Aghwee the Sky Monster by Kenzaburō ōe
"Aghwee the Sky Monster" is a poignant short story by Kenzaburō Ōe that delves into themes of parental responsibility, mental disability, and the haunting nature of guilt. Influenced by Ōe's own experiences as the father of a son with a cranial defect, the narrative explores the tragic choices made by a father, referred to as D, who succumbs to societal pressures surrounding the care of a disabled child. In a heart-wrenching decision, D allows his newborn son, who is believed to have a severe birth defect, to die of starvation, a choice that ultimately leads to his own despair and suicide.
The story is framed through the perspective of a narrator who is hired to accompany D, a once-prominent composer haunted by the ghost of his dead son, whom he names Aghwee. As D grapples with his obsession and the consequences of his actions, the narrative reveals layers of emotional complexity and cultural stigma associated with disability in Japan. The presence of Aghwee serves as a metaphor for loss and the overwhelming weight of unresolved grief, culminating in a powerful exploration of what it means to face one's past. Through its haunting imagery and deep emotional resonance, "Aghwee the Sky Monster" invites readers to reflect on their own perceptions of disability and the responsibilities of parenthood.
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Aghwee the Sky Monster by Kenzaburō ōe
First published: "Sora no kaibutsu Aguii," 1964 (English translation, 1977)
Type of plot: Ghost story, frame story
Time of work: The mid-1950's to mid-1960's
Locale: Tokyo
Principal Characters:
D , a young composer who sees a vision of his dead baby in the skyHis nurse , who is contemptuous of D's visionHis former wife , who returns a key to the locker storing D's compositionsHis mistress , who is abandoned by D after the birth and death of AghweeAghwee , his son, named after the only sound he made in his brief lifeThe narrator , who is hired to look after D on his aimless wanderings through Tokyo
The Story
"Aghwee the Sky Monster" is one of Kenzaburō Ōe's first stories about children born with mental defects, written after his own son was born in 1963 with a cranial defect that would cause mental disability. In the story, the father, D, succumbs to traditional Japanese pressures and prejudices against raising a mentally disabled child and lets his newborn son starve to death. This is in stark contrast to Ōe's own decision to love and raise his disabled son. D's baby returns as a ghost and ultimately drives D to suicide, creating a haunting tale about the grave consequences of a father being unable to face the responsibility of raising a seriously disabled child.
The story opens as the unnamed narrator reflects back to a time ten years earlier. Then entering college, he is interviewed by a rich banker. The overbearing man is looking for a companion to keep scandal away from his twenty-eight-year-old son, the composer D, who has become obsessed with the idea that he is living with a monster. Once a week, the narrator is to accompany D on his wanderings throughout Tokyo.
When meeting D, the narrator is told that there is a being in the sky that is invisible to all people but him. Occasionally, it comes down to D when he is in the open. D asks the narrator not to act startled in such a case. The latter agrees. Toward the end of their first day, D acts as if he has an invisible companion while they are part of a crowd watching the frenzied solitary dance of an old businessperson.
The narrator asks D's nurse about the composer's monster. With clear contempt, the nurse explains that it is a huge baby as big as a kangaroo, dressed in a white cotton nightgown and afraid of dogs and police officers. When the narrator meets D again, D knows about the conversation with the nurse. D says that he is not living in the present anymore but is traveling through time and does not want to leave as much as a footprint or the memory of a conversation with anybody else in Tokyo.
The narrator's visit to D's former wife reveals the nature and name of the monster. D calls him Aghwee, after the first and only sound made by their son, who was born with what looked like a brain hernia. While his wife was in a feverish coma after her cesarean, D and the physician decided to starve the baby to death by feeding it nothing but sugar water instead of milk. After the boy's death, an autopsy revealed that he had an operable, benign tumor rather than a permanent defect. D divorced his wife and began seeing Aghwee in the sky. The composer's former wife gives the narrator a key to give to D. Eventually, the narrator mails the key and learns that it opens the locker in which D keeps his original scores, which D burns in the narrator's presence.
The narrator is sent to D's mistress, with whom D slept on the day his baby was born. He is instructed to tell her that D, who stopped visiting her after the baby's death, will never see her again. The mistress fails to seduce the narrator, who returns to Tokyo.
While on a bicycle outing in winter, D and the narrator run into a pack of dogs. Afraid that D may attack the dogs to protect Aghwee, the narrator bursts out in tears and suddenly feels Aghwee's hands on his shoulder. Later, D tells him that the sky is full of beings representing cherished things the living have lost and that one can see them only by making a sacrifice.
On Christmas Eve, D jumps in front of a truck, apparently trying to save Aghwee from being run over. The narrator visits D in the hospital before his death and wonders whether D made up the story of Aghwee to cover his suicide. Ten years later, after the narrator loses his right eye in an attack by vicious children, he again senses Aghwee's presence, brought on by his own personal tragedy.