When I Whistle (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Shūsaku Endō
- First Published: 1974
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The 1960’s
- Setting: Japan
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Culture, 1960’s, Parents and children, Education or educators, War, Fathers, Ethics, Business or business people, Generation gap, Japan or Japanese people
- Locales: Japan, Tokyo, Japan
Characters Discussed
Ozu, an aging Japanese businessman entering his senior years. Ozu is a humble clerk, preoccupied with memories of his youth and greatly troubled by his increasing fear of the different moral vision animating the youth of postwar Japan, as exemplified in the unadorned avarice and ambition of his son, Eiichi. Nostalgic for an older, more disciplined, and even militaristic Japan, he finds in the present a predatory industrial power immune to simple human compassion and idealism. His mental search recalls Nada Middle School and his impish friend Flatfish, who...
[The entire page is 833 words long]
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