Alter Ego With Imagery of Death by e: Semi-Autobiographical Representation - Essay Example

Bird: Kenzaburo Ōe’s Alter Ego According to Freud, whenever a situation threatens our morals or reality and could cause us to behave inappropriately,we will become anxious. One way to handle this anxiety is with some sort of defense mechanism. A Personal Matter written by Oe is a novel which discusses the character of the young father who had child born with physical deformities. When the doctors told Kenzaburo Ōe that his son faced a life with permanent and devastating disabilities, namely brain damage, Ōe was not able to handle this without an elaborate defense mechanism that he himself created. He considers the deformed baby as a threat to his dream of travelling around world especially Africa. He tries to escape his responsibilities but eventually ends up behaving like a husband and father. Oe uses his nickname Bird as a defense mechanism. Bird shows the contrast of his ongoing life with his desire to visit Africa and explore it. Bird seems less enthusiastic on the prospect of the birth of his baby as he considers the baby as a hindrance in his plan to visit Africa. Born in Japan in 1935, Kenzaburo Ōe spent his youth in a small fishing village on the Japanese island of Shikoku. His childhood bliss was shattered in 1945, according to Jacob Neufeld, William T. Y’Blood, and Mary Lee Jefferson, when the United States called for a surrender of Japan by strategically aiming bombs at 67 Japanese cities. When Japan refused to capitulate, the United Kingdom and the Republic of China joined the United States and called for Japan’s unconditional surrender through the Potsdam Declaration. Japan initially ignored this as well. On August 6th and 9th, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on 2 major Japanese cities. Deaths reached up to 166,000 in Hiroshima and approximately 80,000 in Nagasaki within the first four months. At least half of the deaths occurred on the day of each bombing. Whether the bombs of World War II physically encroached on Ōe’s family is unknown, but the war and aftermath had affected him tremendously. The values that had regulated life in the world he knew as a child, however fatally, were blown to smithereens after the war. Bird faces the moral dilemma which makes him indulge in alcohol and sexual activities. This also leads him to contact his former college sweetheart Himiko who encourages him to travel to Africa and destroy his child. His alter ego, however, was indulging in the decadences of life. In contrast to Ōe, 27-year-old Bird left his wife naked on a rubber mat to have his child while he shopped for maps of Africa, his dreamland getaway. He fantasized of an encounter with a transvestite, “Maybe I should have found the courage to go with him myself”. He played games in a teenage dive, and he fought a Japanese gang — and won. It took Bird far too long to learn of the birth of his child. His mother-in-law had to ask what the child’s gender was. Bird just wanted to know if the doctors could just keep the child at the first hospital, intending to just let the child with no name die. To make Bird a more loathsome fellow, the reader learns that he raped his girlfriend on their only previous tryst not even realizing she was a virgin. Bird then shows up to his mediocre instructor position hung-over and throwing up. A nerdy young student promptly runs up detecting the vomit’s smell of Jack Daniels, ands reports Bird to his authorities. This is a clear indication that Ōe’s subconscious was warning him to have fun, but not too much fun, because the costs of sin are many. The gods (Ōe) sufficiently punishes Bird by making certain his superiors fire him from his menial position. The possible reason for Oe to react in this particular manner could be that he received this news too soon after the loss of his father and grandmother who were instrumental in his upbringing. With their deaths it was too soon for him for Japan’s surrender in World War II. Even more probable was that Ōe had many other private and devastating losses too numerous to list here. For whatever psychological reasons, Ōe resorted to inventing an alter ego whereby he could secretly act out a fantasy life and thereby handle the first year of his son’s debilitating life. Jack De Bellis defined an alter ego as “a psychological term that refers to an artist’s creation of a character similar to himself”. Bird, the protagonist from Kenzaburo’s 1964 novel A Personal Matter, was Ōe’s alter ego replete with imagery of death, decay and bizarre sex. The character is a deep dark personal and semi-autobiographical representation of himself; a man coming to terms with the birth of his mentally disabled son. Bird was able to do all the sinful, reprehensible and mischievous things that Ōe so longed to do as he went about dutifully behaving as a proper husband and father. The doctors gave Yukari and Kenzaburo Ōe two choices: allow the baby to die naturally or perform an operation to remove the hernia. However, the operation would leave them with a child eternally dependent upon them for the rest of his life. They chose the latter and their son was permanently mentally impaired, non-communicate, and apparently, a doomed child. That is until he was six, and they discovered he had the ability to play the piano. Although Bird was in the alter ego phase of his life where he was enjoying all the possible sins but he stayed committed to his wife and child, which was most uncharacteristic of Japanese men at that time. To illustrate the rare commitment Ōe had to his child, Veigle quoted Cameron, “At this time scarred survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bathing in rivers because they were forbidden by law to enter public baths". Cameron added that even Ōe’s neighbors mocked him when he took his child in public and criticized him for not hiding his son away as was usually done with children with deformities. Veigle continued that Ōe took care of cooking and cleaning so his wife could attend to the physical needs of their son. Although Oe was living the fantasy life in form of Bird’s character but he wasn’t fully satisfied with his sinful acts and kept the tone which would lead the reader to believe that Bird is not worth appreciation. Ōe made approximately 150 references to (mostly small) animals in A Personal Matter, which confounded me greatly until I stumbled upon a critique from The Reading Life. Mel U inferred that Ōe wanted the reader to see Bird just as brain damaged as his son, Hiakri where his was by choice. Bird spent the greater part of his time thinking of alcohol, homosexuality, suicide, forbidden sexual encounters, and tiny animal creatures. Ōe wanted the reader to hate Bird. I found this reference pretty much true as Bird’s commitment to his wife and son was never overshadowed. He took care of his wife and child. He survived and faced the society where there were reservations against the people with deformities. He walked confidently with his child. He took the child out in public places. This shows his character that he was never really self-indulged or an evil man. When Ōe studied French Literature at the Tokyo University, one of his favorite poets was Guillaume Apollinaire. Frequently Ōe compared the deformed child later named Kikuhiko in A Personal Matter to the wounded and bandaged-headed Apollinaire. According to Liukkonen, besides writing poetry, Apollinaire wrote “semi-pornographic books; he was an innovator in the theatre of the absurd, and made known Cubism as a school of painting with his study PEINTRES CUBISTES (1913)”. Apollinaire volunteered for service in World War I where he was injured but not killed, thus the bandaged-head imagery. He died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. For some reason, it was important to Ōe that the readers correlate the baby in the novel, and by proxy his son Hikari with the bandaged war-hero Apollinaire. After committing a litany of unspeakable sins, including taking the baby to an abortionist to be murdered, Ōe expects the reader to absolve Bird from all transgressions overnight toward the end of the book. Simply because Bird finally decides not to kill his child, the reader is lead to believe that all is well; his father-in-law gives him his job back, his friend forgives him, his girlfriend conveniently leaves for Zanzibar (so that his nameless wife never discovers his escapades), his wife takes him back, and his baby’s severe brain hernia is merely a nodule. The baby is perfectly fine. Bird’s father-in-law even relieves him of the albatross of his childhood nickname. He is at last a man. Conclusion A Personal Matter deservedly won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1994. For those who have never endured such an ordeal, it is unfathomable to determine how one would react to the news that your (firstborn) child suffers from a severe and permanent disability. Ōe handled the situation in the only way he knew how: as a writer, he created an alter ego who could drink to excess, screw old girlfriends, stay out all night, mess up his job, and generally thumb his nose at society. Although he wasn’t very excited on the thought of fatherhood but he still remained committed to his wife and child along with his alter ego enjoying all the sinful things. All the while, Ōe went about his life as the perfect husband and father because he had kept this secret. Living precariously through his alter ego had kept him sane. The kind of experiences Bird had even before his first child was born were tough and heartbreaking that were enough to lose his sanity and feel depressed at times. The best part about Bird in this novel was that he managed to keep a balance and tried to come out of this crisis on his own. He realized by the end that whatever he is heading to is only going to further deteriorate the circumstances for him. I believe that it was very courageous of him to face the world which was against keeping the deformed people or treating them well. Although many would criticize his defense mechanism but being a man of 27 years old who had a life ahead to explore the world, he wouldn’t have been able to survive without having a life that many people of his age were enjoying. Only a professional could judge what defense mechanisms another person should or could employ, who are we to judge? Doing better than most, Ōe was able to shed his doppelganger Bird in one year and no longer needing to keep his Walter Mitty aspersions under control. He came out of his denial phase and faced the reality by acting like a real man and devoted himself to his family and career. Reference: Ōe, Kenzaburo, and John Nathan, A Personal Matter, 1st Evergreen Edition, Grove Press. 1994. Print. Read More

He fantasized of an encounter with a transvestite, “Maybe I should have found the courage to go with him myself”. He played games in a teenage dive, and he fought a Japanese gang — and won. It took Bird far too long to learn of the birth of his child. His mother-in-law had to ask what the child’s gender was. Bird just wanted to know if the doctors could just keep the child at the first hospital, intending to just let the child with no name die. To make Bird a more loathsome fellow, the reader learns that he raped his girlfriend on their only previous tryst not even realizing she was a virgin.

Bird then shows up to his mediocre instructor position hung-over and throwing up. A nerdy young student promptly runs up detecting the vomit’s smell of Jack Daniels, ands reports Bird to his authorities. This is a clear indication that Ōe’s subconscious was warning him to have fun, but not too much fun, because the costs of sin are many. The gods (Ōe) sufficiently punishes Bird by making certain his superiors fire him from his menial position. The possible reason for Oe to react in this particular manner could be that he received this news too soon after the loss of his father and grandmother who were instrumental in his upbringing.

With their deaths it was too soon for him for Japan’s surrender in World War II. Even more probable was that Ōe had many other private and devastating losses too numerous to list here. For whatever psychological reasons, Ōe resorted to inventing an alter ego whereby he could secretly act out a fantasy life and thereby handle the first year of his son’s debilitating life. Jack De Bellis defined an alter ego as “a psychological term that refers to an artist’s creation of a character similar to himself”.

Bird, the protagonist from Kenzaburo’s 1964 novel A Personal Matter, was Ōe’s alter ego replete with imagery of death, decay and bizarre sex. The character is a deep dark personal and semi-autobiographical representation of himself; a man coming to terms with the birth of his mentally disabled son. Bird was able to do all the sinful, reprehensible and mischievous things that Ōe so longed to do as he went about dutifully behaving as a proper husband and father. The doctors gave Yukari and Kenzaburo Ōe two choices: allow the baby to die naturally or perform an operation to remove the hernia.

However, the operation would leave them with a child eternally dependent upon them for the rest of his life. They chose the latter and their son was permanently mentally impaired, non-communicate, and apparently, a doomed child. That is until he was six, and they discovered he had the ability to play the piano. Although Bird was in the alter ego phase of his life where he was enjoying all the possible sins but he stayed committed to his wife and child, which was most uncharacteristic of Japanese men at that time.

To illustrate the rare commitment Ōe had to his child, Veigle quoted Cameron, “At this time scarred survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bathing in rivers because they were forbidden by law to enter public baths". Cameron added that even Ōe’s neighbors mocked him when he took his child in public and criticized him for not hiding his son away as was usually done with children with deformities. Veigle continued that Ōe took care of cooking and cleaning so his wife could attend to the physical needs of their son.

Although Oe was living the fantasy life in form of Bird’s character but he wasn’t fully satisfied with his sinful acts and kept the tone which would lead the reader to believe that Bird is not worth appreciation. Ōe made approximately 150 references to (mostly small) animals in A Personal Matter, which confounded me greatly until I stumbled upon a critique from The Reading Life. Mel U inferred that Ōe wanted the reader to see Bird just as brain damaged as his son, Hiakri where his was by choice.

Bird spent the greater part of his time thinking of alcohol, homosexuality, suicide, forbidden sexual encounters, and tiny animal creatures.

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