The Setting Sun 1

Chapter 1 – Snake
In the opening pages, Dazai introduces us to Kazuko and her mother. The mother is “old school” traditional and at the time, wealthy and an aristocrat. Kazuko and her mother represent the changing women’s role in Japanese society with the traditional mother who takes the path of passive acceptance and Kazuko as the modern divorcee.
As the title of this chapter suggests, snakes represent a powerful symbol which is repeated throughout the rest of the novel. When Kazuko’s father dies, the snakes twist themselves around the tree outside the house. To Kazuko, this appears to be a bad omen, and when she sees what she thinks are poisonous serpent eggs, she burns the eggs to exorcise her torment and perceived evil. Perhaps her own experience having a stillborn child scarred her more than she initially realized.
Kazuko’s mother changes from an aristocrat to a pauper upon the death of her husband, a role she never fully accepts even in her death. She tells us about others that “just because someone has a title doesn’t make him an aristocrat” (4). It’s more a sense of how a person handles themselves and lives their life. The mother doesn’t deal well with moving to the country or becoming poor, as though her fragile conscience just cannot accept the consequences of her life.

Chapter 2 – Fire
“Carelessness leads to conflagrations” (29). Kazuko accidentally starts a fire, and while no real damage is done, she feels tremendous guilt. This chapter again focuses on the differences between mother and daughter, and additionally portrays the nihilistic role of Naoji, Kazuko’s opium addicted brother, who recurrently steals from the family for his own personal fiends. The end of the chapter discusses how secrets kept, even with the best of intentions, often surface with a vengeance.

Chapter 3 - Moonflowers
This chapter mirrors the author’s life. In the chapter, we find Naoji has returned from Tokyo or whatever opium den he has been hiding in, only to get drunk and steal from his mother. He also tells her that “To die by being sucked into an act of desperation…no, thanks. I had rather die by my own hand” (66). This statement foreshadows Naoji’s death in chapter 7.

Chapter 4 – Letters
This chapter is confusing. Kazuko believes that her life is slipping away and that her life will be better if she has a child. At age 30, she considers herself middle-aged. In her letters to M.C., a teacher of Naoji’s who is revealed later in the novel as Mr. Uehara, Kazuko professes her love and she wishes that he would agree to father her child. She writes three very strange letters and receives no response.

The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai

"Mine has been a life much shame" (The opening sentence of No Longer Human, 1948).
Osamu Dazai is the pseudonym used by novelist and storyteller Tsushima Shuji. His work often mirrored his troubled life, especially in his novels No Longer Human and The Setting Sun. J. Thomas Riner in Reader’s Guide to Japanese Literature emphasizes that “Dazai's life and work, many Japanese critics have pointed out, are closely intertwined. The more reader knows of Dazai's life, so the argument goes, the more Dazai can and should be admired for finding a literary means to bare his soul" (1999).
Born in 1909 as the tenth of eleven children, Dazai was raised mostly by servants. In addition to being wealthy and brilliant, Dazai was also troubled, attempting suicide twice before the age of twenty.
While studying French literature at the University of Tokyo, Dazai’s interests swung not only to French Symbolism and Surrealism, but also his political views changed to left wing after exposure to Marxism.
Also at the university, Dazai developed an acquaintance with Masuji Ibuse, the man who mentored Dazai’s as a novelist and writer. Having read Ibuse's The Salamander at age fourteen, Dazai stated that "I felt with excitement that I had discovered a hidden, anonymous genius" (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/dazai.htm).
Dazai composes The Setting Sun in an “I-novel”/confessional style of fiction, full of symbolism, conflicts between tradition and modernity as characters struggle with lifestyle, addiction, passive acceptance of women’s role, and symbolism.
In the first three chapters, Dazai uses the symbols of snake eggs, fire, and moonflowers to emphasize themes and motifs. I will expand on these images in my next post.