Swaddling Clothes Essay

532 Words3 Pages
Swaddling Clothes, by Mishima is a short story about a woman named Toshiko who longs for something that is real while she takes a walk through Chidorigafuchi. This is where Mishima’s subtext, such as contrasting colours, clothes, and places are used to make his ultimate point about Japan: Traditional Japan has faded and had been reborn as a modern nation and generation. Toshiko represents traditional Japan. Mishima describes her as a transparent picture and her husband as a flamboyant man wearing an American style suit, smoking a cigarette. Toshiko’s transparency symbolizes Traditional Japan’s dying nature; how it is slowly fading away. Her husband, an actor, represents westernization with his American style suit, cigarette, and disregard for the bastard child that was born in his home. He represents the artificial Japanese people that have fallen into this trap. Mishima uses the settings as well. We see Toshiko and her husband in a night club while a jazz band is playing. Her husband then calls a taxi for her and as she drives by bars and a theater, she notices the fake, paper, cherry blossoms decorating the front of the theater. All of these things are symbols of Modernization and American influence. She then comes upon the “famous rows of real cherry blossoms in all their purity”. (179) It is located in front of the British embassy which is within walking distance of the Chidorigafuchi. Here, Mishima is asking the question: How can something totally unrelated to Japan (the embassy) be associated with things that hold so much meaning to Japan? (The real cherry blossoms, the Chidorigafuchi, and the Imperial Palace) Finally, there’s the use of colours, light, and dark. For example, the electric light bulbs of red, yellow, and green. Red and yellow are the colours of the emperor’s flag and green is the colour of surrender. Therefore, it symbolizes the
Open Document