What is the role of subjectivity and identity in discussing the concept of the modern subject? In his novel Botchan, Soseki Natsume presents the story of a young man which is given in the first-person narrative. This manner helps to readers to concentrate on the visions of the main character whose nickname is ‘Botchan’ without referring to the author’s impact, and in this case, the level of the subjectivity can be maximal.
Moreover, the readers have the opportunity to follow the protagonist’s search for his identity during the whole novel. To understand the peculiarities of the main character’s vision of himself, it is necessary to focus on the first paragraphs of the novel in which Botchan introduces himself with accentuating the definite events of his childhood and with presenting the characteristics of his personality.
Furthermore, in the first two paragraphs, Botchan provides his own characteristics with references to the words of the other people about him which make the picture more complex and allow speaking about the concept of subjectivity as the component of the modern subject in detail.
The characteristics provided by Botchan and the people round him about his personality which are given in the first paragraphs are significant for understanding the protagonist’s vision of himself, the other persons’ view on him and for explaining the young man’s further actions, attitudes, and behaviours.
The period between the 19th and 20th centuries in Japanese culture is characterised by changing the approaches to the language and its usage in literature. This problem was closely associated with the issue of the modern subject as the reflection of developing new tendencies in literature.
During this period, Soseki Natsume “wrote obviously fictional novels that grappled with such weighty themes as the nature of the modern male intellectual subject’s relation to the kazoku kokka state, and to modernity more generally”. The focus on the problems of an individual and his identity was the author’s reaction to the tendencies in literature and his vision of the problem of modern subject.
From this point, the depiction of the main protagonist of Botchan is significant in relation to the details of the young man’s description and characterisation. Rubin states that Botchan is the “portrait of a simple hero who emerges from a loveless childhood to fight a world dominated by liars and cheats”. The evidences for the fact that the boy’s childhood was rather unhappy for him are presented in the first paragraphs of the novel to make a special accent on them.
The first two paragraphs of Botchan are full of words with the negative connotation which are used to characterise a man as a personality. It is important to note that first word ‘loser’ is used by the narrator to tell about his childhood. The next characterisations such as the ‘boaster’ and ‘poor little creeping thing’ are given by the classmates.
From this point, it can seem that Botchan can identify himself as a loser under the impact of the other persons’ considerations. However, the reaction of the classmates to the figure of Botchan can be the result of his own vision of his abilities. Nevertheless, the first words with the help of which Botchan tells about his childhood are not positive and emphasise the definite problems.
Moreover, speaking about his spirit and behaviour, Botchan accentuates, “a great loser have I been ever since a child, having a rash, daring spirit, a spirit I inherited from my ancestors”. Thus, the young man does not feel responsibility for the behaviour caused by his ‘rash, daring spirit’ because it is inherited.
The reference to the ancestors can be explained as the reference to the boy’s parents who are responsible more for the boy’s actions according to the presenting idea, and this detail is the prediction of the further describing the boy’s relations with his father.
It is important to pay attention to the fact that the word ‘rash’ is used for describing Botchan’s actions several times. Botchan focuses on his ‘rash, daring spirit’, and then the young man describes his actions as also ‘rash’ with accentuating that “some may be curious enough as to ask me why I did such a rash thing”.
However, the problem is in the fact that Botchan’s subjective vision of himself is rather controversial where the notions ‘loser’ and ‘rash thing’ are difficult to be combined in order to characterise one person. Moreover, the opposition is complicated by the classmates’ vision of the boy as ‘a great boaster’. That is why, the description of the boy’s actions contributes to the readers’ perception of young Botchan as the boy who is inclined to act impulsively in order to express those male qualities which he can lack.
The next image which Botchan wants to acquire can be reflected in the characterisation of a ‘strong boy’. Botchan pays attention to the following situation, “my father, seeing me come home on the back of the janitor, said in an angry tone that no strong boy could be hurt by jumping down from such a low height as from upstairs”.
The narrator emphasises that the boy’s father said the words ‘in angry tone’ which accentuates his dissatisfaction. ‘No strong boy could be hurt by jumping down’, but Botchan is hurt by the words of his father, and the boy decides to become really ‘strong boy’, and his father “would be proud to see me come out all right next time”.
Thus, Botchan wants his actions be approved by his father because he does not feel his support. The author presents the aspects of the situation with humour and in a quite informal and playful tone, but those details which are accentuated with the help of word choice allow the readers’ considerations about the peculiarities of Botchan’s identity and the young man’s personal vision of himself.
In spite of the light tone using which the author presents the story about Botchan’s jumping down from the second story of the schoolhouse, it is important for readers to pay attention to the difficulties which are experienced by the main character of the novel in relation to his problematic identifying himself, subjective vision of his personality, and the other persons’ considering his actions.
Botchan does not want to be a ‘poor little creeping thing’ and make accents on doing the rash things and impulsive actions which he tries to justify with references to his family and his ancestors. Thus, the problem of the modern subject in the Japanese literature with the protagonist’s uncertain identity, controversial subjectivity, and self-consciousness can be discussed in relation to the character of Botchan.
Bibliography
Natsume, Soseki. Botchan. USA: Tuttle Publishing, 2005.
Orbaugh, Sharalyn. “The Problem of the Modern Subject”. In The Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literature, edited by Joshua S. Mostow, 24-35. USA: Columbia University Press, 2003.
Rubin, Jay. “Soseki”. In Modern Japanese Writers, edited by Jay Rubin, 349-384. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2001.