Through the interactive orals, I have come to appreciate the purpose of the book, Wonderful Fool. At first, I considered Endo’s work to be a journey of a Christ-like character whose foolishness and love for others inspires them to be better. What I didn’t recognize was the huge element of a cultural clash in the novel. It was pointed out to me during Jonathan’s presentation that Gaston, who represents France and in general a westernized world, comes into a now economically thriving post WW2 Japan that still has a high mistrust of foreigners. As a result of this, Gaston often comes off as offensive to the Japanese culture, but only because of his ignorance. Later on the concept of ignorance and mistrust becomes a really big part of the book,