Academic Argument on Issue from the Novel A Personal Matter - Essay Example

English Topic: Academic Argument on Issue from the Novel A Personal Matter Introduction By evaluating and analyzing the character of Bird, one gets to know multifarious challenges of life some individuals are destined to face through children, disability, depression, illness, familial relationships, medical ethics, parenthood, sexuality and rebellion to mention the important ones. Bird’s child is born with serious deformities and in the initial stages he is unwilling to take responsibility of the unfortunate child. He turns cynical out of shame and fear. To overcome his mental turmoil and confusion, he takes to the easiest of the options– to turn to alcohol and then through extra-marital relationship – but nothing tangible happens. The best route In life is the royal road and, though, destiny cannot be changed, it can be challenged and to walk through trials and tribulations is true heroism; the world cannot run on total happiness and one has to find fulfillment by making the best use of available blessings bestowed by Nature. The story is autobiographical: Kenzaburo Oe’s son was born with a brain hernia. To meet this challenge, he gets suggestions galore from his family members, friends and the physicians. The protagonist in the novel, Bird, is totally confused and avoids his wife. In the end, through the wise counsel and intervention of an old friend, he returns to his son. His son’s disability created a deep impact in Bird’s life and the disability explained the sociological conditions prevailing in Japan in the post World War II era, when Japan had to surrender to America, after the mighty blows it received through atom bombs at two of its important cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The story of this novel and the character of Bird are based on realism cleverly blended in the form of fiction. It has much to do with the fate of the Japanese people in the 1960s, when the post-war generation of Japan is attaining adulthood. An author may intelligently try to sweep under the carpet the reflection of the experiences of one’s life, but the same will be evident in the characters. The character of Bird details the important aspects of life of the author, and the interplay of different characters on Bird depicts the cultural traditions and sociological conditions prevailing in the relevant era to which the author belongs. Bird is a twenty-seven year old graduate school drop-out and profession-wise cram-school teacher, not blessed with the physical personality that a youth should be proud of. Marriage was forced upon him and, in the literal sense of the term, he felt caged (like the bird). Destiny played its part to wreck him mentally with the birth of his first son with serious abnormalities. Initially, he was in a moral dilemma whether to kill the child. Consequently, he accepted his responsibility towards his wife and the unfortunate child was born with deformities and with two heads. Kenzaburo Oe writes to describe the imbalanced state of mind of Bird, thus: “I might even say that going off to Africa alone would become impossible if I got locked up in the cage of a family when the baby came; I’ve been in the cage ever since my marriage but until now the door has always seemed open; the baby on its way into the world may clang that door shut” (5). The interactions between Bird with his friends and family members vividly describe the varied facets of social life in Japan in the 1960s. Each one represents a segment of the Japanese society like Himiko, the former college girlfriend of Bird, a widow and s sex-bird. She was on his side, though on a wrong footing, to soothe his shock of the arrival of the abnormal baby. As goes with the thoughtless combustible younger generation, she encourages him to destroy the child and is greatly enamored of his fantasy to escape to Africa. When Bird realizes his responsibility towards the family, she departs to Africa. Initially, Bird blamed his wife for giving birth to such a child, as if she is responsible for it. This showed his lack of maturity and he targeted her for his dissatisfaction in life. Bird’s African dream highlights his inner conflicts. The African metaphor explains many facets of his complicated personality. His obsession for exploring Africa explains the important part of his existence. He used to visit bookstores to meticulously examine the various maps of Africa with the eye of an explorer. He had great aspirations about Africa. His marriage and the birth of a deformed baby stifled his ardently cultivated ambition to explore Africa and to write a chronicle of his adventures. Marriage and fatherhood added to his misery which denied him the golden opportunity of his dreams about the continent of Africa. Symbolically, Africa is his dream of freedom and the deformed baby stifled that sapling of freedom. When he was given to understand that even medical intervention would not be able to do anything tangible for normalizing the physical state of the baby, he dreaded about the life-long curse that was ahead of him. The author describes his mental condition thus: “Bird again dredged the question up to the surface of his conscious mind: how can we spend the rest of our lives, my wife and I, with a monster baby riding on our backs? Somehow I must get away from the monster baby. I don’t, ah, what will become of my trip to Africa” (75). In Himiko’s friendship Bird found an escape route from the realities of life that he faced. He fantasized sensual pleasure with her as compared to the reality of family responsibilities and conformity to the social norms of the Japanese society. Bird and Himiko were the victims of tragic circumstances of different types and tried to find solace and comfort in the company of each other. She put forth a clever argument that their escape plan to Africa would serve the dual purpose. Bird could forget the sad memories of the baby and she could overcome the grief of the death by suicide of her husband. She cast her evil influence on Bird to plan the termination the life of the child, taking the assistance of an abortionist to achieve her ambition to visit Africa by using the money which otherwise would have been spent on the medical treatment of the baby. Conclusion Once the dark clouds of negativities withered, a courageous individual emerges out of the confused man, Bird. A gradual transformation takes place within him and he decides to face the reality and sees through the selfish game of Himiko. He understands that she is using him as the tool to run away from the realities of life. His power of discrimination douses his childhood craze for Africa. He realizes that he is using Africa as a shield to escape from his inner cowardliness and Himiko is the willing accomplice in his intended endeavor to achieve her own selfish goals. Now he wishes not to kill the child, but his inner weakness of fleeing from responsibilities. The revised thought process results in inner transformation of Bird and this is possible by knowing the true purpose of life by attaining spiritual dimensions. The freedom that he was contemplating by reaching Africa was the imaginary one that belonged to the world of fantasy. Bird’s decision in the end to become a guide to the foreign tourists who visit Japan is the expression of his true goal to rediscover himself. His self-loathing has blossomed into self-confidence. Works Cited Oe, Kenzaburo. A Personal Matter. Grove Press, 1982. Print. Read More