty, but also used to convey
certain ideas, opinion, and feeling about something. It means that the novel is not
only a form of reading for pleasure but it also has more to offer to the readers.
Since this novel reflects human life, it presents many messages for several aspect
of our life. The messages are:
1. The Roles of a Mother in Someone‘s Life.
In Otoko’s life mother has important roles. Since her father died, Otoko
good mother. She loves Otoko very much and she always trying to give what
Otoko need because Otoko is her daughter only. When Otoko met Oki and fell in
love with him, as a good mother it is naturally if she didn’t agree because Otoko
is still young, she still has many opportunity to get the better life, while Oki is a
married, he has wife and child. Otoko’s mother will not let what happened to her
will also happened her daughter. Otoko’s father leaves them because there is
someone he loves.
Otoko remembered her mother’s word. She wondered if it was because of her youth and innocence that she had had such a love. Perhaps that explained her blind, insatiable passion (p.121).
Otoko’s mother becomes sadder when she know that Otoko is pregnant.
Otoko’s mother know that it will be happened, knowing how Otoko loves Oki,
but her mother can’t say anything because she knows how is her daughter. Otoko
is a strong- minded girl just like her mother. Otoko’s mother tries to help her
daughter but it is difficult for her because Otoko insist to depend her love and her
baby. The only way is by separated Otoko and Oki, because Otoko’s mother can’t
see her daughter face many problems anymore. Since Otoko met Oki, there are
many troubles come to them especially her daughter.
They had come to Kyoto because Otoko’s mother wanted to distract her daughter from her sorrow, and so they both avoided mentioning Oki’s name. However, being alone together in unfamiliar city, with only one another to turn to for consolation, they could not help glimpsing the Oki in each other’s hearts. (p.160).
A mother always wants her child will be happy in her life. A mother
her life. A mother always wants to be a friend for her child in every time, when
her child feels sad, happy, worried, when her child want to cry because only
mother who can understand her child feeling. A mother always wants to be the
only place for her child to share when there is no one she want to talk to. A
mother always gives the best for her child, because her happiness is when her
child feels happy in her child life. There is no one can be better as a mother. That
is what Otoko’s mother want to do for Otoko , but as a strong heart, Otoko never
listen but she always think what she did is right. When her mother died, Otoko
realize what her mother had said when she still alive is right. She doesn’t want to
do what her mother said. Her mother wants Otoko to forget Oki and start a new
life in the new place, the place where there is no something that can remind her to
Oki.
But the through of never marrying had crept into her mind, and in time it become an inflexible resolution. Even in Kyoto, her anxiety over her daughter remained. (p.119).
Otoko’s mother realized it is not easy for Otoko to forget Oki after what
happened to her and that’s why Otoko’s mother keep asking Otoko to start a new
life, because there is no reason to keep her love to Oki after what he has done to
Otoko and then he leave her to go back to his family without any explanation or
any responsibility as a man for what he has done.
