ipl-logo

Character Analysis Of Yukio Mishima's 'Swaddling Clothes'

908 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Concept of american dream in american literature

When the writer Jackson H. Brown said “ 20 years from now one will be more disappointed by the things one did not do than by the things one did do,” he showcases how missed opportunities lead to regret in the future. Similarly, the author Yukio Mishima depicts how people cope with this remorse. In his short story “ Swaddling Clothes”, Mishima explores a guilty conscience by defining the dream sequence of the protagonist, who learns to deal with her corrupt marriage, unleash her hidden voice, and question ascribed status. Toshiko’s unfulfilling marriage causes her to feel isolated and alone. At first, her empty relationship drives Toshiko to bottle up her emotions, but when she discovers independence, all feelings of stress and anxiety are …show more content…

In “ Swaddling Clothes”, Toshiko and her husband are gifted with wealth and luxury, while the nanny and her child live in poverty. This inequality causes Toshiko to feel ashamed of her privileges, as a response, she dreams of sacrificing her life and ranking. When Toshiko is in the cab, she worries about the future of the child as “ [he will] never become a respectable citizen ... [not with] soiled newspapers... [as a] symbol of his entire life,”(67). Mishima symbolizes the unjust birth of the newborn using “soiled newspapers” as the baby is born into lower class, and in Toshiko’s mind, he will remain there for the rest of his life. Toshiko becomes the scapegoat in her dream, when she lets “[his] powerful hand seize [her as she makes] no effort to free herself,”(68). Toshiko puts herself in danger when she approaches the man; she puts herself in harm when she does not fight his grasp. In brief, Toshiko is offering her power to the homeless man as she gives him her control and privilege. Toshiko’s efforts to bind the gap between the homeless man and herself result in an ambiguous ending, but The Guardian’s article “ Is the American Dream Really Dead?” proves that in America, social immobility prevents the poor from succeeding. A major contributor to this is the “ lack of hope in the US” as “ poor people in the US are less likely to believe hard-work will get them ahead,”(The Guardians). Attitude and ascribed status cause social inequality to remain

Show More
Related

Summary Of 35 Soul-Crushing Facts About Economic Inequality

775 Words | 4 Pages

Economic inequality is the uneven distribution of wealth and differences in economic security found in each individual in a specific country or region. Today, the topic is being discussed profusely by the American presidential candidates and by many writers around the world because of the beliefs of whether there should or should not be wealth redistribution policies put into action. Larry Schwartz, the author of “35 Soul-Crushing Facts about American Income Inequality”, makes a valid claim that economic inequality is the foundation of the problems that the entire American population face such as poverty and a hindrance of economic growth. To begin with, Schwartz has an exceptional argument that the high rate of economic inequality, like is

Read More

Summary Of The Working Poor Invisible In America

1691 Words | 7 Pages

David K. Shipler’s The Working Poor: Invisible in America describes the low-income Americans face. He notes that they are both impacted by the social, political and economic environment in which they live and a cause of their own poverty. Shipler makes his point through conversations with the working poor, their employers and those who are trying to help them break the cycle of poverty. He successfully argues that the solution to the problems faced by this group is that everyone needs to work together, government, private organizations and the working poor themselves, to change what is wrong with the system. But while his point is valid, the book, which claims to be objective in terms of its politics is not, and Shipler’s “us” versus “them”

Read More

David K. Shipler's The Working Poor: Invisible In America

1705 Words | 7 Pages

Critical Review The Working Poor: Invisible in America David K. Shipler is a book that could be most accurately described as eye-opening. Shipler opens up the book on his claim that “nobody who works hard should be poor in America.” America is built upon the idea that the harder one works, the better off one will be. Shipler then goes on to explain how the poor, often times, work the hardest jobs and are put into the worse conditions, but still do not grow to become the most successful. Using their lives as examples, Shipler illustrates the struggles the working poor face while attempting to escape poverty.

Read More

Rethinking American Poverty Summary

316 Words | 2 Pages

I. Rank R., Mark.2011. “Rethinking American Poverty.” Context 10(2):16-21. II. Misconceptions the public has about poverty mostly who is responsible for preventing it.

Read More

Steve Boss Analysis

1499 Words | 6 Pages

(2016) cites several authors in what they define myths surrounding social class, such as, the concept of the United States modeling a collective social class and all individuals partaking in education, will have a level playing field to be successful (Ortner, 1998; Ostrove & Cole, 2003; Yeskel, 2008; Zandy, 1996). Yeskel (n.d.) points out barriers exists denying accessibility to individual with less privilege, (as cited in Patton, et al. 2016, p.246). For example, the myth of “if you work hard, you will be successful”, fostering the idea that only individuals who put in the effort are seen as determined, and those that fall less, are lazy (Patton, et al. 2016). Moi, (1991); Swartz, (1977) examine, education does not fall far from that ideology, Bourdieu’s Theory of Social Reproduction stem from the idea that education creates inequality and maintains hierarchies. Moi (1991) states,

Read More

Gilded Age DBQ

615 Words | 3 Pages

As big business owners like Rockefeller and Carnegie kept getting richer, the people that worked in the factories kept falling further into poverty. A lot of these people were immigrant factory workers, usually working in a factory owned by some business giant. And, the rich blamed the poor for being in poverty “The opportunity to get rich, to attain great wealth is here... You have no right to be poor, it is your duty to be rich... Let us remember, there is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own shortcomings...”

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of Kabul Beauty School '

543 Words | 3 Pages

William Faulkner was an American author and Nobel prize winner of 1950; in his acceptance speech, he presented the idea that it is a writer’s duty to write about the compassion, courage, and pride of the heart. Faulkner says, “It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past.” In the memoir, Kabul Beauty School, a young American woman named Deborah wrote her truth about how she traveled to Afghanistan to support the women of Kabul, but she takes an unexpected turn and her heart leads her to help them in a totally different way. Deborah shows compassion, courage, pity and sacrifice through the women in Kabul. Deborah fulfills her duty through her compelling words and delineate observations of the people she is newly experiencing.

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of Speech By Florence Kelley

1243 Words | 5 Pages

The early 1900s was a time of great strikes over fierce nationalism, social activism, and protest. Florence Kelley, a United States social worker and reformer, spoke out against child labor and the horrible conditions that children were required to bear in order to feed their families. Her speech, delivered before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905, successfully improved conditions for working children. The language Kelley uses in this speech establishes herself as a leader who has the same values and goals as her audience, but also creates a sense of culpability and sympathy from the many mothers and women in the convention in order to gain their support in her cause.

Read More

'White Economic Privilege Is Alive And Well'

555 Words | 3 Pages

Poverty is a genuine issue in some parts of the world and social classes do influence poverty. However, Compos believes the old saying “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” In the article "White Economic Privileged Is Alive and Well" by Paul

Read More

David K. Shipler's The Working Poor

432 Words | 2 Pages

It's not just about working hard how the old American myth states. The other side would say that it's society's fault for so many people being poor in America. It's all really personal responsibility. In The working poor by David K Shipler goes over the traits on must have to be successful in America.

Read More

Quilts In Alice Walker's Everyday Use

1202 Words | 5 Pages

The quilts in “Everyday Use” may seem to show a heated argument about possessions between a household, but they actually show a deep cultural and racial divide and the difference in values between generations of the same family. These rifts are shown by the way each member of the family reacts to discussions of how these quilts would best be used, and the attitude each takes on the value of them. When Wangero comes to visit, she asks her mother if she can have two quilts that had been made by her grandmother and Mrs. Johnson tries to offer her machine-made quilts. Wangero does not want these quilts, indicating that she would rather have the hand-stitched quilts of her grandmother.

Read More

Whitcher Income Inequality

229 Words | 1 Pages

Income inequality is still a problem in America, but there are ways to fight against it. Job disadvantages and food drives both prove that income inequality still exists in America. According

Read More

Income Inequality In America Research Paper

289 Words | 2 Pages

Statistically, the American Dream is perishing due to the rise of income inequality and the slowing of economic growth. Income inequality is a dominant problem in the United States. The top 1% of the United States occupies 20% of all the country's income, while the bottom 50% only obtains 12%. Since 1980, the average annual income of the top 1% has substantially increased from $344,000 to over one million dollars.

Read More

1984 George Orwell Income Inequality Analysis

475 Words | 2 Pages

The middle class want to become rich and the low class only wants equality.” Orwell’s predictions of the party, the government in modern society, rises to power and the poor stay poor. In LA Times “Income Inequality makes the rich more scrooge-like, study finds”, “Since the 1980’s -- the end of a 30-year period… wealth has grown increasingly concentrated at the top of the economic ladder, while low-income Americans have commanded a smaller and smaller share of the nation’s wealth.” *add where quote is from* ”... top 5 percent of American families saw their real income increase 74.9 percent… the lowest-income fifth saw a decrease in real income of 12.1 percent… Sharply contrasting with the 1947-79 period… with the lowest income group actually seeing the largest gains.”

Read More

Compare And Contrast Hills Like White Elephant And The Story Of An Hour

1004 Words | 5 Pages

In both The Story of an Hour and Hills Like White Elephants, the authors Kate Chopin and Ernest Hemingway describe women and the desire to express themselves and be free and how men influence their decision making. Women strive for a sense of freedom and independence and have the yearning to convey themselves freely. In Kate Chopin’s and Ernest Hemmingway’s stories, the authors suggest the two female main characters in their stories feel suppressed for liberty. Louise Mallard in The Story of an Hour is sick and very lonely. She is

Read More

More about Character Analysis Of Yukio Mishima's 'Swaddling Clothes'

Related Topics

Open Document