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The Baby’s Fate Premonished by The Newspaper Swaddling Clothes
(trial draft one) November.9, 2006 The titular swaddling clothes, some loose newspapers, symbolize a miserable life of the baby wrapped in it. At the same time, they stimulate the emotion mixed with guilt, uneasiness and commiseration of the delicate spirit of a woman who is even trapped in danger because of losing in the mind triggered by the soiled newspapers. Yet, who is tortured more by the improper swaddling clothes, the poor baby or our hypersensitive heroine, Toshiko? A number of the story’s readers might vote for Toshiko. Apparently, she is a kind woman with precious relenting heart or she won’t ‘fetch a brand-new piece of flannel from her cupboard’, ‘swaddling the baby in it’ and have ‘lain him carefully in an armchair’. All she did surmounted a normal people of her class would do—leaving the baby along and neglecting his survival. So she needn’t at all keep on grilling herself and afraid of the later vengeance to her own baby. However, the ‘swaddling clothes tortured her so much that she couldn’t help but stick to think the fate of the baby, her own son and herself and felt ‘all her fears and premonitions had suddenly taken concrete form’ when she saw ‘a man in a brown jersey who lay there, curled up on layers of newspapers’, which finally lead her into jeopardy of hurt, rape or even death. It’s unfair. While in my mind, the baby will suffer more from the swaddling clothes as long as Toshiko was not killed by the stranger which is very probable since no matter how powerful his hand was, all he did was ‘seizing Toshiko by her slender wrist’ and even a desperado won’t kill a slightly insane woman gratuitously. Even though Toshiko would be uptight about the baby wrapped in the newspapers throughout the rest of her life, at least Toshiko has a ensured income from her husband and there is little chance for her to worry about sustenance. Yet considering the status of the baby, his life, portended by the soiled newspapers, is bound to be filled with thorns and marsh.
A new born baby, soft, delicacy and vulnerable, should be wrapped in warm, protective and clean swaddling clothes. Yet not every baby is lucky enough to enjoy the bless of the god. Some of them, might be born in a wrong family belonging to the lower class of a society with strict castes. Some of them might be born in a family with irresponsible parents. Some of them might be born in no family and deserted to a place surprisingly adverse against their survival. Under many circumstances, an illegitimate child, like the baby in the story, might pertain to the three hypotheses simultaneously. His mother, a nurse from the employment agency, was shame of his existence or she won’t conceal her pregnancy against her employees. She was indigent or she won’t have to work with an enormous stomach. Even if she was kind enough not to abandon the baby to the litter bin or the orphanage, the baby have no chance to ‘become a respectable citizen’ and obtain the fine, carefully education like Toshiko’s son have. When he grew up, he wouldn’t be able to get a decent job to maintain his life, and will very likely become a vagabond or beggar, having no fixed living place like the man in brown jersey Toshiko noticed at last. Comparing to the milieu the baby belongs to, Toshiko and her family were always staying in paradise. Throughout the story, no evidence shows that the baby wrapped in the swaddling clothes will be able to avoid his fate of a soiled life and that the stigma of an illegitimate child is erasable even if he makes efforts to live a life like Toshiko and her family has. The author, Mishima, is always longing for an unvanquished, imperial Japan. Yet the World War Two became the indelible spot attached to it just like the newspaper swaddling clothes to the baby.
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To date 7 Comment(s)
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Bria
(19.11.06 08:21)
I'm sorry for having kept you waiting so long...Well,here goes my comment:
1,I think you've organized your analysis quite well so there's only a few things about which I feel unclear.And your comparaison between the torture Toshiko have suffered and the one of the baby also makes sense. These are the two highlights I like most and should learn from you most in your essay.
2,Then I'll mark two places which I cannot fully understand:
The first is"Some of them, might be born in a wrong family belonging to the lower class of a society with strict castes.... Under many circumstances, an illegitimate child, like the baby in the story, might pertain to the three hypotheses simultaneously. " There may be some logical problems in this sentence,at least from my viewpoint I don't think these three hypothesis can happen simultaneously even as for the baby in the story. I know that what you want to do is to demonstrate the harsh environment the illegimate baby would bear,so maybe you just need to say it in another way~
The second is "The author, Mishima, is always longing for an unvanquished, imperial Japan. Yet the World War Two became the indelible spot attached to it just like the newspaper swaddling clothes to the baby. " It seems quite unrelated with your previous paragraphs.So I think you should build some connections between them.
3,I have no other suggestions to make except the above ones since I think you've already done a good job. But should the author's and the story's name appear in the first paragraph of your essay?I don't know whether your style is Okay but I suggest that you refer the details in our textbook.
Keep working,Jessica~!=]
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Fred
(27.11.06 10:26)
I share the same stand point with you and I believe that the baby will suffer more. The evidences you have shown do support your thesis well. As follows are the points which impress me a lot.
1 ’So she needn’t at all keep on grilling herself and afraid of the later vengeance to her own baby.’ Neither she nor her boy should be responsible for the misery of children. Moreover she could change nothing.
2 ‘Some of them, might be born in a wrong family belonging to the lower class of a society with strict castes.’ With different families, people will have different lives. A boy of a millionaire is more likely to have a bright future than a boy of a pauper. No one has the chance to choose his father and mother.
However, there are still some points I can not understand well.
1 The baby is a miserable one because he belongs to a lower class? As far as I see, the writer emphasized that the baby was a bustard. A boy of a poor worker can achieve great success. While a bustard can not! It is an ethic problem which, I think, the writer wanted to show us.
2 Does this story have something to do with World War Two? Sure, the writer was a zealot of the Japanese Emperor and the failure of the war struck him. But what is the relationship between the failure and the misery of the baby? I guess you have your idea and you’d better make it clear, which will make your essay more excellent.
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Fred
(27.11.06 10:30)
Sorry for a misspeling. Bustard should be changed into bastard.
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(20.9.11 09:09)
you are assigned to write an essay on writing does not mean that writing it has to be a miserable experience. This is a great chance to be true to your feelings and really express yourself. As long as you're prepared to back up your points with specific examples, whether you love writing or hate it, you shouldn't be shy to tell the truth about what writing is to you.
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