Prize Stock (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Kenzaburō Ōe
- First Published: 1958
- Type of Plot: War
- Time of Work: Summer, 1945
- Setting: A mountain village in Japan
- Principal Characters: “Frog, “Harelip, His younger brother, His father, The black American soldier, “Clerk
- Genres: Short fiction
- Subjects: African Americans, Twentieth century, 1940’s, Prejudices or antipathies, World War II, Villages, Asia or Asians, Death or dying, Soldiers, Boys, Japan or Japanese people, Prisoners of war
- Locales: Japan
The Story
“Prize Stock,” for which Kenzaburō Ōe received Japan's prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1958 while he was still in college, tells the tragic tale of a downed black American soldier in the last summer months before Japan's unconditional surrender ending World War II in September, 1945. The black soldier at first terrifies, then mystifies, and ultimately befriends the Japanese villagers who are told to hold him captive. When orders arrive that he is to be transferred, a tragic misunderstanding leads to his death.
The story begins at dusk when the narrator...
[The entire page is 1488 words long]
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