Literary Analysis Week 13, "Seperate Ways"

  This week I'm doing a literary analysis on the story, "Seperate Ways" By: Higuchi Ichiyo. This story is about a boy named Kichizo and a woman named Okyo. Kich was a sixteen year old who would often show up to Okyo's house at late times in the middle of the night to eat food and talk with her. Okyo was a woman in her early twenties who was known for sewing clothes for people and Kich worked at a umbrella shop. What I thought was interesting was the close bond that Kich had with Okyo and how hard he took it when she told him she was leaving. The relationship he has with Okyo is a close one and can be shown when he tells Okyo that he thinks of her as a sister, "Boy, I'd sure be glad if someone like you would come and tell me she was my sister. I'd hug her so tight... After that, I wouldn't care if I died. What was I, born from a piece of wood? I've never run into anyone who was a relative of mine. You don't know how many times I've thought about it..." (909). This quote shows that he cares for Okyo and wished he had someone who cared for him even considering him as a brother. When I read this I felt bad for Kich because he doesn't have any family and even though he doesn't literally mean that he wouldn't cared if he died, it just shows that more than anything he want someone who would consider him family. Another quote that reflects on how close Okyo was to Kich was when Okyo decided to tell Kich she was moving away and his reaction shows how badly it hurt him, "Really? You're not teasing, are you? You shouldn't scare me like this. If you went away, what would I do for fun? Don't ever joke about such things. You and your nonsense!... How pointless everything turns out. What a life! People are friendly, and then they disappear. It's always the ones I like" (912-913). This quote shows the reaction to Okiyo telling Kich she is leaving to marry which makes him upset that she could leave him. Kich doesn't have anyone else in his life that was as close to him like Okiyo. His grandmother was dead and even his old friend was dead after she committed suicide. It just shows that Kich made a special bond with Okiyo and becuse she is leaving it breaks him. An element the book held was friendship. Although Kich was upset she was leaving he didn't realize the friendship that would last for. Overall, I found the bond Kich had with Okyo interesting because even though Kich thought she was abandoning him it doesn't mean that their friendship would have to end and I think that's what scared Kich so much.

Ichiyo, Higuchi. "Seperate Ways." The Norton Anthology World Literature Volume E. Ed. Puchner, Martin, Suzanne Akbari, Wiebke Denecke, Vinay Dharwadker, Barbara Fuchs, Caroline Levine, Pericles Lewis, Emily Wilson. W. W. Norton & Company, pp. 905-913