A Personal Matter: Analysis of Major Characters
"A Personal Matter" delves into the complexities of its main characters as they navigate personal crises and moral dilemmas. The protagonist, Bird, is a disillusioned, twenty-seven-year-old former graduate student who grapples with the reality of fatherhood when his first son is born with severe abnormalities. Struggling with feelings of entrapment in his marriage and life choices, Bird initially seeks escape through alcohol and a fantasy of leaving for Africa. Himiko, Bird's former lover, represents a contrasting lifestyle, embodying freedom and sexual liberation, yet she encourages Bird to abandon his responsibilities. Bird's wife, unnamed and depicted as passive, faces her own challenges and becomes a focal point for Bird’s frustrations. Additionally, Bird's father-in-law, who initially assists Bird professionally, paradoxically undermines him, while his mother-in-law tries to shield her daughter from the painful truth of the baby's condition. Together, these characters paint a vivid picture of the struggles between personal desires and societal expectations, making the narrative a profound exploration of responsibility, identity, and familial bonds.
A Personal Matter: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Kenzaburo Oe
First published: Kojinteki na taiken, 1964 (English translation, 1968)
Genre: Novel
Locale: An unnamed Japanese city
Plot: Realism
Time: The 1960's
Bird, a twenty-seven-year-old graduate school dropout who is now a cram-school teacher. Small, thin, and round-shouldered, with a pointed nose, thin lips, cold eyes, and a squawky voice, he still uses the nickname given to him in adolescence. Feeling caged, Bird resisted his marriage by indulging in a four-month drunk and dropping out of graduate school. The birth of his first son, with serious abnormalities, confronts him with a moral dilemma. Instead of killing his child, he decides to stop running away from responsibility and takes both his wife and his child home to an uncertain future.
Himiko, a former college girlfriend of Bird. Now widowed and a full-time sexual adventuress, she takes Bird in during his initial shock at the birth of his baby with two heads. She becomes smitten with his fantasy of escape to Africa and encourages him to destroy the unfortunate child. When Bird assumes full responsibility for the child, she departs for Africa.
Bird's wife, who gives birth to a malformed son later named Kikuhiko. Nameless and blameless, she is the target of Bird's intense sense of lacking and dissatisfaction in his life.
Bird's father-in-law, the retired chair of the English department at a small private college. Although he got Bird his teaching job, he also undermines Bird's success by giving him a bottle of liquor the day the baby is born.
Bird's mother-in-law, who attends her daughter at the birth. She wants to conceal the nature of the baby's deformity from Bird's wife.