Glory

__ The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea __  The idea that the man in the Japanese Culture during post-war Japan must be honorable and achieve glory is shown in __The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea__ by Yukio Mishima through the development of Ryuji's character throughout the story and shown through the Chief’s ideals and actions. Mishima portrays Ryuji as a strong, manly sailor at first, which the boys admired. However, as Ryuji’s character changed when he becomes increasingly attached to Fusako, his idea of glory changes, ultimately foreshadowing and leading to the boys’ actions against Ryuji at the end of the novel, when he reverts back to his old self before he is killed. Mishima conveys the different ideas of glory through the characters of Ryuji and the boys and their reactions on achieving their idea of the ultimate goal in life. At the beginning of the novel, Glory in Ryuji’s mind is tied to his travels at sea abroad the //Rakuyo//. Ryuji believes that facing possible death at sea at any moment, fighting storms, and being away from the land and a sheltered life makes him more manly, and therefore more honorable. “ He had been passionately certain: //there's just one thing I'm destined for and that's glory; that's right, glory!"// (16). This quote shows Ryuji’s self-confident and manly character, and because of this strong belief in being destined for glory, this quote also foreshadows the boys “saving” Ryuji’s heroic self by killing him. Initially, Ryuji believed that "the man sets out in quest of the Grand Cause; the woman is left behind," where glory and honor is achieved through dangerous adventures at sea (74). He also believes that being with a woman temporarily was his main ways to become an honorable Japanese man. This notion is also supported by Noboru, the Chief, and the boys, when Noboru says to them, “[Ryuji] is like a fantastic beast that’s just come out of the sea all dripping wet. Last night I watched him go to bed with my mother.” (49). They idolized Ryuji and found him to be a hero who followed their nihilistic ideals.

However, as Ryuji becomes increasingly attached to Fusako, he begins to consider giving up his sailor life, which is also seen by the boys as a dishonorable act. In contrast to how Ryuji was described before, a strong immovable masculine figure, he was portrayed as becoming a softer, more caring and burdened father figure as he progressively becomes more significant in Fusako’s life. Toward the ending of the book, just before Ryuji is killed, he discovered that “yet when the woman had been attained, the other two [glory and death] withdrew beyond the offing and ceased their mournful wailing of his name,” suggesting that before he believed that glory and a woman were linked and also if he did not achieve glory, he should die, but now finds that attaining the woman actually stopped him from achieving glory and even prevented him from undergoing what seems to him as an honorable death (180). The boys hoped to cause Ryuji to revert back to his old glorified and heroic self and then ended his life at its pinnacle in order to preserve his honor. This shows the extent and extreme nature of the boys’ actions and ideals.

Word Count: 554

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