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Part 2, Chapter 5
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
Noburu’s gang meets the next day after school. The boys gaze down at the foreigners’ cemetery on the way down the hill to their meeting place, an abandoned swimming pool nearby. They sit on the bleachers next to the pool, and Noboru pulls out the section of his diary that lists his 18 accusations against Ryuji.
The foreigners’ cemetery is a symbolically important setting—on the one hand, it represents foreign influence in Japan, but on the other, it’s also where these foreigners go to die. These dual associations link it with Noboru and his gang’s desire to crush modern influences on Japan and return to a more traditional culture based on honor and power.
Themes
The chief declares that Noboru’s charges are worth 150 “points,” which means that Ryuji can’t be saved. The six boys are true geniuses trying to make sense of an empty world, the chief says, and they alone are responsible for deciding what is and isn’t permissible. Therefore, the chief explains, the gang has to do something about Ryuji, who betrayed Norobu by becoming his father. This is the only way to maintain order in the world. It’s finally time to “make [Ryuji] a hero again,” just like the chief promised Noboru on January 11th.
The chief doesn’t explain his “points” system or his blind insistence that he and his gang have a right to set the rules of morality for everyone else. While this could be read as little more than a thinly-veiled excuse for imposing his will on others, his gang clearly believes that his judgments are based on a special insight into the truth about reality and the universe. Moreover, the idea that a small group of intellectually superior elites should rule over everyone else has deep roots in Japanese imperial history and traditions.
Themes
The boys stare into the pool, thinking about how it helps people float when it’s full but invites them to plunge toward death when it’s empty. The chief declares that tomorrow, Noboru must bring Ryuji to the pool. The chief will bring a scalpel and sleeping pills, which he’ll crush up. The other boys will bring rope, tea, cups, a blindfold, a towel, and knives. They will do the same thing to Ryuji that they did to the cat. The chief asks the boys one by one whether they’re afraid. Nobody responds.
The chief makes it clear what he means by “mak[ing Ryuji] a hero again.” The gang will murder and dismember Ryuji for his crimes, which include giving up on the pursuit of glory and becoming Noboru’s father. In the context of the novel’s political allegory, this plan represents an attempt to save Japan by returning it to its heroic traditions. The boys’ thoughts about the pool reflect the way that, depending on the circumstances, the same object can be either inviting or menacing, comfortable or deadly. Of course, like shift from summer to winter over the course of the novel, this is a metaphor for Ryuji’s transformation and the gang’s changing attitudes toward him.
Themes
The chief pulls out a law book that states that children under 14 can’t be punished for crimes. He argues that adults made this law to protect children, but they will use it to strike back and claim their freedom. After all, they will all turn 14 in the next two months. Therefore, the chief concludes, now is their final chance to truly exercise their freedom, bring meaning and order to the world, and avoid becoming the kind of horrible, ordinary men who dedicate their lives to idle gossip and raising a family.
From the chief’s perspective, the law shows that adults underestimate young people’s competence and therefore give the wiliest ones a loophole to avoid responsibility for their crimes. But, depending on their perspective, readers might think that the law is right to exempt the chief and his gang from responsibility for their crimes—perhaps their nihilism and rebellion are just signs of their immaturity. Similarly, the chief’s complaints about adults imposing laws on children could be read as analogous to the way the U.S. imposed its own laws on Japan during the occupation. While the gang still doesn’t clearly explain how their crime will restore order to the world, this political interpretation suggests that they’re literally talking about Japan’s traditional moral order (in which power, honor, and great men used to rule).
Themes
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