Analysis Of Yasunari Kawabatas Thousand Cranes - 1433 Words

Gandhi once was asked what he thought of western civilization, answering that â€Å"it would be a very good idea†, and in Yasunari Kawabata’s Thousand Cranes, Kawabata exposes the emerging movement from tradition to westernization in post-war Japan. Kawabata enriches his novel with a variety of intricate relationships between children and their parents, exposing how the loss of tradition begins at home. Ironically, Kawabata then depicts how even the teachers of tradition manipulate it with their hate and jealousy, tainting the new generation’s knowledge of tradition, and thus moving them away from it. This movement away from tradition allows the new generation to easily recognize and be influenced by Japan’s newfound westernization. Therefore, through parents, Chikako’s poison, and the new generation; Kawabata explores the decaying tradition of the tea ceremony, expounding the shift from tradition to westernization in post-war Japan. Children observe their parents, assess them carefully, and know their parents better than parents do their children, which explains why the power parents have towards influencing their children is limitless. In the novel, Kawabata exposes this power by linking the parents and their children together, revealing how as parents begin to lose their tradition, so do their children. The protagonist of the novel Kikuji states that â€Å"he had never been tempted to take up the [tea ceremony] himself, however...his father had never pressed him [to]† (KawabataShow MoreRelatedThe Bluest Eye And Yasunari Kawabata s Thousand Cranes1345 Words   |  6 Pagesused today and convey different meanings depending upon one’s cultural background. Hence, the significance of a symbol is not inherent in the symbol itself but is rather cultivated in society. Both Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Yasunari Kawabata’s Thousand Cranes explore the significance of such symbols, focus ing on the basal reader of Dick and Jane and the ritualized practice of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, respectively. These two symbols, while disparate on the surface, share fundamental similarities