The female character could represent a mistress for the husband. It seems as it’s those times where the women have no say in the relationship and the men controlling the woman. I think they had to listen and obey to their husband but were tired of it. In Oseki case she ran away to her parents and tried to explain to them the situation.
Fiction
Marxist in thirteenth night
The similarities between Isamu an Roku is that they are both hard workers and that they both fell in love with Oseki and the difference between them is that Roku like Oseki for who she is. Oseki learns about what happened to the restaurant that used to be there and also how hard of a worker Roku is. The significance of them meeting through the lens of Marxist theory is to show the difference between the two relationship and the way one treats her and the other.
Ichiyo
Ichiyo: Feminist Theory
In the story “The Thirteenth Night” by Higuchi Ichiyo, there is a undertone in the story that is tied to feminist ideals. The character in the story named Harada Oseki feels marginalized in her marriage and wants to divorce her abusive husband Isamu. She wishes that her husband would treat her with respect, but Isamu continues to verbally abuse and humiliate her. After she talked to her parents about wanting a divorce, she decided to stay with her husband because she felt like it was her duty to take care of her son and help her family. Oseki wanting to take control over her own life reminds me of the idea of feminism. She wanted to step into her own power and make her own decisions.
The story “The Thirteenth Night” by Higuchi Ichiyo takes place during the meiji period. The protagonist, Harada Oseki, is married to a wealthy civil servant named Isamu and has a son named Tora. Her and her family were from a lower class until she met Isamu. Marrying Isamu helped her and her family financially. Things weren’t going so well in her marriage because Isamu treated her badly. She decided that she wanted a divorce and went to her parents’ house in secret to talk about it. After she told her parents about wanting to get a divorce because of Isamu’s treatment towards her, Oseki’s mom supported what she wanted while her dad didn’t, “Your mother talks big, but remember; the fine salary your brother is making is all thanks to Isamu . . . Its trying for you, Oskei, I know. Think what your marriage means to us, though, and to Inosuke, and to Taro. If you’ve been able to put up with things this long, surely you can continue.” (Higuchi 1114). Oseki’s father wants Oseki to stay in the marriage because it will her good for her family, especially her brother. Leaving the marriage would put her family back into the lower class and her dad warns that they won’t be able to come back to this lifestyle if she divorces Isamu. After this converstion, she decides that she should stay with Isamu because she thinks it would be best for her family, and she loves Taro too much to leave him too. When Oseki gets a rickshaw to take her back to her house, Oseki realized the rickshaw was being pulled by her childhood friend and past lover Kosaka Roku. Roku starts talking to Oseki about his past until Oseki gets to her destination. They both part ways and go back to lives.
During the meiji period, woman was expected to get married, have children, and do housework. Women didn’t have much power during this time because they were expected to be dependent on their husbands and weren’t given many decisions to make for themselves. According to the article Women in Meiji Japan: Exploring the Underclass of Japanese Industrialization by Saarang Narayan, a new civil code in 1898 formally reinforced the subordinate status of women in society, confining women to the household. Married women now had no economic independence or the right to take independent legal action. A small number of women started a movement because of the new civil code, according to the article Feminism in Japan by Barbara Molony. They were able to do this by talking with other women in transnational organizations because they couldn’t talk about it at home. They didn’t like that their legal status was different than men, they wanted to put a stop to sex trafficking, and marital inequality.
The meiji had a lot of social, political, and economical changes. Before the meiji period started in Japan, there was the edo period. Women during the edo period were encouraged to supervise their children’s education and take control of the household because their husbands were no longer in wars and became government officials, according to the article Samurai Women. Women’s social status depended on their husband’s, and they had to take care of business in the household. They were also expected to continue her husband’s line by having children and it was her duty to protect her family’s honor. When a family would open a business in town, townsman class women worked to take control over their own future. Many worked beside their husbands and fathers or went to school. Women were expected to help men. When the meiji period started, women were the workforce behind the Japanese industrial working class. They were paid under minimum wage, and it wasn’t consistent. They also had to work up to 12-14 hours a day. Men were being paid higher while women were being paid less. Due to the civil code created in 1898, women were forced to only focus on housework and no longer had independent legal action.
Oseki symbolizes a woman in the patriarchal system, the husband symbolizes the patriarchal system, and the parents uphold the patriarchal system. Oseki wanting to break free from her abusive husband and lead her own life, made me see that there were undertones of feminism in the story. She wanted to break free from the patriarchy, but she didn’t want to disappointment her parents that uphold the patriarchal system without even realizing it. They both understand Oseki’s frustrations about the marriage and think it is reasonable for her feel that way, but Oseki’s father think it’s best for her to stay in that situation so she can continue her roles as a married woman. She must do what is best for the family.
In sum, while I was reading “The Thirteenth Night” by Higuchi Ichiyo, I felt that the story had undertones of feminism in it. Oseki decided to divorce her husband because she was tired of the treatment and wanted freedom reminded me of feminism in a way. She wanted to take control over herself, and I don’t think she realized she was stepping into her own power. I think it was brave of her to talk about the hardships in her marriage and explain why she can no longer be with her husband to her parents. This story helped me learn about feminism in Japan and think deeper about how to describe feminism in Japan without the western definition.
Parents
In my opinion kids should know the truth until their old enough to understand certain things. They shouldn’t know the full truth either. I feel like parents should lie to their kids and tell them nice things. This is because everyone doesn’t always wanna hear bad things they also want to hear nice things so they can feel better about themselves. If parents tell their kids the truth but they should say in a nice way not in a brutal way that makes their kids feel like you don’t love them. Adults can teas kids but as long as the kids know how their family member is and knows that their all joking around and is comfortable within the environment their in. There’s certain occasions where the truth has to be told and there’s other occasions where its right to just shield their kids.
Happy Endings
What made me choose this particular story is how it grabbed me in interest . When pressing it sounded mysterious and was interested. When I started reading it was as if it connected to me in some way. What factors that helped me choose was the title . Like I always wanted to know how the happy ending happens and if there is a happy ending.
What I think that Margaret was trying tell is that no matter what happens at the end of the day you will die and that’s how will it end. Like in the short story in all parts of the reading they die in the end but in their own ways. Each of them ended in different way like one killer his partner and himself , in another Mary died overdosing. But in the end was Margo left but her Fred didn’t make it no died as well. This tells us that at the end it’s either one dies or they both die .
What I think about this argument is that it is important to know why it happened. Is it because you did something wrong or how did it start that it turned into an argument. It is important to know how it happened then to know what happened because at least you know how it started and how it can get fixed. Even if you know what happened but you won’t know how it started .
Alternate Ending
“But above all,” she wrote, “night and day, I thank the good God for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery.” Armand’s hands shake violently as he crumples the letter and slams his fist on to the cabinet. Sweating and pale Armand walks toward the fire while bumping into the workers adding to the fire. His eyes were lifeless as he steps closer and closer to the fire the embers almost singeing the hair on his eye brows. He reaches his hand out and tosses the letter in letting the fire burn his finger. The workers continue on…
Armand showed that he would shun his wife and kids over this, I decided to make Armand even more selfish where in this tragedy he sees opportunity to keep his pride and social standing since the problem dealt with itself and the evidence is in the pyre. Good luck to him if he tries to have kids again.
Chopin Street Cred
Being upset at Kate Chopin being a white woman writing about racism is understandable, I think there’s a place for all perspectives in literature. This isn’t like an influencer post on Instagram. Even if the race of the writer has nothing to do with the topic I think it’s okay for them to write about it as long as you check their background and decide whether you like what you’re reading or not. I think because of her family history and marital status it makes her perspective and interesting one.
Feminism and Ichiyo
Higuchi Ichiyo’s writing depicts woman seemingly accurate to her time period, women the time were seen as nothing but objects and caretakers. Women were there to support the man as he is the head of the household Higuchi Ichiyo shined a light on the reality on how women were treated and out of necessity choose to stay with their husbands no matter how bad the environment is. In ” The Thirteenth Night” Oseki is seen as a doting housewife who is supported by her husband but she is verbally abused constantly. She is ready to leave him but after one talk with her father she was convinced to stay with her husband for her kid and her family who were benefiting from Oseki’s marriage to Isamu. Even after she saw a glimmer of hope when meeting someone from her past Roku who she desired to run away with but resisted for the sake of her duties as a wife, mother and daughter.
Marxism Blues
In “The Thirteenth Night” Isamu (the husband of Oseki) is of a higher economical class than Roku which is what led to her being pressured to marrying Isamu. After meeting Roku she reminisces of their past relationship and thinks of a different life she could of had if she had married Roku instead while he tells her about all the trials he’s been going through since they last saw each other. In the lens of Marxist theory it could be said that the story shows how Oseki and Roku while being in different economic classes they are going through the same problems and struggles despite the class difference.
Unfair Gov’t
In “The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire” and “This is What it Means …” the examples of government portrayed are unjust and oppressive. They take advantage of Thomas’ need to tell stories against him and get him to indict himself in the trial. Constantly leading him on to continue telling tales. “Mr. Builds-the-Fire, you do admit, willingly, that you murdered two soldiers in cold blood and with premeditation?” said the cross examiner, and that was enough to get him to admit to a crime he did not commit which shows just how oppressive the government toward anything they don’t like. They didn’t need any evidence to put Thomas behind bars, just the words of a storyteller.
