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An absent father figure in Swaddling Clothes(draft3)
Dorothy
Dec.09, 2006
Draft Three The father figure has been a symbol of greatness and powers throughout the human history across most the cultures. For a country like Japan, father figure plays an even more dominant and crucial role and has always been the pillar and cornerstone for the nation’s prosperity in good times and survival in rough times. A good example is the Samurai spirits, considered an extension of the dominant father figure that drove waves of kamikaze attacks against the allied forces during the WWII in the pacific area. But after the war, Japan appeared in front of the entire world as a loser, weakened and humiliated. Its masculinity was in deep crisis. Such drastic changes weighed heavily on the entire Japanese nation and influenced many contemporary writers in Japan. Mishima Yukio is one among them. His novel Swaddling Clothes is a representative work written against such a background.
This story takes place in Tokyo shortly after WWII. Yukio depicts a woman, named Toshiko, who is shocked by seeing a newborn baby wrapped in newspapers and lying on the floor. The baby looks so poor and fragile without any protection from a father. Besides, Toshiko’s husband abandons their traditional cultures regarded as their elder generation. Throughout the story, the author describes such status, suggesting the absence of father figure in the post-war Japan. Literally, the story is about the unexpected events in a woman’s life. Broadly, the author is really depicting the life and masculine crisis of the Japanese society after WWII, namely, an absent father figure.
The author uses a woman, Toshiko’s, perspective to illustrate the collapse and dismay of the Japanese society after the war. The most shocking scene comes when Toshiko’s husband tells his colleagues about “the incident”: “on the parquet floor the infant lay, and his frail body was wrapped in bloodstained newspapers”(133). A deserted baby lying on the floor surprises her. Usually, anyone who has a newborn baby will be very happy and take good care of it, for it brings hope for the family. But this one is just wrapped in some loose newspapers, which obviously are too cold and unsafe for him. It seems unfortunate that the baby comes to this world without any protection from the parents. The father, as the protector, is absent at the beginning of the new life. The condition of the baby gives both Toshiko and her husband “the shock of [their] life”(133) as “the horrifying happening”(133).
This cruelest status of the infant suggests the same hardship for post-war Japan at large. Toward the end of WWII, Japan suffered two atomic bombs, and their cities were suddenly destroyed. At the same time, it shocked their people and brought traumatic memory in their mind. Everything was like a nightmare. Undoubtedly, the newspaper, as the baby’s clothes becomes the metaphor symbolizing thus status of this newborn country. The old has destroyed, but the new one is uncertainty. Toshiko feels nothing but shock. Most Japanese were under the illusion that their country was strong and powerful, and there was a national spirit leading them to win the war. When the country began to recover from the war, it was just as fragile as a newborn baby. The people were too shocked to accept that fact.
For any baby or child, father is such a central and important role. The absence of a father figure simply would make his child hard to make his way in the future. Thinking of that, Toshiko is worried about the baby’s future. “What else could happen to a baby who has had such a birth”(134), she asks herself. To a certain degree, father is a mentor and guider for a child to follow and pattern. And their offspring continue the spirits of the elder generation. But now such figure never exists. Toshiko finds it especially difficult to explain to the newborn baby about his birth after he grows up. She, as the only witness of that terrible scene, struggles in her mind if she should tell the baby the truth. “There will be no one to tell him, as long as I preserve silence”(134). In other words, she finds it hard to identify his identity, for a father, a symbol of guider and social status has disappeared. Toshiko is concerning that “he can never become a respectable citizen”(134), and if he will ask about his birth and his identity. The indigent birth will symbolize his whole life. She feels uneasy, even guilt. Maybe the baby will not know his birth, just like many Japanese youth are not fully told the happenings during the war and after war. When the baby grows up, “he will be wandering through the streets by himself, cursing his father, loathing his mother”(135). This is the only place Toshiko mentions the baby’s father throughout the whole story. The great image, father figure, is destroyed in her mind. Instead of admiring this image, she is thinking that the next generation will never worship the greatness of father figure again. After the war, Japanese were very dissatisfied with the status of their country. When the country began to recover, they discovered that they not only lost the war, but also their national spirit. The government did not have the right leaders; their country did not have a soul either. The once enchanted masculinity was in crisis. They questioned their country’s future and showed great worry. Then, they began to realize that there lacks a father figure in their national spirit.
For Japanese, father figure is the central part of their national culture. On the one hand, an absent father figure symbolizes losing spirits in their country; on the other hand, it symbolizes that its traditions and cultures are subverted by the outside cultures.
In the beginning of the story, Toshiko tells the reader her feeling about her house. It is “dreaded”(132), for “its Western-style furniture”(132). Home reminds the reader of warmth and safety, also, it brings us the sense of place. But for Toshiko, home is dreaded. The furniture in her house makes her feel alien. Furthermore, her husband is “sitting there in his American-style suit, puffing at a cigarette”(132). He has abandoned the Japanese cultures and traditions and became westernized. Toshiko is a typical Japanese woman, all the traditional cultures has engraved in her life, so she could not bear all these. Even her husband “[seems] to her almost a stranger”(132). However, Toshiko’s husband is not unique, rather a typical Japanese male who follows the western life styles during that time. After the war, Japanese traditions and cultures were challenged by the western cultures. Their traditional cultures were in crisis. Westernization was perceived by many Japanese as the continuation of the war that would defeat the country all together and forever. The cultures are the soul of a nation. The loss of cultures, in some degree, suggests the loss of the elder generation’s traditions.
Nevertheless, Japanese did not give up the search for the absent father figure. At the end of the story, when Toshio is walking in the park, she encounters with a young man who firstly is “curled up on layers of newspapers”(136). The similar scene reminds her of the newborn baby who was once wrapped in the same kind of newspaper. After a while, an unexpected thing happens “a powerful hand reached out and seized Toshiko by her slender wrist”(136). She, once a timid girl, feels a powerful strength from her back without any dread. Obviously, she needed such power as if she was eager to be protected in hard times. Such eagerness is not only with Toshiko; it is a widely spread public feeling in the post-war era. During that time, the people in Japan were afraid and were tired of the war, for they suffered a lot from it, and now they really needed a great power which can protect them in this dark time. A newborn country, like the newborn baby, needed a national spirit and a dominant power in their nation to guide them, and to support their country as well.
Throughout the story, the author describes the shocking events happened in Toshiko’s life, which reflect that the author is worried about the conditions and its future of Japan after WWII, and the eagerness of finding back the power. The profoundness of the story goes beyond personal life of Toshio. He suggests that an absent father figure presents in the post-war Japan. Of course, he never tries to give up searching for it. When this figure is fading away from their national spirits after WW II, he reminds that it is time for their people to find back this father figure in such difficult and changing times.
References: Benedict, Ruth. Chrysanthemum and the Sword, Patterns of Japanese Culture, Boston, Mass: Houghton Mifflin, 1989. Yukio, Mishima. “Swaddling Clothes” 1966. Rpt. in The xxxxxxInternational Story: An Anthology with Guidelines for xxxxx Reading and Writing about Fiction. Ruth Spack.New xxxxxx York: St.Martin's, 1994. Zoja, Luiqi. The Father: Historical Psychological and culutre Perspectives, Kustantaja:, Taylor&Francis Group, 2005.
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