ENGLISH 339-E Prof. Cora Agatucci Literary Genres

Seminar #5 Summaries: A Pale View of Hills ~ 7 May 2003 Seminar #5 Leaders:  Ca. D., J.V.- Spring 2003 URL of this webpage: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/eng339/seminar5.htm Seminar #5 Participants:  C.A., T.C, C.D., C.D., T.E., A.K., A.L., L.L., L.S., J.V. Seminar #5 Summaries:  (a) Ch. D. | (b) L. L. Added contribution by T.C.

Seminar #5 Summary a by Ch. D. Seminar #5 Summary: A Pale View of Hills A Pale View of Hills leaves the reader with many unanswered questions.  There is confusion about the relationship between Etsuko and Sachiko and Keiko and Mariko.  Are they the same characters, just portrayed in different ways?  For example, on page 173, Etsuko refers to Mariko as if Mariko is her daughter.  Also, could the narrator be using them as a reflection, shadow, or substitute of the other characters? The mother/daughter relationship is an important theme.  There is the relationship between Sachiko and Mariko, between Etsuko and Keiko, and between Etsuko and Nikki. Another significant issue in this novel is the conflict between cultures and between generations.  There is obvious conflict between traditional Japanese culture and modern Western culture.  With this conflict occurs changing values.  This conflict is also demonstrated in the father/son relationship between Ogata-san and Jiro.  Ogata-san is of the traditional Japanese culture while Jiro and his friends, especially Shigeo, are more modern and more critical of the traditional ways.  It was pointed out that Ogata-san and Etsuko get along well with one another.  Then, is Etsuko more traditional than modern?  Near the end of the novel, Etsuko tells Nikki that: “It’s not a bad thing at all, the old Japanese way” (p. 181). The mother/child relationship is recurring-- especially through certain images such as that of the woman drowning her child.  It was noted that Etsuko looks at things indirectly.  Perhaps her coping strategy is to work by indirection.  Her guilt may be projected through Sachiko’s character.  The quote on memory on page 156 also illustrates this. The wasteland environment reflects things turned upside down, things gone awry, and the murdering of children.  The wasteland has negative and dark connotations. There was a question that why isn’t Etsuko really Sachiko since she doesn’t tell her complete story?  It is important to consider what Etsuko doesn’t tell the reader. Who is Etsuko actually telling the story to?  Etsuko is an unreliable narrator in a literary sense.  Her narration is by indirection and similar to Lady Chatterjee’s free-association testimony in Jewel in the Crown. Images are important to this novel.  Dreams and their association converge to provide meaning.  For instance, Etsuko’s dream of the girl on the swing, the image of the girl found hanging in a tree, and Keiko’s suicide through hanging, and Mariko climbing trees.  These elements converge to help the reader form an understanding of what is occurring in the novel. The symbol of water is prevalent—rain, the river, bridges and crossings, and the standing water in the wasteland.  It was mentioned that water represents death and transitions.  The symbol is one of paradoxical joining.  A Pale View of Hills provides a different way to look at history’s impact on individuals' lives through a single narrator.

Seminar #5 Summary b by L.L. Seminar 5 led to a large discussion on A Pale View of Hills. Jan felt that he was still confused about the book, and he questioned the relationships between Etsuko and Sachiko and Keiko and Mariko.  It seemed to him that they are the same, that the narrator used Sachiko and Mariko as Etsuko’s reflection, or Shadow.  I am also inclined to believe this, but there are too many possibilities to make a valid choice.  Adam felt that Etsuko was with Keiko, not Mariko, on the cable cars. Carly also felt that Etsuko was telling her story through the medium of Satchiko Other questions that Jan raised are: Why Etsuko is sometimes talking about herself?  Is she embarrassed because of something that she did?  Is it because her daughter committed suicide?  Is it because of the conflict between traditional and Modern Japanese wives? Cora mentioned that Ogata-san was teaching strict militaristic ways in the schools of Nagasaki. And that it was significant that the article in the magazine not only was disrespectful to Ogata-san, but it also went against the traditional customs of younger generations respecting their elders. Jan pointed out that “conflict between Ogata and son” was due to the fact that that son was saying that the war was also Japan’s fault. Cora pointed out the things that are not revealed in the book, and brings up the questions:  Why does she show the child being drowned directly after the Bomb?  Why did she discuss the child murders?  What it does to Mariko, and why does Mariko become obsessed with the woman that she saw murdering the baby. Lydia shared that everything that Etsuko remembers really only pertains to things that represented her daughter’s suicide Amber felt that Etsuko was a guilt-wrapped mother, and this book also represented survivor guilt, these people that lived through the bomb, surviving their families. Lydia felt that Etsuko was dealing with her own problems by relating the problems of others, whereas Tanya, and so do I, disagreed, bringing up the question of: Why doesn’t Etsuko tell the whole story?  And why is Mariko afraid of the rope? Cora shared with us that we needed to distance ourselves from the book, and look at the association links.  A lot of different parts are deliberately there to confuse us.  She also discussed that Ishiguro is playing with an unreliable narrator, and we are seeing only what Etsuko is remembering, or choosing to remember. Also, how reliable of a narrator was Etsuko?  She had a psychological breakdown before, she’s definitely facing psychological guilt now. Amber pointed out that some authors want people to have a different interpretation Jan felt that the symbol of water, the river, the ocean, the rain, the drowning, was all polluted, and represented bad things.  Cora also said that water is a good thing that’s been polluted, the senseless madness, random violence, and killing of the children.  Adam wondered the significance of Sachiko continuously telling Etsuko to ask her anything about herself, then giving no information when she did.

ENGL 339 Spring 2003 Seminar Summaries completed thus far: Seminar #1 ~ What Is Historical Fiction? URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/eng339/Seminar1.htm Seminar #2 ~ Jewel in the Crown, Parts One, Two & Three URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/eng339/Seminar2.htm Seminar #3 ~ Jewel in the Crown, Parts Five & Seven URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/eng339/Seminar3.htm Seminar #4 ~ To Live, with Prof. Patricia O'Neill URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/eng339/Seminar4.htm