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CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS
In this part, the writer tried to analyze the characteristic of Soroku Okamoto. After that, by looking at the characteristic of Soroku Okamoto, the writer tried to
analyze the changes of his personality.
A. The Characteristic of Soroku Okamoto
Soroku Okamoto is one of the major characters in Jiro Osaragi’s The Journey. There are some descriptions given by the narrator and the minor characters about
Soroku Okamoto. Here are his characteristics before his personality changes appeared.
Soroku Okamoto was a lonely old man. His age was around fifties. He lived alone in Kamakura. His wife died ten years ago. Since the death of his wife, he did
not marry with any other women. He also had a son, named Akira, who had been killed in a war in southern China. Since the death of his wife and his also his son, he
had preferred to live alone only with his loyal maid. Uncle Soroku was in his fifties. He had lost his wife when he was about forty. From
then on, despite everyone’s expectations, he had remained single. Taeko and her family thought that it was because of Akira that he did not remarry P.16.
During the life of Akira, the relationship between Soroku and Akira was not really good. Some people in surrounding them had looked their relationship just like
an enemy to each other. Perhaps it was not really like that for Soroku, but for Akira, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
his father was not like a father. On his eyes, Soroku was like a creditor. However, it was his own mistake that he should pay some interest for his extra money. He asked
his father whenever he running out his money for having fun with his friends. Took some interest from his own son was the way Soroku educated Akira to be wiser on
using money. No matter how bad their relationship, after the death of Akira, Soroku was lost his soul mate.
At the beginning, Soroku was a perfectionist. He loved to make sure that everything is exactly as he wanted to be. It was implicit in Taeko’s statement after
Tsugawa described about Akira. Taeko knew that Akira’s behavior was similar with his uncle.
“…He was just like a child who gets angry when things don’t turn out exactly the way he’s planned. It annoyed him that the matter was being smoothed over. That was
the willful side of Mé’s character coming to the fore.”
“Just like my uncle.” p.12 This characteristic also can be seen through his attitude toward Taeko and
Tazuko. He treated them in a very different way. He loves Taeko more than Tazuko although both of them were his nephews. His attitude which was very different on
treated his nephews came from the fact that Taeko was his brother’s daughter from his maid not from his real wife. On the other hand, Tazuko was his brother’s daughter
from his real wife. Soroku knew exactly that it was his brother’s mistake. Since he did not like his brother, he preferred to love Taeko more than Tazuko.
“I don’t like her father,” continued Soroku. “He’s your elder brother, isn’t he?” said Sutekichi.
“I don’t regard him as my elder brother,” answered Soroku bluntly. His tone seemed quite unsuitable for his gentle personality. “We don’t have anything to do with each
other. But his children occasionally come and visit me. Perhaps because I don’t like my brother I’m rather inclined to favor the daughter who was born as the result of his
misconduct.’ p.136
He knew that his brother had made a mistake and Taeko was a result came from his mistake. Therefore, he felt that he had to give more attention toward Taeko since she
also had a good personality. “Her sister, you see, was brought up to be selfish and extravagant,” he said after
while. “What a difference between her and Taeko, who since she came to Tokyo has been making her own living as an office girl, or a typist, or whatever it is. I didn’t
think she’d be able to manage, but somehow she gets on all right without receiving the slightest help from her family. Perhaps circumstances have taught her how to fend
for herself, or perhaps she’d been planning for a long time to leave home and was prepared to look after herself. In any case, she seems to be managing very well on her
own.”p.138
It was clear enough for Soroku that Taeko’s attitude was very different with Tazuko. Here, according Soroku, Taeko was more mature than Tazuko. While Tazuko spent
her money for something unimportant, Taeko had prepared herself for her own future. Therefore, from the evidence above, it can be seen that Soroku was a kind of person
that always wants to make sure that everything is exactly as he wanted to be. He would appreciate anything that conform to his view point and hate anything that did
not conform to his view point. Soroku was very careful in using money although he was known as a ve ry
rich person. It was supported by Taeko’s father when he was talking to Taeko before she decided to visit her uncle, Soroku, “He’s rich enough so that you can live there in
comfort for the rest of your life” p.14. Soroku had started as a banker who had a PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
good reputation. He had been known as a hard head person when it came to money matters p.16. But, although Soroku was a very rich person, he was very careful in
using money. He would never give his money to someone who potentially could not manage it well. His carefulness principle in using money was applied toward his own
family. After he knew that Akira could not manage his money well and used it for drinking in a bar, Soroku decided to take interest whenever Akira asked some extra
money from him. This also happened when Tazuko asked some money from him for a business. Soroku knew that the business would not be gone well and he also knew
that she could not manage the money well. Based on that, he refused to give his money to her.
“Tazuko told me she would call here again. But please tell her I absolutely refuse to lend the money and that she’ll be wasting her time if she comes here. Once I,ve
refused something I’m going to go on refusing it, however many times she asks me.” p.135
The evidence in above showed how hard he maintains his carefulness principle on
using money. Soroku carefulness in using money also can be seen from the condition of his
house as it was told by Taeko when she was talking to his maid. There were only a few lamps put in the house and it was also let to be dirty. It was not like what
imagined by Taeko before. It was very strange to let a house in such condition since she knew that the owner of the house was a rich person who could do much better to
take care of this house. “Oh dear, how dark and gloomy it all is”- Taeko wondered whether it would be all
right to say this to her uncle. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
If there is such a thing as the “expression” of a house, she thought, it must surely be attuned to the person who lives in it. When the interio r is left unswept, then one can
expect that the outside will be disheveled. Should the house itself be a mess and only its master neat, one would hardly be mistaken in assuming that he must be a
hypocrite. p.17
Taeko was surprised with the condition of his Uncle’s house. She had known by herself and also from his father that her uncle was a very rich person, she knew
that her uncle still had money to take care of his house. The fact that his uncle preferred to let his own house in somber sense like that was never thought before
until she knew the reason from his uncle’s maid. “Well, it’s not as bad as all that, you know. Still, if it looked too good, the taxes
would be even worse than they are. It’s better this way in the end.” “Well, really” Taeko was about to say, but instead she asked: “Is that what Uncle
said?” “No, the gardener mentioned it in passing the other day. ‘The master must be having
a hard time with his taxes,’ he said. He told me that if you’ve got a house with a garden in Kamakura, they tax the garden also.” p.19
From the evidence above, it can be seen that leaving the house as if it didn’t has any master, could help Soroku to avoid pay a large amount of taxes. It means that
he could save his money. Soroku was also known as a conservative man. He did not want to move from
Kamakura, a place where modernization as the result of American occupation could only give a little impact. It was supported by Tsugawa’s statement “A little bit of the
modern world at last,” said Tsugawa. “Until now there’s been nothing here but old temples and ancient villas.” p.8When others were interested to go to Tokyo, where
modernization happened rapidly, Soroku preferred to stay in Kamakura which mostly had not change.
Tsugawa, when Taeko asked him to tell about her uncle, also gave a picture that Soroku was a conservative.
“He was rather frightening. He really had nothing to say to young people, and I always had the impression he was about to scold me for something.” p.6
Tsugawa had an opinion that Soroku did not like young people. However, Soroku could not accept the modernization which also gave some impacts toward the
thought pattern of young people about a glamour life style. It could be seen on the life of his son himself, Akira could not manage his money well and only used it to go to
the bar, drinking with his friends. As the result, at the end of the month, Akira always asks some extra money from his father. It could be understood that Soroku did not
feel comfortable with young people with their glamour life style. It just the same with young people like Akira who did not feel comfortable also with old generation like
Soroku who was very conservative. A different view between old generation and young generation could be seen
from the conversation between Soroku and professor Segi when they met in a park. “Of course, we hear a lot of talk these days about freedom. Freedom, freedom But
surely freedom doesn’t mean that one should do exactly what one feels like. I know it doesn’t do any good to get angry, but when I see people pushing their way about and
not giving a damn for anyone else I feel like having a fight—yes, even now, old as I am.” p.246.
For young generation such as Akira and his friends, freedom that they had got after
the end of World War II was a freedom to do everything what they wanted to do. In the other hand, for the old generation such as Soroku and professor Segi, freedom
was much more than that, it needed a more understanding to be wiser on using a freedom facility.
Soroku was not a typical person who could show his love clearly toward someone that he loved. The way he taught Akira made Akira almost hate him. He
taught Akira in a hard way especially when it came about a money matter. Akira often complained about it when he talked with Tsugawa his best friend.
“Yes, he used to complain about it a lot,” continued Tsugawa with the same impassive look on his face. “I don’t know if his father made him give an I.O.U. or
not, but I remember how Mé hated to pay that interest.”
Tsugawa had realized that the relationship between Akira and his father was not in a good situation. Soroku’s attitude about the interest that should be paid by
Akira even made the relationship between father and son became worse until someday Akira made a bad statement about his father.
…”My old man’s a usurer”- Tsugawa remembered the words that Akira had once spoken to him in a violent tone of scorn. It was not the way a son would normally
speak of his father. He had said this, Tsugawa realized, not because he begrudged paying interest on the money he had borrowed; there was something else-some
intolerable aspect of his relation with his father. p.13 It was not because he did not love his lovely son, but in the opposite way, he wanted
the best for Akira, that was why he taught him in a hard way. But once again, a different perception on the way of thinking between young generation and old
generation had created inappropriate situation between Soroku and Akira as a father and son.
B. Soroku Okamoto’s Personality Changes
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