Osamu Dazai's "No Longer Human" Synopsis Discussion　-No.2

あなたは自分の信仰について深く考えたことはありますか？この物語は、一人の男が心の底から「信じたい」と思い続けた結果、ついにたどり着いた破壊的な境地を表現しています。「人間失格」の最も大きなテーマである「人を信じること」が、完全に打ち砕かれる、その時。私たちは本当に何かを信じることができるのでしょうか？太宰はこれを書いた1か月後、愛人と入水自殺をした。1948年に起きたこの衝撃的な事件は、現代の私たちにとっても大きな問題を定義し続けています。　　Have you ever thought deeply about your faith? This story expresses the destructive ground that one man finally reached as a result of his continuous desire to believe from the bottom of his heart. It is at that moment that the most significant theme of "No Longer Human" - "believing in people" - is completely shattered. Can we really believe in anything?  One month after writing this novel, Osamu Dazai committed suicide by drowning in a river with his mistress. This shocking incident that took place in 1948 continues to define a major issue for us today.　　

Osamu Dazai's "No Longer Human" Synopsis Discussion　

An In-Depth Look at the Christian and Buddhist Perspectives

1)

Osamu Dazai's "No Longer Human" has consistently topped the best-selling books of all time in Japan.

I want to examine Osamu Dazai's best-selling novel "No Longer Human" from a religious perspective.

2)

First, inseparable from "No Longer Human" is the religious theme.

In particular, the text often mentions expressions that suggest Christian ideas.

In addition, I believe that an Indian philosophical (Buddhist) perspective may be included.

Or why "No Longer Human" remains a bestseller today.

It also explains the definition of the issue that has always resonated with people of every age.

3)

Did the main character "You-zou" ever doubt Christianity?

On the contrary, he often refers to the existence of "God" in his radical monologues.

"God" here refers exactly to "Jesus Christ".

It is important to note that You-zou does not see things from a Christian point of view but instead cites the Christian point of view to clarify his doubts about God.

In other words, You-zou continued to doubt Christianity.

More precisely, rather than doubt, it may be more nuanced to say that he could not believe in it. Why You-zou could not believe in Christianity will be discussed here, taking up each scene.

4)

Loving Your Neighbor

You-zou felt suffocated in his own home as a child, confessing that mealtime was a painful experience.

He did not like the idea of his family gathering in a dimly lit room to eat in a solemn atmosphere.

For him, the words, "If you don't eat, you will die," seemed like a threat.

In other words, he felt constricted by the fundamental human activity of eating, as if he were forcibly confined to the oppressive community of "family".

5)

The notion of "natural happiness" that we humans feel in our lives is not natural to You-zou.

It was rather painful for him.

He has suffered from this discrepancy between the world and himself since childhood.

The expression, "If your neighbor bears your misfortune, it will cost him his life," is used in the text.

6)

It is not to say that he is the only one who is unhappy and that other people's misfortunes are unimportant.

However, the suffering that can be resolved by simply eating a meal may be a hellish pain and suffering for that person.

It is just that You-zou cannot understand the nature and extent of his neighbor's suffering.

7)

He wonders, "How can my neighbor not go mad with pain and suffering, not despair, and continue to struggle with life?"

"Isn't it because he has become an egoist and never doubted that he can live such an easy life?"

In such a way, he continues to doubt the people around him.

But, conversely, "Why am I the only one who can't come to terms with life in the world of others?" 

It seems as if he doubts himself.

8)

Christianity teaches, "Love your neighbor" as you love yourself.

In other words, if you cannot love yourself, you cannot love others.

You-zou did not love himself but even felt guilty.

Naturally, he cannot understand his neighbor's misfortune.

9)

But what is important is that for him, his neighbors were all people who were not worthy of trust.

From an early age, he saw the horror of his father's cronies.

He knew too well the ugly nature of people, that no matter how much free love they show, they will easily betray you when it comes to profit.

Unable to love his neighbor, his last resort was the sad courtship of becoming a clown.

10)

Becoming a clown was the final means of keeping him connected to the world of others.

He would force himself to associate with people in a way that was neither loving nor betraying, but rather a way that was not impeding.

Eventually, his self-loathing would increase, as he was deceiving those around him by playing a false self.

11)

In this negative spiral, he could not love his neighbors, alone himself.

For him, the Christian idea of loving one's neighbor without compensation must have been incompatible.

12)

Forgiving the Sins of Others

You-zou was a child who could not express his own opinions or feelings.

In the scene with his father's souvenirs, he cannot communicate his wants well.

On the contrary, he cannot refuse what he does not want.

He cannot say no to what he does not want and feels guilty about what he likes.

13)

There is a scene in which such a sensing timid You-zou confesses that a female maid sexually violated him.

Why did he not report the hateful crimes of the lady's maid to the people around him?

His view is described.

He asserted, "did not accuse the maid of her sins for the sake of Christianity, that is, from the agape perspective of forgiving the sins of others."

14)

You-zou fundamentally does not trust the people around him.

Therefore, he is unable to reveal his true self.

In addition, he feels guilty that he is deceiving the people around him by acting like a clown.

His distrust of people and guilt have surrounded his true feelings and blocked the outlet for his emotions.

He never had the Christian faith to forgive the sins of others, but the world and himself were hands in hand, handsestraining the act of suffering.

In such a cruel world of people, unable to seek salvation from others, unable to reach even the salvation of Christ, he quietly becomes a crazy man little by little.

15)

Encounter with Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

You-zou was impressed by the impressionist and post-impressionist works shown to him by Takeichi,　You-zou's classmate.

It greatly influenced his later life choices.

Why was he so did the works of Impressionists so move he there is a possible relationship with Christianity.

It is essential to essentially the position of Impressionism in art history.

16)

Initially, Western painting was inseparable from Christianity.

Religious paintings were always considered to be Western paintings.

However, with the rise of Impressionism, a gap began to emerge between Western painting and religion.

17)

Impressionism was an art form that developed from the principle of not using religion as a theme but instead incorporating the world as seen by the artist's eyes into painting.

For You-zou, who had doubts about Christianity, the idea of Impressionism, which depicted the world as he felt it, or Post-Impressionism, which expressed the chaos of reality with powerful brushstrokes, must have been an object of sympathy.

18)

Van Gogh's name is mentioned in this novel.

Gogh and Osamu Dazai continued to create work despite their mental illness.

And finally, they suicide.

Die artists' unique and devastating aesthetics lead them to the same fate?

19)

About the suicide in the water with Tsuneko.

His emotional state changes when he meets Tsuneko.

The night he spent with her was so happy and liberating that You-zou would never again experience it in his life.

However, Horiki's trivial words make him realize that he was mistaken.

You-zou had an affinity for Tsuneko because she was a tired, poor, shabby woman.

20)

In other words, it was nothing more than an affinity between two unhappy people.

Finally, You-zou decides to commit suicide by drowning in a river with Tsuneko. However, only he survived.

As a result, You-zou was charged with aiding and abetting a suicide, a crime of inducing a person to commit suicide.

21)

It is another example of suspicion toward Christianity.

In Christianity, suicide is also the crime of killing oneself.

You-zou is only accused of driving Tsuneko to her death, and his suicide attempt is not considered a problem.

22)

It seems that You-zou felt a sense of discomfort or loss about the value of his existence because the crime of killing himself, for which he should have been judged, was ignored.

It may have been disappointing that God's free love was not extended to him.

23)

Life with Shizuko (Shige-chan's words)

After moving into the house of the widow Shizuko, You-zou develops a good relationship with her daughter Shige-chan.

He is so comfortable in the household that Shige-chan calls him "father."

24)

One day, Shige-chan asks him this question.

"Dad, if I pray, is it true that God will give me anything?"

You-zou replies, "Shige-chan will be given anything, but I can't get anything from God."

25)

He was frightened to even of God.

He could not believe in God's love but only in God's punishment.

Faith. It felt like nodding off to the judgment seat, only to receive God's scourging.

He could believe in hell, but I could not believe in the existence of heaven.

26)

(No Longer Human, Osamu Dazai)

So far, he has only implicitly expressed his doubts about Christianity.

However, in the scene of his conversation with Shige-chan, he reveals his doubts about faith.

It is the stifling lament of You-zou, who, despairing of the natural world and seeking salvation from God, cannot trust even God's free love.

Or, he seems to be only increasing in guilt, thinking that he is going to hell as punishment because he plays the clown and deceives the people around him.

27)

Human folly in Yoshiiko's purity.

Yoshiko was a pure, innocent girl who did not know how to doubt others.

However, taking advantage of her purity, a man from a publishing company rapes her.

At that time, You-zou is more distressed that Yoshiko's trust has been tarnished than that she has been defiled.

28)

The most significant theme of "No Longer Human," "trusting people," is wholly shattered here.

29)

Originally, You-zou was afraid to trust people.

However, after meeting the pure Yoshiko, who knew nothing of doubt, I think You-zou had begun to overcome his distrust of people in no small measure.

Until now, he had been treated foolishly by the world of others.

However, after meeting Yoshiko, I believe that You-zou felt a faint sense of hope in the outside world for the first time.

30)

However, Yoshiko's trust was tarnished by an outside betrayal. That event leads You-zou to the following conclusion.

There is not a single good thing about trusting people.

31)

If you don't doubt people, some will take advantage of that purity to do evil.

Only those who believe in them will always be unhappy and have to live in fear.

Once again, he despairs the human world.

32)

He describes Yoshiiko's purity as "godlike ignorance."

It seems to have been his greatest irony toward God.

He may be praising his unquestioning purity and, at the same time appealing to the fact that God's teachings are of no use in the world of man.

33)

In other words, God is probably accusing a man of being an ignorant being who knows nothing of human folly.

Until the end, You-zou never resonated with Christian ideas.

34)

On Materialism

Accompanied by his friend, Horiki, he attends a communist reading group.

There, he attended a lecture on Marxian economics and expressed his views on materialism.

Marx's materialism is the idea that history, culture, and law were created based on an economy involving the production and consumption of materials.

35)

It can be further traced back to Indian philosophy.

In the materialism of Indian philosophy, it was believed that the basis of ideas, spirit, mind, etc., was the matter.

It was the view that even after death, human beings revert to their original substance and cease to exist and that there is no afterlife.

36)

In both Marx and Indian philosophy, there is a commonality in that material things ultimately exist at the root, and issues such as the human mind are irrelevant.

You-zou affirms such ideas as natural but insists that they are not free from the fear of human beings.

37)

In other words, being told that "matters of the heart don't matter" would have convinced him but not made him feel any better.

He was also somewhat incompatible with Asian materialism, which is the opposite of Christian thought.

38)

The Law of Causes and Effects

"Ask God. Is nonresistance a sin?"

It is a sentence that You-zou appealed before committing to a mental hospital.

39)

Again, he was asking God.

Usually, one would think that he was expressing doubt about Christ.

Perhaps that is correct.

40)

However, I dare to interpret this monologue from a Buddhist point of view.

I solved this monologue from a Buddhist perspective because the word "nonresistance" stuck in my mind for some reason.

41)

In Indian philosophy or Buddhism, there is the principle of causality.

The principle of cause and effect is the principle that a person bears the consequences of their actions in a previous life in later life.

42)

We suffer in this life because of our actions in the previous life.

Therefore, no matter how one resists in this life, there is no escape from suffering.

Furthermore, people accumulate countless evil deeds without realizing it, undoubtedly leading to suffering in the next life.

43)

In other words, no matter what one does, there is no salvation.

Don't you feel that this is precisely the fate given to You-zou?

No matter how much he suffered, he could never be liberated from the suffering of the human world.

In Buddhism, the only way to be liberated from this cause and effect is to do nothing.

44)

In other words, to live without resistance.

By doing so, it said, one can be freed from the results of previous lives and cut off from the suffering of the next life.

The practicing monks likely tried to reach a state of nothingness, where cause and effect are not involved, by practicing zazen (Zen meditation).

45)

In light of this, when one reads back his appeal, "Is nonresistance a sin?"

Do you feel a kind of doubt about Buddhism when you reread his request, "Is nonresistance a sin?"

You-zou, who had struggled so much, became a madman due to giving up resistance to everything.

46)

On the contrary, he disqualifies himself from being a human being.

He could not reach the liberation that awaited him at the end of his nonresistance.

It seems that he was betrayed even by the Buddhist conception at the root of the Japanese people.

You-zou was betrayed by people, betrayed by God, and betrayed by Buddha, and as a result, he ceased to be human.

47)

Why does it remain a bestseller?

Finally, I would like to discuss why "No Longer Human" remains a bestseller today.

I think the appeal of "No Longer Human" is that it contains many themes in one book.

Family relationships (lack of love)

Sexual abuse

HSP (sensitive people)

Interest in the arts

Political ideology

Alcoholism

Love (and related mental health)

Self-harm

Drug addiction

Trust and betrayal

Religion

48)

These were not just problems in 1948 when "No Longer Human" was written.

They are "universal afflictions" that also applies to those of us today.

49)

And everyone who reads the book becomes emotionally involved with You-zou because there is always one problem among the above themes that applies to him.

50)

Or perhaps people who struggle with these themes are naturally drawn to the works of Osamu Dazai.

I, or even you who are reading this text, are no exception.

This is your own story.

Osamu Dazai

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osamu_Dazai

No Longer Human

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Longer_Human

Osamu Dazai "No Longer Human" Synopsis 

Consideration Deep digging from the perspective of Christianity and Buddhism　

https://ks-novel.com/humanlost2/-/76/.html