Kokoro

Loneliness/ Solitude:

In the novel, sensei likes going to K’s gravestone alone and enjoys being alone in general. This is a prominent theme in Kokoro, and is essentially sensei’s way of coping with the events that transpired in his collegiate years.

Mentorship:

Sensei serves as a mentor to the narrator throughout the novel. Strangely, he seems to find more guidance in sensei than his own parents. His parents wanted to throw a graduation party for him, even though he was adamant about not having one. Sensei seemed to offer him pieces of life advice through his reticence, and eventually telling him his life story.

Tokyo Bound “Airplane”:

Although the narrator didn’t actually hop on an airplane to go from Tokyo to the country when he received the lengthy letter from Sensei. Upon skimming the letter, he discovered that sensei had mostly likely committed suicide, so he leaves his father’s bedside and boards the earliest train. Although the train ride from Tokyo to the country wasn’t far in distance, I’m sure the narrator wished the train was an airplane to lessen the suspense.

Mailbox:

Put literally, this picture illustrates the mailbox in which the lengthy letter that the narrator was reading on the train back to Tokyo, arrived in.

Dad in the garden:

“He had been engaged in some task out in the garden, and now he went around to the well at the back of the house. As he walked, the grubby handkerchief he had fixed to the back of his old straw hat to keep off the sun flapped behind him” (Soseki 79).

Family:

The importance of family is constantly being brought up, but unfortunately is one of the reasons sensei is so fatalistic and pessimistic. Although he makes sure to implement the importance of the narrator’s family while his father is fighting a persistent sickness.

Beach Scene:

“The next day I followed Sensei into the sea and swam after him. I had gone about two hundred yards when he suddenly stopped swimming and turned to speak to me. We were the only two beings afloat on that blue expanse of water for a considerable distance” (Soseki 7).

Bottled up emotions:

“I gave up drink, but I remained disinclined to do anything else. I resorted to books again, to pass the time. But my reading was aimless--I simply read each book and tossed it aside. [...] In my heart, though, I was saddened that the person I loved and trusted most in the world could not understand me” (Soseki 227).

Clock:

“Slowly my father’s health and spirits declined. His big straw hat with its handkerchief, the one that had taken me by surprise when I first arrived, now neglected” (Soseki 87).

“My father’s condition deteriorated to the point where the fatal blow seemed imminent, only to hover there precariously. Each night the family would go to sleep feeling that tomorrow might well be the day of reckoning” (Soseki 106).