Boys And Girls
Reaction Paper
Swaddling Clothes by Yukio Mishima hit me with a real sense of raw emotion. The tale unfolds with the birth of an unfortunate child, who from the moment he enters the world he is treated with disregard and scorn, wrapped up in a newspaper as though he is to be set out like a piece of garbage. Honestly speaking I didn’t relate to the narrator, a young Japanese housewife who although was portrayed in an accurate description, I found the story of the nurses child to be far more interesting.
I was reminded that the fact that unwanted children are born too often to an uncaring society, the clear imaging of bloodied newspapers (pg 79), being done out of spite by a doctor who despises the mother for inconveniencing him and shamefully even going through the birth in the first place. This strong visual commentary speaks volumes on the setting and culture, it’s not the first or last time that a child will be born out of wedlock but how society as a whole treats unwed mothers; how they are made to feel shame and embarrassment for getting themselves into what some would say an immoral situation.
The child’s mother, who from the very beginning is depicted as none too bright, and in clear denial about her impending motherhood, She either doesn’t want to face the fact that she’s about the give birth; or thinks that she real has “gastric dilatation” (pg 78). I couldn’t help look into what gastric dilation was, and according to Wikipedia - "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloat". . Bloat is a medical condition in which the stomach becomes overstretched by excessive gas content. It is also commonly referred to as torsion, gastric torsion, and gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV) when the stomach is also twisted.
The narrator seems to be torn between the shame of witnessing this macabre tableau and fear that some day the events she witnessed will come back to harm her. This irrational fear plays out in her mind like a fortuitous dream, she sees this child grown...
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