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Noboru’s Father
The Peephole
The peephole leading from Noboru’s wall into Fusako’s bedroom represents the power of perspective and secret insight—specifically, it shows how knowledge can become a tool for domination. At the very beginning of the…
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The Sea
The sea comes to mean many, often contradictory things over the course of the novel, but above all, it represents desire—and particularly Japan’s desire for power. At the same time, the novel also shows that…
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The Rakuyo
The Rakuyo—the mighty freighter ship on which Ryuji worked and sailed the world for more than a decade—represents the connections among power, masculinity, and Japanese identity. The novel’s descriptions emphasize the ship’s unimaginable size…
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Hot and Cold
Extreme hot and cold in this novel illustrate how the world is governed by opposite, complementary forces that humans struggle to integrate. The first half of the novel is set in the suffocating, humid Yokohama…
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