Mishima’s The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea is a complex allegorical novel that can be seen to effectively reflect both the concerns of its author and also the historical period in which it was written. In particular, it is possible to note that novel should be taken as an allegory for the Japanese mentality immediately following the second world war as well as presenting the potential to reflect upon these events. This paper will consider the various forms of the novel’s meaning by considering that this allegorical content focuses on the behaviour of its protagonist. By examining this behaviour in relation to the gang of which he is a member, the paper will argue that Mishima present a situation in which an individual is shown to come heavily under the influence of gang violence but in which they are nonetheless unable to fully subsume either themselves or their desires within it.
Arguably the first moment of violence that can be thought in this way occurs at the moment in the novel in which the protagonist and the boys in the gang murder and torture a cat. They do this in order to see life without the illusion of what they understand to be the adult world. Throughout the descriptions that Mishima offers of the event, he makes it clear that he intends it to be responded to as both an individual and as a group attack. He writes, for example, that when the cat is being swung helplessly through the air that; ‘Scattered through the gloom in the shed, the five naked boys stood rooted, their eye glittering’ (1966, p. 48). The violence that the protagonist conducts against the cat is therefore seen to be clearly conducted against the backdrop of the gang and would not have occurred without it. Indeed, it is the fact that he has an audience for his behaviour that leads to him feeling the power that he does. Mishima writes; ‘A resplendent power was surging through him to the tips of his fingers and had only to life the dazzling arc seared into the air by this power and hurl it again and again at the log’ (p.48). In this description, the author draws attention to two basic aspects of Noboru’s experience of the violence that the is inflicting. The first of these is that it takes place within the context of an audience and the second is that the motion itself is dull and repetitive and carried out by only one person. Both of these aspects combine to show how a gang presence can create and guide forces of violence but that this violence is not entirely reducible to them.
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"“The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea” and Gang Violence".
Later in the novel, similar events occur that again show how both the individual and the gang are necessary in order for the violence described to come into being. This can be seen to be especially the case if one considers the passage concerning the murder of Riuji. As well as this, however, Mishima also draws attention explicitly to the ways in which Noboru’s individuality can, occasionally, be seen to triumph over group mentality. When describing Noobru’s relationship to the chief with regard to an illness that is affecting many of the members of the gang, Mishima writes that; ‘Noboru was vexes at his immunity from the germs that infected others, but at the same time, he trembled at the fragility of his good fortune’ (p. 110). Immediately after this realisation that his own individuality remains within the gang, he begins to stretch out against forces that would constrict him. Mishima writes that Noboru instantly begins to realise that; ‘His innocence had sent an intricate net of feelers snaking towards the world,’ but he then asks himself ‘when would they be snapped?’ (p. 110) Nobru considers himself to be both an individual over and above those around him, but also to be intensely vulnerable as a result of this. Indeed, each of his actions can be seen to straddle this understanding of individuality the capacity for it to relapse into barbarism and violence.
Both of these ideas can be seen to be present in the way in which Misihima presents the formation of the gang and how it relates to Noboru’s sense of self. He writes that at thirteen his protagonist ‘was convinced of his own genius…each of the others in the gang felt the same way (p. 20).’ It could be argued, therefore that Noboru’s personality pushes him towards the gang in which he conducts his violent acts and that, therefore, his own mental state should be seen being the dominant factor in the actions. Despite this, however, it remains the case that, as seen, he would not have been able to carry out his actions were it not for the audience and the affirmation that he receives from the gang for whom he performs them. It is this dual nature of violence that gives the novel its allegorical quality, as Mishima shows that it is not possible to conceive of a war occurring without the involvement of both individuals and also of groups.
In conclusion, this paper has argued that The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea should be seen primarily to show how acts of violence may come into being. It is possible to see this by considering the way in which Noboru’s actions relate to their group setting. If this is done one can see that the group conditions his action to a large extent but never completely determines it. In this sense, therefore, the involvement of the gang should be seen to be an important part of the violence but not a total explanation for it.
