Confessions of a Mask - Essay Example

Kochan’s mask in life from his young years made him an individual who would not be convicted of anything other than the sham. This made him harbour conflicting emotions that he had for Sonoko; making their relationship a rather bizarre one from the normal boy-girl relationships.

Queer theory refers to a collection of thoughts revolving around the conception that identities are not permanent and they do not determine who we are in diverse and non-predicable ways. The queer theory applies to Mishima’s novel in that it employs the expected scenario of gender to tell the tale of a closeted homosexual man residing in Japan with a false identity. The oppressive societal conception at that period led to the prohibition of homosexuality, thus suppressing the behaviour by making such individuals assimilate to the societal norms; as in Kochan’s case. Koshan is a perfect example of a queer subject, who was in denial to finally reveal his sexual preference as a self-conscious gay in Japan. Sonoko’s role in the book is to act as the ‘other,' making Koshan himself, thus revealing how he struggles with the homosexuality issue. This juxtaposition reveals queer theory in Mishima’s novel, by describing homosexuality without disrupting the general gender boundaries.

The passage from Dunya Mikhail’s poem the foreigner makes me think of love and the emotions that come with this impeccable feeling. The lines strongly describe the effects of seeing someone and falling in love with them at first sight. Generally, the effects of falling in love with someone for the first time are breath-taking as from the line ‘he threw me a fleeting glance’ This passage shows that love can happen anywhere in this case, it happened in a foreign area. Most times, we meet someone we like and by the time we gain the courage to tell them, they leave us yearning to see them once again. The aspect of isolation and loss is felt when the foreign bird flew away and left the writer behind, without even noticing the writer. This passage shows that some incidences in life can alter all the normal aspects.