Heroism

 In the novel __The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea__ the fondness towards heroism of Noboru and Ryuji and Noboru’s killing R as he lost his heroic features reflects Mishima’s views on heroism as manly and important. Heroism is the connection between the boy Noboru and the sailor Ryuji. Noboru looks up to figures that have heroic features and also tries to present so-called heroic actions while Ryuji at first is seen to possess such features as a hero. The two characters have similar ideas about heroism and similar thoughts when they link themselves to heroism. It is the reason that Noboru looked up to Ryuji and felt that he had to stop it when Ryuji's heroic features were fading away.

Ryuji was a fan of heroism. Initially in the book Ryuji had the manly figure and was keenly seeking for his glory. (38) "...he knew that he had been chosen to tower above other men." He believes that he is the hero great and tall and he’s proud thinking himself as a hero. He thinks that he is the heroic figure that stands out in this man’s world, isolated from the rest that are weaker. (17) "Sometimes, as he stood watch in the middle of the night, he could feel his glory knifing toward him like a shark…" Seen from the ‘knifing like a shark’, simile is used to portray the ‘knifing’ to be as fierce as a shark, showing the violence, and through this showing Ryuji’s strongly manly heart. This can also be seen from the line (17) "He longed for a storm." The heroic features of him determined that he would not be happy with the sea calm and peaceful, but only a storm can satisfy him. On his mind there were (39) "the shrieking of a tidal wave, the ineluctable force of high tide (and) the avalanching break of surf upon a shoal..." Being the hero he thinks he is, he takes attention on things that has the same heroic features, those that are grand, disastrous, destroying…All that above shows his keenness to heroism, and shows that heroism in his view is surviving through the violence and being a true man.

Noboru’s fondness to heroism, parallel to Ryuji’s, lured Noboru to look up to Ryuji. Noboru's gang struggled to find the "real" men, which they define as harsh, indifferent, and emotionless. (9) "If I were an amoeba, he thought, with an infinitesimal body, I could defeat ugliness. A man isn't tiny or giant enough to defeat anything." Noboru’s view of Heroism is naïve and simple- defeat ugliness? He exposes directly his dissatisfaction to the man’s ‘weaknesses' of not being heroic enough. He looks down on man in general for we could not defeat everything. When he committed the cruel deed of killing a kitten, he didn’t show much fear and feelings towards the kitten, but instead felt proud about it.(61) "'I killed it all by myself'-a snow-white certificate of merit'I can do anything no matter how awful.'" The white certificate of merit shows his pride. And the Chief also praised him: "good job… this made a real man of you." Their way to present heroism is to kill and be harsh with no soft-heartedness, the harshness similar to Ryuji’s favor for a storm.

Ryuji has to be killed because his heroic features were starting to fade away. To Noboru’s gang, the concept of a real man is more than what fathers are like. In Noboru’s view, his hero Ryuji must always be a hero. (13) "If this is ever destroyed, it'll mean the end of the world.... I'd do anything to stop that, no matter how awful!" The strong belief that heroism must not die was what kept Noboru against Ryuji as his downfall started when he fell in love with Fusako. Ryuji has to be killed- there is no other way- he must not become Noboru’s father.

The gangs’ belief that Ryuji must be killed reflects the author Mishima’s view in heroism and that shame should be bore after heroism starts to fade away from one’s character. Mishima felt that his country was heroic at first but fell from grace when they were defeated during WWII. Since he was from a Samurai family which could not stand being defeated by another nation this was shameful for him, so he committed suicide after the war. -If heroism is lost, in his case defeated by war, one should be too shameful to live.

Word count: 750 Citation: Mishima, Yukio. __The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea__. Trans. John Nathan. New York: Vintage International, 1994.