No Longer Human (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Shūji Tsushima
- First Published: 1948
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Autobiographical
- Time of Work: The 1910’s to 1930
- Setting: An unnamed village in northern Japan, and Tokyo
- Genres: Long fiction, Autobiographical fiction
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Suicide, Art or artists, 1910’s, 1920’s, 1930’s, Substance abuse, Drug addiction or addicts, Japan or Japanese people, Tokyo
- Locales: Tokyo, Japan
Characters Discussed
Yozo, the narrator and the only developed character in this semiautobiographical novel, the morbidly insecure son of a cold landowner and Diet member from northern Japan. Although he is a “brain” who did well in school with little effort, he felt isolated, uncomprehending of others’ behavior and convinced that he was “not qualified as a human being” (this phrase is a literal translation of the novel’s title). He had been sexually abused by servants; out of fear, he acted the clown as a schoolboy. Sent to college in Tokyo, he neglects his...
[The entire page is 908 words long]
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