Lit 365: Morrison Study Guide for Kawabatas Of Birds and Beasts Answer all of the following. 1.

The protagonist of this story is a kind of urban hermit. Who are some other notable hermits from the Japanese tradition? 2. What magazine was Kawabata associated with in 1920s? And what was the name of the movement affiliated with it? 3. This story is often referred to as a shinky shsetsu . What does that mean? 4. This story is said to employ both modernist and traditional literary techniques. What are they? 5. Kawabatas style of prose is often described as disjointed, fragmentary, and haiku-like. What is disjointed and haiku-like about the narration in this story? 6. The title of the story in Japanese is kinj . Japanese word has two meanings. What are they? How is the second meaning significant to the story? 7. Eugenics was big in the 1920s and 1930s, especially in fascist countries like Japan, UK, and Nazi Germany. Think about the theme of eugenics, and how it is presented in the story. 8. Do you consider this work auto-biographical (or at least as representative of the I-novel mode)? 9. This work is often referred to as an allegory. What is it an allegory for? (Hint: Protagonist is to his pets as is to .) 10. The question of eugenics is hinted at in story. What is the protagonists attitude toward the subject? 11. An implied message in the story is that to love something is to inflict pain/damage

upon it. What does this mean? How is this conveyed in story? The Characters 12. What kind of man is the protagonist? Would you like to befriend him? Be his lover? 13. Why does the protagonist prefer the company of animals to that of humans? 14. Why does he avoid human contact (with the exception of prostitutes, maids, dancers, etc.), and withdraw into his house filled with pets? 15. How does the protagonists attitude toward women resemble his attitude toward his pet animals? Does he regard them as one as the same? 16. When he first visits Chikako in the dressing room before her performance, he grabs her breast. This time, however, he does not grab her breasts. Why is this? 17. The protagonist tells us that keeping/raising pets gives one a sense of a sad purity and godlike newness. What does this mean? 18. In the eyes of the protagonist, how are young women similar to dogs? 19. Is the protagonist a sad figure? Should we pity him? Envy him? Or despise him? 20. Is he a feminist? 21. In a very important flashback scene, we learn why the protagonist remains so drawn to Chikako. Why is this? 22. What is this joy of emptiness that the protagonist refers to? 23. The expression on the dogs face after having its first litter reminds the protagonist of Chikakos face when he first purchases her. What does this fact (that a dogs expression reminds him of a former lover) tell us about the mental/emotional state of the protagonist?

24. Why does he dislike all men, and male animals in general? 25. What is it that he seeks/desires? 26. Why does he scold Chikako when he meets her shortly after she has first child? 27. What is his attitude toward mongrels? Miscegenation? Is his attitude typical for this time period? 28. The protagonist has been described by critics as vampirish. What is vampirish about him? Narration/Style 29. The story is told in from what point of view? 30. Whose thoughts/feelings is the narrative voice closest to? 31. How does the narration progress? According to what logic? 32. How do flashbacks function in the story? 33. There is much bizarre, cryptic, and even grotesque imagery in the work. Identify some of these passages. 34. What are examples of the associative leaps in the story? Give examples of how one image/scent/perception triggers a flashback, or how a flashback leads to the present. 35. Though the protagonist almost obsessively seeks vitality (), the story begins and ends with images of death (in the beginning, a funeral procession; in the end, the image of Chikakos death-like face). What does this suggest about deaths inevitability and the allure it holds for the protagonist?