Symbolism In Kawabata Yasunari's 'The Mole'

Symbolism

Mole

The mole symbolizes the deformity of Sayoko that makes her the object of other 's pity and disgust. It also symbolizes physical flaws and weakness. In the part of Sayoko, the mole signifies pleasant things about her childhood days. Lastly, the mole signifies of what destiny could a person has.

Figures of Speech used in the story

Irony

Like how Sayoko 's husband had stopped Sayoko to her bad habit, he had this statement that he let Sayoko play with her mole and it would be sending out shoots on the following days. "It 's already bigger than a bean. Go on playing with it and it will be sending out shoots one of these days" - Sayoko 's husband said to Sayoko.

Hyperbole

Sayoko 's mole was exaggeratedly compared to a bean

Like in his story of "The Mole", mole played an important role in the story because of it, Sayoko 's life became different with others. The mole according in the story symbolizes the "deformity" of Sayoko which was in the first place, was accepted by her husband but as time goes by, it was not. Sayoko 's marriage was also affected by this mole, and through this, we could see how Sayoko 's mole made an impact to her life. The author messages us that every person has this fear to loosen up and show who really they are and what they are feeling. Like Sayoko, she always follow her husband, she always doing the things what her husband wants and letting herself to hide what she really wants. In this story, we could analyse that Yasunari messages us that a girl is very fragile, that every girl is very weak to show her emotions and afraid to fight what she wants. During the times when Sayoko was abused by her husband, she did not fight to him, rather she let him to abuse her. She had let her husband kick and beat her because she cannot fight back to him well maybe she loved him that much. But as we continue to read the letter of Sayoko, we could see in the end part of the story, Sayoko had regret the day that she let her husband abuse her, and in that part we could analyse that every person gets blind and numb when they are in love and they are so very weak and soft-hearted. Also when

It played an important part in Sayoko 's life because it might be the reason why her husband left her. It also played an important role in Sayoko 's marriage life, because of it she had knew her husband very well, she had knew what his real character. Yasunari 's story "The mole" is in the form of a letter where there is no audience which shows how Sayoko was afraid to express her inner feelings. She just said what she had felt but she did not intent to tell it directly to the person whom she want to tell about it. Sayoko was really that weak to voice out her feelings. Sayoko 's way of touching her mole with the use of her left hand shows that she is guarding and protecting herself from her abusive husband. Sayoko 's husband is an image of a common problem about marriage failure today. Sayoko was beat and kick by her husband but she did fight, her weakness made her abuse more by her husband. Base on what I had interpret in the story, there was a lack of acceptance and lack of love happened in the marriage of Sayoko and her husband. Because if Sayoko 's husband really love her, he would not mind even if Sayoko will play her mole in front of him because he loves her, but in the case of them, Sayoko 's husband did not really love her and Sayoko was blinded by the hope that her husband would change. As I interpret the story, the mole served as the memory of Sayoko to her mother and sisters. It