The prime mover or the protagonist in the book is Toyo, an engaging protagonist in a harsh, difficult situation. This is because in a play the protagonist controls the movement of the plot. He determines the actions of other characters and the story revolves around him. It traces the developments in the boy’s life and the changes and compromises he makes in his life. The most important thing for him is to earn the respect of his father and his teammates. After watching his father help his uncle Koji perform seppuku, he goes to school at one of the esteemed high schools in Tokyo.
In the school, His hopes are tempered by the brutality and cruelty of older students in power. His father trains him in bushido. He grows in skills and self-discipline and surprisingly improves his baseball. He has an antagonistic relationship with the father at times and gets embarrassed by him at times. For example, he found his father’s dress and behavior, offending when they attended the Shinto festival together. Generally, he is hardworking and obedient. He is also friendly and patient.
The antagonist is Sataro. He is the one involved with the protagonist all through the story albeit negatively. He is the father to the main character, a scholarly samurai, and a journalist. He disapproves of the new western cultures that he sees to be eroding Japan’s culture. He too has decided that he cannot live in this new Japan and decides to instruct his son in the ways of bushido, or the warrior’s code. He tells Toyo that once he has taught him the, he, too, will take his own life. He later learns to accept the situation after the son proved to him that they can live in the new Japan. He is responsible and teaches his son their dying culture. H he too is a man of honor and has chosen to die for the tribe. The most important thing to him is honor, culture, and tradition.
This book is told in the third person omniscient point of view. This is because it is told by a person who witnessed everything and knows what goes on in the minds of the characters. The narrator reports to us everything as if he was taking part in the events of the book. He knows what was going on in Koji’s mind and also knows what Satara thinks about issues. He details the life of Toyo as an outsider watching everything from afar.
This book is set in 1890 when the ruling Shogun warlords were overthrown and Japan suddenly began transforming from a feudal society into an industrial nation. Black business suits replaced kimonos, trains replaced horses, and salarymen replaced samurai. It is a time of great transition between old traditions and modern values in Japan. The Samurai have been decreed to cease their classes. A lot of Western influences are seemingly eroding Japan’s cultural heritage. There are also the harsh realities of Japanese boarding school life of the period as he, Toyo, begins his studies at an elite high school. The hazing by the senior students and rivalries makes the first-year students miserable. It is in this background that the book is told and it is responsible for shaping the characters.
A somber mood exists in the book. After Toyo Shimada witnessed his uncle commit seppuku (a ritualistic suicide where one disembowels himself) and the threat of his father taking the same action hangs over the story. Toyo is determined to stop his father from going through the same thing and to prove that there is hope for his cultural life as a Samurai Warrior in the new Japan. His struggle to surmount all the odds that face him captures this somber mood. The setting promotes this mood in that it is a period where the premium is placed in such value as change, loyalty, and honor. An individual must be true to their beliefs or risk dying. The school setting is also a constant struggle with bullying and favoritism. It does not promote much comfort or happiness.
The story has an external conflict – the decree by the emperor, which affects both the Protagonist- Toyo, and the Antagonist- Satoro. The new emperor had decreed all countrymen to be commoners, doing away with the samurai class. At that time the samurai had felt superior to other members of Japanese society. After his brother had been permitted to commit seppuku Sataro plans to do the same to stay true to his family. He disapproves of western cultures and thinks they are eroding Japan’s values.
On his part, 16-year-old Toyo is concerned with surviving his first day at the prestigious Ichiko High School of Tokyo and making it into the Ichiko baseball team. he struggles with adapting to the new school and brutal upper-class hazing. His father trains him daily in the samurai code of bushido so that Toyo can eventually assist in his ritual suicide.
His conflict thus comes when He is caught between loyalty to his father’s way of life, and the modern ideas flooding into Japan as a result of the new empire’s interest in the West. This conflict is driven by such values as honor, respect, loyalty, and change.
Koji is Toyo’s uncle. He was one of the activists who demonstrated against the emperor’s rules in favor of the Samurai lifestyle. After unsuccessfully trying they were arrested and sentenced to hang. He chooses to take the ritualistic suicide and disembowels himself. He chose this method because he did not want to be slain by the emperor’s assassin. He can be said to be brave and a man of honor who can die for a course he believes in. he commits suicide without turning back or flinching.
One dynamic character in the book is Sataro, Toyo’s father. He is a conservative journalist who fights with his pen. When the brother commits a “seppuku” he decides to buy time but also follows the same path of a brother. Sartaro is a strong believer in their culture. He assists Koji to commit the ritual suicide or seppuku. He ensures the son is educated in the way of the warrior. He conducts training for the son and is very disappointed at the new wave of adopting the western culture. He is degusted by the son’s love of baseball but later on learns to accept things the way they are turning to be, especially after his son has proved capable at the game and managed to balance the two ways of life- bushido and baseball.
The Climax of everything comes at the international exhibition of baseball. The baseball team committed what was called a “faux pas” that turned into a diplomatic incident involving the American consulate. It challenges the team’s thinking and forces them to embrace values beyond sport and sportsmanship and examine broader implications of their decision. Toyo suggested that the breach should be healed through a baseball game-American vs. the Ichiko nine. With a background in Bushido, Toyo employs the values his father taught him and makes the team function as one unit, a team. They play the game as if towards an honorable challenger.
For a long time, the main character was torn between finding a balance between the old and new traditions. He finds a perfect match with bushido and baseball. Despite his father’s disgusting feelings with the emerging and insistence to commit suicide Toyo learns first and practices hard eventually proving himself on the baseball field. In chapter seventeen the author writes
… why he and the others loved the game so much. At its heart, baseball was Japanese. How else to explain the samurai nature of this game? It was at the same time modern and ancient, mental and physical… (Chapter 17)
Finally, the resolution comes when they engage in a baseball match and he shows how worthy he is. His father begins to have a change of mind and sees hope with the new era.
Themes: “Whoever however and wherever, honorable change is an inevitable occurrence in ones life” Samurai Shortstop by Alan Gratz.
The book has a variety of thematic matters that it conclusively explores. These include family relationships, society, and culture; challenge and sacrifice and character and conscience. However, the overriding theme can be said to be enduring values in a time of social change enshrined in the timeless confrontations of the traditional and the modern. In other words, it’s about making “impossible” choices and taking responsibility for those decisions. In all these changes remains the most relevant aspect of these processes.
This is a well-written fast-paced story that offers plenty of fascinating detail and a fresh perspective of two cultures. It is a provocative exploration of harsh but valued components of a culture that places a high premium on ritualized honor, displayed in the graphic opening depiction of seppuku. The coming of age of the main character, Toyo Shimada, through the death of his uncle, to a climactic real-life international exhibition, the tough choices, school brutality and eventually being able to combine the traditional samurai values and the game of “besuboru” symbolizes the people and their country as they struggle to find their place in the world of the 1890s. This book remains relevant for its portrayal of the yet contemporary in its exploration of the struggle to grow and change.
Works cited
Gratz Alan, (2006) Samurai Shortstop, Canada: Penguin Group (USA)