Emptiness

Emptiness
"The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea" by Yukio Mishima chronicles a group of boys who practice absolute dispassion. They perceive themselves as geniuses determined to achieve power over existence and are denied of love due to the lack of parental affection and guidance and thus convinced that the world is empty; their abhorrence toward authority figures directs them toward ignorant behaviors in a self-created world. Ultimately the chief's manipulative character influences the group to murder to prove their willpower, which leads to the inevitable death of Ryuji.

As a result of the chief and boy's critical perception toward authority figures, they lack guidance and affection and thus perceive themselves as the only ones who hold control in an empty world. Noboru's isolated environment at home is a cause of the emptiness in his life. "His friends were probably right when they called it a pitiful little vacant house. He [Noboru] wondered if that had anything to do with the emptiness of his own world." (8) Although the house is occupied, the relationship between Noboru and Fusako is distant and suffer a lack of trust. As the novel progresses, Fusako becomes affectionate as her emptiness (solitude) is fulfilled by Ryuji's companionship; however, Noboru perceives Fusako's new role as a mother disquieting. Furthermore, Noboru's emptiness and hate toward Ryuji is driven by disappointment as Ryuji is unable to live up to Noboru's glorious and heroic perceptions of the sailor. Ironically as Ryuji shifts further from the glory he initially desired to obtain and fulfilled his emptiness by taking up the role of a father figure, his death ensued. Noboru feels increasingly empty and disregarded, especially toward the end as Ryuji steals Fusako's affections and attention from Noboru. "They seemed oblivious of his [Noboru] presence in the room" (104) His mother's affection is the only aspect driving his emotions; however, once these are taken away from Noboru, he becomes completely empty and pitiless.

The chief and boys perceive themselves as isolated geniuses in an empty world and guardians of order, yet these ignorant thoughts of a child demonstrate the boys as empty themselves lacking any sense of morality. Fusako's decision to trust Noboru for a night fuels Noboru's desire to wound his mother's feelings, as he perceives this action as a sign of desertion as opposed to a demonstration of trust. "If he [Noboru] were really a genius and the world mere emptiness, then why shouldn't he have the ability to prove it? He would have only to open a tiny crack in the glossy teacup of a world the adults believed in." (148). Noboru's thoughts are clearly a demonstration of a stubborn child desiring for attention. He is unable to understand the distinction between cause and effect since he is convinced of being a genius. His helpless attempt to obtain attention is achieved through the control he has over the peephole to create a sense of importance and control over adults; however the analogy "tiny crack in the glossy teacup" portrays Noboru's superficial viewpoint on adults which further distinguishes the distance between the ignorant thoughts of a child (Noboru) and the adult world. "All six of us are geniuses. And the world, as you know, is empty." (161) The chief and boys ideals have driven them to become empty and completely diregard morals. Although they perceive the world as empty, ironically they are empty as well.

The chief and boys solution to filling the emptiness of the world and proving their willpower is achieved through murder."The chief always insisted it would take acts such as this to fill the world's great hollows (57). Mishima uses 'great hollows' as a metaphor for authority figures, thus by annihilating these figures who restrict the chief and boys, they are able to achieve real power; murder is the answer to fulfilling emptiness and the way to ensure their lack of sympathy and emotion. Furthermore they believe that "murder would fill those gaping caves in much the same way that a crack along its face will fill a mirror." (57) The chief and boy's ideals of fulfillment is questionable as they characterize fulfillment as "a crack along its face will fill a mirror". 'Mirror' in the analogy demonstrates the adults belief of the world, yet the boys perceive their beliefs as empty and must fulfill the emptiness by creating chaos and distortion which contrasts with the common ideal of fulfillment, therefore their perception is conceptual and unconventional.

Word Count: 744

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