I was wondering what the reasons were that the narrator turns his attention to directly talk to the reader on page 142-143. When he is referring to his love for Sonoko he is greatly convinced that the reader will not understand his love for her. Because of his history with loving women, he feels like this situation will be disregarded. He seems to be really insistent in not having anyone believe that he cannot love Sonoko. I think that this is obviously a very important relationship to him at this point, and that is why he directly addressed the reader. If, for any reason, the reader does not believe his love in this case he desires for them to give up. He gives the reader an out. If you are having doubts at this point in the book you might as well give up now at this point. He is recognizing a very distinct difference between emotions. I am still not sure why he is so adamant in getting the reader to believe him. Is he trying to convince himself that he truly loves her? Is this really different from before? The difference now was his feeling of remorse. Thoughts?
I think he's getting so defensive because he's confused. Because of the way he thinks, his love for Sonoko is an honest lie. I think that there's a good chance that he really does love her, but he obviously does not love her romantically. As we discussed in class, Kochan and Sonoko are working off the only model they know for relationships between male and female peers, which is romantic love. Because he believes he loves her, but doesn't understand his platonic love, yet has serious doubts in his romantic love for her, he is hopelessly confused by her. In his arrogance, Kochan often remains ignorant of things because of his confidence that he already knows the answer. I think that this obstinate way of thinking prevents him from grasping the existence of platonic love, so he feels trapped between what he thinks are the only two options; romantic love or no love. In the end, I agree with the crowd that his best bet would probably have been to be honest with Sonoko. As hard as that would have been for him, it would have been one of the first unselfish choices, as well as one of the first decisions he made that would require opening his little box and allowing some reality to pour in.
ReplyDeletePerhaps he addresses the reader because this is the point where he is closest to feeling affection for another person?
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