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Part 1, Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Glory, Heroism, and Death
Japanese Nationalism and Identity
Masculinity, Love, and Family
Reality, Perception, and Identity
Summary
Analysis
Ryuji Tsukazaki wakes up alone and remembers that Noboru’s mother has to go wake Noboru, so that he can go to swim with his friends. It’s almost 8 a.m.— Ryuji has only slept four hours, but he feels energized and clear-headed in the morning heat. He stretches and turns on the fan.
The novel switches points of view, which allows it to show how the same reality that the reader has already encountered through Noboru’s eyes looks radically different from another perspective. It also clearly associates the summer heat with Ryuji’s energy, strength, and sexual potency.
Themes
Ryuji has dreamt of the quartermaster summoning him for his nightly 12–4 a.m. watch on the freighter Rakuyo. The other sailors always viewed him as “unsociable and eccentric” because he avoided them and hated their tall tales. And he never loved the sea—he just hated land. After the war, he shipped out as soon as the occupiers allowed Japanese merchant ships to sail freely. He got to visit beautiful, tropical lands like Taiwan and India, but he still felt lost and alienated. He was trapped on the ship, just like he had been on land.
Ryuji’s dreams suggest that, with his all-consuming work routine, it’s very unusual for him to be on land with a woman instead of at sea with the rest of the crew. Like Noboru, Ryuji feels an overwhelming sense of loss and alienation, which completely dominates his thoughts and life. He feels that his search for purpose in the world is futile, and yet he can’t let go of his desire to find a sense of meaning. This is all a metaphor for Japan’s condition as a declining power after World War II. If Ryuji came of age a few years earlier, of course, he would have shipped out to fight in the war instead. (Tellingly, Mishima also wanted to fight in the war but very narrowly missed the opportunity to do so.)
Themes
In his youth, Ryuji used to believe that he was destined for glory, and that “the world would have to topple” for him to achieve it. But sailing showed him “the dynamic stability of the wobbling world,” and he started to forget his dreams. Yet sometimes, during his night watch, they would surge back to him like a shark leaping up out of the sea.
Ryuji can’t explain why he feels destined for glory, even if this feeling is the primary motivation for his life decisions. His reference to “toppl[ing]” the “wobbling world” shows that he clearly understands how unlikely it will be for him to achieve the glory he dreams about. Again, this is all a metaphor for Japanese ambition and World War II. On the one hand, the “dynamic stability” of the postwar global order made it unimaginable that Japan would return to its former prominence. On the other, traditionalists like Mishima still felt a strong need to avenge the war and reassert power for Japan—even if this meant turning the world on its head.
Themes
Ryuji loved popular sailor songs like “I Can’t Give Up the Sailor’s Life,” which is about a seafarer who knows that “the sea’s my home” but still cries when he leaves “the harbor town where my heart was glad.” Ryuji would hum it on his afternoon watch, then listen to the record over and over again until dinnertime. Sometimes, he would cry, thinking about his own itinerant life. For more than a decade, he did little but sleep, keep watch, and save money. He avoided the other sailors; instead, he befriended the stars, sea, and clouds.
While lighthearted, Ryuji’s favorite song captures his complex feelings about sailing as a lifestyle and profession. He views it as part of a profound personal destiny but doesn’t actually enjoy the day-to-day responsibilities of his job and feels that he is sacrificing something significant—the chance to live happily on land—in order to take his chances at sea. Like Noboru, Ryuji outwardly lives a dull life that doesn’t fully match up with his inward dreams and desires. He is caught between these two versions of the sailor’s life: he keeps waiting for his grand destiny to present itself, but in the meantime, his life feels dull and pointless.
Themes
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Back in the present, Ryuji is lying on the bed, smoking. He was by no means celibate as a sailor—he remembers his first sexual experience, which was with a sex worker in Hong Kong. He remembers how an older sailor took him to a floating brothel in the harbor. He chose an attractive young woman from the crowd, and while they had silent, lifeless sex under her quilt, he was busy watching the stars.
The fact that Ryuji watches the stars while having sex for the first time suggests that, like Noboru, he isn’t interested in sex for the sake of physical or psychological gratification. Instead, he is fixated on greater things—at most, he views sex as part of this broader quest to find a place for himself in the universe.
Themes
Fusako (Noboru’s mother) comes into her bedroom with breakfast for Ryuji. She apologizes for making him wait and comments on the day’s brutal heat. When Fusako pours coffee, Ryuji feels that he no longer recognizes her arms. He kisses her and asks about her plans—she has to be at work by 11. He thinks about how far he can take their relationship. By her expression, he can’t tell if she wants to forget their night together, or to prove that it wasn’t a mistake.
The morning casts a fresh light on Fusako and Ryuji’s relationship, forcing them to view one another from a new perspective. Specifically, they evaluate whether lust and loneliness—their motivations for getting together the night before—can translate into genuine affection and emotional connection. In other words, they’re struggling to figure out whether they’re falling in love.
Themes
Ryuji and Fusako look out the window at the harbor, which is tucked behind blocks and blocks of warehouses. They caress each other, and Ryuji feels like he has crossed the whole world to arrive precisely at this “point of delicate sensation.” Fusako tells Ryuji that Noboru appears to have found out about their romance.
Ryuji and Fusako have just met, but their budding relationship gives Ryuji the feeling of satisfaction that he has always sought through his adventurous life at sea. He feels like he’s arrived at his destiny—and yet this version of his destiny (a relationship with Fusako) is clearly incompatible with the other destiny he has always sought (glory at sea). Thus, Ryuji encounters a fork in the road: he’s forced to choose between two different versions of his future.
Themes
