The Wild Geese
The Wild Geese is a short novel by Mori Ōgai, written in Japanese in 1911 to 1913. It is about requited but unfulfilled love as well as male-female relationships in 1880s Japan. The book is beautifully written, straightforward, so I'll quote parts of it.
From the novel's foreword, it "focuses on a usurer and his wife, a poor old man and his daughter, a student and a mistress. Duty seems to submerge the individual soul, symbolically represented by the unrestrained flock of birds. But not all wild geese can fly, and in Ogai's novel there are several that cannot."
There is a medical student named Okada who takes many walks in town, and one day he sees a quiet, shy woman walking to her house. They notice each other for a second, and then move on. This happens every day, and eventually Okada bows when he sees her. They acknowledge each other and look the other person over, and think about each other later, forming coherent pictures using the details of what they saw. Yet the two never spoke to each other, nor knew their names. It was amazing how loaded each glance is, to me.
The narrator then explains about this lonely young woman. Her name is Otama. She and her father are very poor, but a wealthy older man takes an interest in her and she becomes his mistress in exchange for caring for her and her father. Eventually the man's wife finds out, Otama finds out that he is married, and she also falls in love with Okada as he passes by every day.
The novel wonderfully described Otama's growth; in the beginning she is a very quiet, submissive young girl who dutifully takes care of her father and knows that becoming a mistress is the only way. Over time, she likes her arrangement less and less. In the beginning, she is also painfully shy, easily embarrassed, and is innocent in the ways of the world. Over time, she learns to hide her feelings, to not trust everything she is told, and to look beyond her life for something better. As she learns more about Okata, she begins scheming and planning out ways to get closer to him, though it's very difficult to do so secretly.
"Women pitiably waver in their decisions until they have made up their minds, yet once they have decided on their course of action, they rush forward like horses with blinders, looking neither to the right nor left. An obstacle which would frighten discreet men is nothing to determined women. They dare what men avoid, and sometimes they achieve an unusual success."
The novel also painted a pretty good picture of the wealthy man's wife, Otsune. She is unattractive and quarrelsome, so her husband Suezo got tired of her and took on the mistress. Despite her nature and her difficulty with reasoning, the book still shows that she isn't to blame for her problems, and at least that men have it better. Suezo wears good clothes and goes out to restaurants to eat with others, saying that it's to keep a good public face in front of his friends and associates -- meanwhile, his wife and children don't live so well, she cannot wear expensive kimonos like he does and doesn't even go to good restaurants and the like. Then she is further distressed to learn that he now has a mistress, and he dresses her and cares for her like he doesn't his own family.
The book was excellent in dealing with the injustices in the society.
The unfulfilled love was between Otama and Okada. While it's obvious Okada is also attracted to her, he can't quite bring himself to do anything about it, and it's more Otama's feelings that are explored and sympathized with.
I found it to be a mature, accurate depiction of human feelings and relationships, distinctly Japanese but still applicable to anyone anywhere.
From the novel's foreword, it "focuses on a usurer and his wife, a poor old man and his daughter, a student and a mistress. Duty seems to submerge the individual soul, symbolically represented by the unrestrained flock of birds. But not all wild geese can fly, and in Ogai's novel there are several that cannot."
There is a medical student named Okada who takes many walks in town, and one day he sees a quiet, shy woman walking to her house. They notice each other for a second, and then move on. This happens every day, and eventually Okada bows when he sees her. They acknowledge each other and look the other person over, and think about each other later, forming coherent pictures using the details of what they saw. Yet the two never spoke to each other, nor knew their names. It was amazing how loaded each glance is, to me.
The narrator then explains about this lonely young woman. Her name is Otama. She and her father are very poor, but a wealthy older man takes an interest in her and she becomes his mistress in exchange for caring for her and her father. Eventually the man's wife finds out, Otama finds out that he is married, and she also falls in love with Okada as he passes by every day.
The novel wonderfully described Otama's growth; in the beginning she is a very quiet, submissive young girl who dutifully takes care of her father and knows that becoming a mistress is the only way. Over time, she likes her arrangement less and less. In the beginning, she is also painfully shy, easily embarrassed, and is innocent in the ways of the world. Over time, she learns to hide her feelings, to not trust everything she is told, and to look beyond her life for something better. As she learns more about Okata, she begins scheming and planning out ways to get closer to him, though it's very difficult to do so secretly.
"Women pitiably waver in their decisions until they have made up their minds, yet once they have decided on their course of action, they rush forward like horses with blinders, looking neither to the right nor left. An obstacle which would frighten discreet men is nothing to determined women. They dare what men avoid, and sometimes they achieve an unusual success."
The novel also painted a pretty good picture of the wealthy man's wife, Otsune. She is unattractive and quarrelsome, so her husband Suezo got tired of her and took on the mistress. Despite her nature and her difficulty with reasoning, the book still shows that she isn't to blame for her problems, and at least that men have it better. Suezo wears good clothes and goes out to restaurants to eat with others, saying that it's to keep a good public face in front of his friends and associates -- meanwhile, his wife and children don't live so well, she cannot wear expensive kimonos like he does and doesn't even go to good restaurants and the like. Then she is further distressed to learn that he now has a mistress, and he dresses her and cares for her like he doesn't his own family.
The book was excellent in dealing with the injustices in the society.
The unfulfilled love was between Otama and Okada. While it's obvious Okada is also attracted to her, he can't quite bring himself to do anything about it, and it's more Otama's feelings that are explored and sympathized with.
I found it to be a mature, accurate depiction of human feelings and relationships, distinctly Japanese but still applicable to anyone anywhere.