The Silent Cry (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Kenzaburō Ōe
- First Published: 1967
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: The early 1960’s
- Setting: The Okubo village in Shikoku, Japan; and Tokyo
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction
- Subjects: 1960’s, Family or family life, Suicide, Blindness or blind persons, Villages, Incest, Brothers, Riots, Existentialism, Japan or Japanese people, Peasantry or peasants, Tokyo
- Locales: Tokyo, Japan, Shikoku, Japan
Characters Discussed
Mitsusaburo (Mitsu) Nedokoro, a young academic aristocrat. A stoic man, he is depressed by two events: the suicide of a friend and the birth of his first child, who is mentally retarded. He notes the details of his wife’s depression and her consumption of alcohol, but he feels powerless to change their situation. After the return to Japan of Taka, his younger brother, he consents to a return to their native village to begin life anew. There they are both swept up in research on a peasant revolt in 1860, led by an ancestor. They are also overwhelmed by an...
[The entire page is 585 words long]
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