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Part 2, Chapter 2
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
When the Rakuyo sails away five days later, Ryuji doesn’t go. He stays with Fusako and Noboru. The following morning, at Rex, Fusako receives a shipment of vests, sweaters, and slacks. Mr. Shibuya tells Fusako that they have been invited to pre-season fashion show, and Fusako reminds him about their upcoming meeting with the Foreign Trade Ministry to secure permission for their imports from New York. Then, Fusako asks Shibuya about his worsening health and encourages him to visit a doctor.
Ryuji officially decides to abandon his life as a sailor and stay with Fusako onshore. This decision is full of important symbolism because it means that he has given up on his lifelong dreams of glory at sea. If these dreams represented Japan’s imperial ambitions, then Ryuji’s decision to stay behind represents the nation losing the war and accepting Western occupation. Of course, Fusako’s job selling Western clothing makes this link even clearer. Her daily work routine doesn’t change, but her meeting about imports is a reminder that she represents the other side of the same industry as Ryuji. He transported products around the world, while she sells imported products. Whereas he helped Japan spread its goods and influence around the world, she helps foreigners spread their goods and influence in Japan.
Themes
The actress Yoriko Kasuga visits to buy some accessories, and Fusako takes her out to lunch at a gourmet French restaurant. Yoriko is clearly lonely and distraught about missing out on yet another acting award. Even though she is famously beautiful, Yoriko says that she envies Fusako’s looks. She gives the waitress an autograph, then explains that she doesn’t trust anyone but her fans and Fusako, who is her “only real friend.”
Fusako’s decision to take Yoriko to a French restaurant and Yoriko’s incessant, selfish complaints about her life once again represent the idea that Western cultural influences transformed Japan for the worse. On their previous meeting, Yoriko and Fusako shared a deep sense of loneliness. But now, Yoriko’s complaint about her lack of friends merely highlights how Fusako has overcome her own loneliness through her relationship with Ryuji.
Themes
Fusako thinks that Yoriko is truly happy with her life, despite all her complaints. After all, she supports a 10-person family, and her beauty gives her strength. Fusako decides to confide in Yoriko about her romance with Ryuji. When Yoriko learns that Ryuji gifted Fusako his life savings, she remarks that Fusako is lucky, and that Ryuji is a real man if there ever was one. But Yoriko also tells Fusako to hire a private detective to tail Ryuji, exchange medical certificates to make sure he doesn’t have any diseases, start training him to help out at Rex, watch his relationship with Noboru, and make sure that he isn’t using her for her money.
Fusako’s opinion of Yoriko again shows the subtle difference in how each of them represents Western culture. Namely, Fusako’s values are still ultimately Japanese—she prizes dignity and honor, while Yoriko primarily cares about money, fame, and outward appearances. For instance, while Yoriko’s advice to Fusako is remarkably practical and specific, she care more about protecting Fusako’s money than her honor. She is also deeply skeptical of love, which she views more as a tool of manipulation than a genuine feeling.
Themes
At first, Fusako is astonished that Yoriko can be so practical. Then, Yoriko explains why: her cheating, diseased ex-fiancé nearly swindled her out of her money. This deeply offends Fusako, who thinks that Ryuji would never do the same. She decides that Yoriko is “just a customer, not a friend.” While she tells herself that she’s not as gullible as Yoriko, she also remembers that her relationship with Ryuji started as a passionate summer fling.
While Yoriko means well, she also imposes her own circumstances onto Fusako's life by assuming that Ryuji is just as dishonest as her own ex-fiancé. Fusako’s response is more complex than she lets on: while Yoriko’s insinuation certainly does offend her, she also seems to genuinely fear that Yoriko might be right. Of course, when Fusako reminds herself that Yoriko is her customer and not her friend, she also implicitly points out that Yoriko is too immature to make the same distinction.
Themes
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Yoriko shows Fusako the shallow scars on her wrist and admits that she attempted suicide when her engagement fell apart. (Fortunately, her manager kept it out of the newspapers.) Fusako resents Yoriko but remembers that she’s a client and compliments her. Out of spite, Fusako decides to hire Yoriko’s private investigator and prove that Ryuji is an honest, respectable man. Yoriko agrees to write Fusako a letter of introduction.
Fusako recognizes that Yoriko’s story is tragic, but she also views it as pathetic, because Yoriko let a man destroy her life. On the one hand, the novel presents Yoriko as a pitiable character chiefly because she is weak. But on the other, it doesn’t present weakness as a vice for women to the same extent as it is for men. Of course, Fusako has also centered her whole life on a man, so her resentment toward Yoriko is partially about her own embarrassment.
Themes
Eight days later, Fusako phones Yoriko to thank her and read her the private investigator’s report about Ryuji. The investigator writes that Ryuji’s claims about his childhood and education are accurate, and that he doesn’t seem to have ever had a relationship with another woman. Ryuji is eccentric and solitary, the investigator writes, but also conscientious, healthy, and financially responsible. At the end of the call, Fusako explains that Ryuji has started working at the store, and that Yoriko can meet him on her next visit.
The investigator’s report serves two functions. First, it proves Ryuji’s authenticity and assuages Fusako’s sincere doubts about his character (which are largely rooted in their class differences and the whirlwind nature of their romance). Second, it gives Fusako a tool to passive-aggressively spite Yoriko, who she knows will become desperately jealous of her loving relationship.
Themes
