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warmth of his own mother. But then, the sensory experience and feeling are changed in the end of the story. Through the same poem, the readers can feel the
husband’s joy for finding his mother through the presence of his wife’s unconditional love and warm affection. The tears that are overflowing from his
eyes are not tears of agony, but more as tears of happiness to show the sense of relief. Finally, the character in the story is able to gain eternal peacefulness due to
the death presence in releasing them from the worldly bondage. Next, this seed of wisdom leads to the presence of the third seed of
wisdom as self purification. This seed of wisdom generates from the positive presence of death as final redemption which can also be used to make life more
meaningful due to its brevity. In the next section, the seed of wisdom that is related to self purification will be discussed further.
C. Self Purification
In this section, the seed of wisdom that is generated from the death presence will be discussed further. Since death is described in good way as final
redemption, death is able to generate the seed of wisdom that is related with self purification.
In two short stories that are used in this study entitled “Canaries” and “Love Suicides”, death is seen as final redemption. It is because the presence of
death is able to purify the sinful soul by redeeming all of the mistakes in the past and restart a new brand life in eternity. As it can be found in “Canaries”, death is
able to offer him a self purification related to his past forbidden affairs with a
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woman called Madam.
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This woman gives him a couple of canaries as the living souvenirs of their forbidden affair. Ironically, his wife is the one who takes care of
them. Hence, he cannot bear the guilt for betraying his loyal wife when his wife died. Later, this event has prompted him to write a farewell letter to Madam.
Though the letter is about his request to kill the canaries but it seems that he himself who wants to commit suicide in order to redeem all his mistakes to his
late wife.
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This notion can be seen in the quotation below taken from the short story entitled “Canaries”:
I’ll say it again. It was because my wife was here that the birds have lived until now- serving as a memory of you. So, madam, I want to have the canaries follow her in death.
Keeping my memories of you alive was not the only thing my wife did. How was I able to have loved a woman like you? Wasn’t it because my wife remained with me? My wife
made me forget all the pain in my life. She avoided seeing the other half of my life. Had she not done so, I would surely have averted my eyes or cast down my gaze before a
woman like you.
Madam, it’s all right, isn’t it, if I kill the canaries and bury them in my wife’s grave?
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The similar notion can also be found in another short story entitled “Love Suicides”. This story portrays death also as the means of having self purification
since it can help to erase all the mistakes that are created in the past life by the characters in the story. In the story, it is told that the husband as the male
character has decided to leave his wife and his daughter for two years. Yet, he cannot stop himself for always giving his ‘extra attention’ by sending them many
letters of prohibition.
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Besides, the wife’s guilt towards the husband itself is emphasized through their way in obeying everything that her husband told her to
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Kawabata, Palm of the Hand Stories 20.
235
ibid., p. 21.
236
ibid., p. 20.
237
i bid., p. 53.
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do. Hermeneutically speaking, Kawabata wants to give the readers’ particular experience in feeling the guilt and sinful feeling of the husband and the wife and
also their efforts to redeem the mistakes through an intense narration of the story. This notion is aligned with the aim of hermeneutics in providing opportunity to
the readers to experience the life experience through the imaginative universe found in literary pieces.
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Later, this notion can be seen in the quotation below taken from the short story entitled “Love Suicides”:
A letter came from the woman’s husband. It had been two years since he had taken a dislike to his wife and deserted her. The letter came from a distant land.
“Don’t let the child bounce a rubber ball. I can hear the sound. It strikes at my heart.” She took the rubber ball away from her nine-year-old daughter.
Again a letter came from her husband. It was from a different post office than the first one.
“Don’t send the child to school wearing shoes. I can hear the sound. It tramples on my heart.”
In place of shoes, she gave her daughter soft felt sandals. The girl cried and would no longer go to school.
Once more a letter came from her husband. It was posted only a month after the previous letter, but his handwriting suddenly looked like an old man’s.
....... The woman fed the girl with her own chopsticks as if she were three years old. Then she
remembered the time when the girl really was three years old and her husband had spent pleasant days at her side.
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In addition, it can be seen in the quotation above that the wife always obeys the husband’s wishes. She always does what he has wished for no matter
how hurt they can be for her and her daughter. Even, when the husband asks her and her daughter to remain silent forever, she does that with no doubt even though
it costs their life. For her, death offers a memorable way to prove her love to her husband. It can be seen as her final redemption to her husband for not being able
to be a good wife who can make pleasant days for her husband. By doing her husband’s wish to remain silent forever, the wife has redeemed her mistakes and
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Gadamer 301.
239
ibid., p.53.
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restarted another brand new life in immortality. Those notions can also be seen in another quotation below taken from the story entitled “Love Suicides”:
Like an echo of that sound, another letter came from the woman’s husband. It had been sent from yet another post office in a new distant land.
“Don’t make any sound at all. Don’t open or close the doors or sliding partitions. Don’t breathe. The two of you mustn’t even let the clocks in the house make a sound.”
“The two of you, the two of you, the two of you.” Tears fell as the woman whispered. Then the two of them made no sound. They ceased eternally to make even the faintest
sound. In other words, the mother and daughter died. And strangely enough, the woman’s husband lay down beside them and died, too.
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Through those stories, Kawabata wants to show another seed of wisdom that is generated from the death presence. As it be seen in the story, death can be
regarded as a means of self purification since it provides a way to purify the sinful soul and gain its genuine purity. The husband and the wife are able to find their
true nature as beings through the purification that death offered. Further, this seed of wisdom leads to another seed which is related to personal wholeness. Next, this
seed of wisdom will be discussed in the next section.
D. Personal Wholeness
