Kenzaburo Oe and the Sheridan Baker Thesis Machine - Essay Example

The sexual escapades with her make him realize his freedom and peace. Thus, the author deploys sex as a tool in changing a person’s life as can be evidenced from how the sexual encounter with Himiko, renders Bird a sense of dominance over females, and overcoming his impotence, he comes of age, attaining freedom and recognizing his responsibilities. Bird’s character is childish and he is emotionally immature. He is just like a bird which flies away and the difference is he fled from the responsibilities of his life.

The main conflict in the novel is that he is involved with the responsibilities of a child that his wife has given birth to. The child is malformed and the doctors believe that the child has a problem in the brain and the child does not have a human appearance. Bird is indifferent to the child and his feelings towards the child changes when he comes to know that the child would not live longer. He does not want to waste his money on unsuccessful operations. The novel opens with Bird’s dream of escaping to Africa in order to get away from the ties of the domestic life.

He avoids his responsibilities, indulging in alcohol. He seems to have been dominated by his wife and mother in law, and this is one reason for the dent in his character. Like a bird, he keeps flying away from the realities of life and lives in an Utopian world, ignoring his responsibilities. This shows how still he thinks he is a boy and immature even if he is twenty seven years old. He is a selfish character and is caught up in his own misery and he feels like he is stuck up in his earlier childhood days.

He is married but he does not show the maturity of an adult. He thinks that he is still in his teenage and maintains his relation with his old girl friend Himiko. He often engages in sexual relations with his girl friend, but even this relation is a means to escape In the beginning of