Samurai's Garden Character Analysis

In the book Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama, many diseases present themselves and show the reader how they affect each character. Tuberculosis, leprosy, and many mental diseases take a toll on almost every character. One of the main characters, Stephen, suffers from tuberculosis and another main character, Sachi, suffers from leprosy. Along with leprosy, she suffers from depression and self-confidence issues. When one suffers from any outward image altering disease, suicide often offers itself as honorable or a way of freeing their family of the disease or other sins. Multiple characters fall under the pressure of suicide because of their cultural views, and suicide also contributes to the mental diseases within the book. All the diseases that Tsukiyama mentions in the book still affect Japan and China today. The diseases mentioned in the

The toll each disease takes on the characters differ, although the emotional damage shows throughout all of them. Suicide presents itself often and is seen as a way to rid their family of the disease and bring honor back to their name. The social stigma of suicide and its benefits to society show through each character's cultural values. The social stigmas on leprosy still appear in China and Japan today and emotionally damage it’s victims nearly the same as the characters in the book. The characters, as well as people in China and Japan today, still suffer from tuberculosis and leprosy. Their physical damage shows through the symptoms they experience. The emotional damage of the mental diseases shows through the discrimination, the fear and the silence each character experiences as well. The lives of the characters change negatively through these diseases, but the new lives they are forced to seek provide them with more love and support than they ever received