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4.1.1 Beautiful
Komako is a good-looking woman. By looking at her face, people know that she was given a natural beauty. Her face looks beautiful although she does not
pay too much attention to it. Shimamura says that Komako is the most beautiful one in Snow Country. The author gives the direct comment about Komako and it
can be seen through Shimamura’s thought in the quotation below. The high, thin nose was a little lonely, a little sad, but the bud of her lips
opened and closed smoothly, like a beautiful little circle of leeches. Even when she was silent her lips seemed always to be moving. … the line of her
eyelids neither rose nor fell … the short, thick hair of her eyebrows sloped gently down to enfold the line discreetly … with her skin like white porcelain
coated over faint pink … the impression she gave was above all one of cleanness, not quite one of real beauty. p. 32
4.1.2 Perfectionist
Komako’s good manner can be observed in the way she cares about her life and her environment. She is totally concerned about anything around her. This
behavior represents that she has purpose of her life and she makes plan of her life. She is aware of the situation in which she does not enjoy. People can be affected
by the environment but people also can affect the environment through their behavior. It can be known from the quotation below through Komako’s
mannerisms and habits. Shimamura sat idly smoking, his feet in the kotatsu. When the ashes
dropped from his cigarette, Komako took them up in a handerchief and brought him an ashtray. He laughed a bright morning laugh. Komako laughed
too.
21 “If you had a husband, you’d spend all your time scolding him”. “I would
not. But I’d be laughed at for folding up even my dirty clothes. I can’t help it. That’s the way I am. p. 65
From the quotation above, it can be seen that Shimamura teases Komako by referring her as a good wife. It is the evidence for Komako’s behavior in
keeping places clean and tidy. When I come home late at night, everything is laid out for me, but the
mattresses aren’t square one on the other, and the sheet is wrong. I hate it. After they’ve been so kind, though, I feel guilty making the bed over. p.102
Although she knows that her efforts may be in vain, she still does what she wants to do. She just let herself to be a person whom the place needs. It can be
seen through Komako’s reaction. It is about how Komako react to event and situation that implies how perfectionist she is. The quotation below can describe it
well. “So everyone says. There are four little children, and the place is terrible
clutter. I spend the whole day picking things up. I know everything will be thrown down again as soon as my back is turned, but somehow I can’t help
myself. I want to be as clean and neat as the place will let me.” p.102
Komako was waiting for him, clean and prim as before, when he came back from the bath.
“It would be good to work on my sewing in a quiet place like this,” she said. The room had evidently been cleaned, and the sun poured in on the deepest
corners of the slightly worn matting. p. 115
4.1.3 Tough
Komako’s personality can be seen through what the other character thinks. Shimamura interacts with Komako for a period of time. As time goes by,
Shimamura knows who Komako is. Although he said that what Komako does is in vain, he can understand that what she does is not really as useless as it seems
22 because it represents the way Komako lives. It gives representation that Komako’s
life is beautiful and full of sympathy for other people. It must also be noted that Komako is not a person who is easily to give up the efforts she has made.
To Shimamura it was wasted effort, this way of living. He sensed in it, too, a longing that called out of him for sympathy. But the life and way of living no
doubt flowed thus grandly from the samisen with a new worth for Komako herself. p.72
Komako feels that her life is not easy. She has to crawl from the bottom condition for a better one. Komako struggles with all of her efforts and she does it
with pleasure. The condition that she is nothing for other people encourages her to give the best of her so that she can respect life.
Based on what Komako is thinking about, it can give the description of Komako’s personality. Because she has to work hard, she respects what she gets.
She deserves to get what she has tried hard before. Understanding that people have to work harder to achieve the goal of life, Komako thinks that life is not
simple and does not like people who do not care about the process of struggling. To get much money to keep her life is the important thing that she has to do.
Komako thinks that people who have a lot of money without struggling will not understand about life.
You have plenty of money, and you’re not much of a person. You don’t understand at all. p.102
“You sew, do you?” “What an insulting question. I had to work harder than anyone else in the
family. I see now, looking back, that the years when I was growing up were the worst ones of all.” p.115
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