Hello and welcome back, everyone! These past few weeks, since my blog about Milan Kundera, I’ve had difficulty finding the time to sit down and read a full-length novel that I wasn’t already reading for one of my classes. With stressors in mind, I started to scramble through my bookshelf for a lesser-known book that had an impact on my life and the lives of others. While doing so, I came across a book that I had completely disregarded from my mind halfway through my reading of it: No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. If you’ve read it, you can probably guess why I chose to forget this book, a lot of the themes found in this novel are heavy to accept, and it didn’t help that I was visiting themes of suicide, depression, and alienation after my re-read of A Little Life. So, I put the book down some months ago and tucked it away until just yesterday when I decided to re-read and finish the novel. Luckily, I was able to finish it, but at some cost to my mental well-being. Before I delve into this, I’d like to offer a similar warning I gave with Hanya Yanagihara’s novel. If you aren’t in a good headspace, don’t be afraid to put the book down. Many who suffer have found Dazai’s work to be a comfort to them and even inspirational, but I’d argue it’s easier to read this and be put into a more negative headspace. All that being said, I’d like to introduce you to No Longer Human.
The novel itself is a fairly short read, coming in at about 170 pages. Published in 1948, the book chronicles Japan (mainly Tokyo) from 1946-1948 in the aftermath of World War 2. While the war takes a backstage to the plot, reading between the lines lets the reader infer upon the cultural impact of the war and Japan’s decay from Democracy to Fascism in the preceding years. At its core, No Longer Human is about a man who feels disillusioned with society, but its reception (#2 best-selling book in Japan) points to the idea that Osamu’s character represents entire generations. The novel saw great success upon its release, but sadly, Dazai didn’t live to see the impact it had on the world. Dazai committed suicide shortly after the last section of his novel was published, and in reading the novel, this comes as no surprise.
No Longer Human is widely considered a semi-autobiographical novel of Dazai’s life. Most of the core events that take place are ripped right from his own experiences. The novel follows a protagonist named Oba Yozo from childhood to (roughly) his 40’s, who describes the inner-workings of his mind through journal entries. The speaker of the novel is not Yozo himself but someone who found his journals, though there’s much debate on who is talking when. At any point in the story, one can easily imagine the narrator to be all three- the nameless speaker, Yozo, or Dazai. The narrative follows the estranged mind of Yozo who learns to cope with alienation through “clowning,” drugs, sex, and overall debauchery and squalor. The protagonist constantly refers to himself as a “parasite,” a “Toad,” and other subhuman creatures, and demonstrates that he’s felt this dysmorphia since his early childhood. He has absolutely no concept of what friends, lovers, and even families are, and often manipulates all of these groups to protect his addictions and decadence. All of these actions and themes can be found throughout Dazai’s life to the point that many consider this a piece of creative nonfiction. Like Dazai himself, Yozo struggles physically and mentally throughout his entire life, and spends much of his time lying in bed either recuperating or deteriorating. Dazai was also known to be plagued by horrible depression and addiction, and he even dodged the draft in World War 2 because he had tuberculosis.
The most notable reasons this is at least semi-autobiographical is the depictions of Yozo’s attempts at suicide. Early on in the book, Yozo falls in love with a woman and they both make a suicide pact. They both swim into the ocean in hopes of drowning, but somehow Yozo survives. The very same thing, word for word, happened to Dazai at the age of 21. This was his first attempt in a string of 4 over the course of his life, but in the first he fell in love with a woman and made the same pact, only he survived. What follows in the novel is Yozo’s complete decline. He’s expelled from university, cut off from his family, and spends his days being watched and confined to a single room. Much of the same happened for Dazai. As mentioned before, Dazai did end up killing himself, and many think the writing of this novel spurred his decision. This is the only attempt included in the novel, and it mirrors Dazai’s final attempt exactly. Much like his first, he fell in love with a woman, made a pact, and swam out into the Tamagawa Canal in Tokyo, only this time he met his end. I for one don’t think this is any coincidence, and I think the debate over whether or not this is fiction is ultimately meaningless. What this novel truly is, is a 170 page long suicide note.
For many, these descriptions will turn them away from the novel, but even today it speaks for generations. Its popularity in America is no surprise, but again Dazai didn’t live to see global recognition. It was published in America three years before Catcher In the Rye, and is loved for many of the same reasons. Yozo and Holden are fairly similar characters, but No Longer Human takes a more nihilistic approach to human nature. While Holden Caulfield’s attitude is developed at the expense and dislike of others, Yozo’s is dedicated solely to himself. Yozo doesn’t particularly like people, but shows he has the capacity to love. While Holden manipulates those around him while holding a superiority complex, Yozo claims to manipulate others while seeing himself as an actual parasite to the world. I use the word “claims” purposefully here. In reading between the character’s descriptions of events, any reader can point to the idea that Yozo in fact doesn’t manipulate or take advantage of those around him, instead he mistakes feelings of requited love and respect to mean he must have misused someone or simply tricked them into loving him.
In this respect, Dazai’s Yozo is the direct opposite of Salinger’s Holden. Unlike Salinger’s approach to nihilism as some sort of egoism, Dazai’s comes from a complete lack of self-interest. I for one dislike Catcher in the Rye for all the reasons I’m supposed to like it. Holden, I believe is meant as sort of a satire of the feelings of a generation, one who eventually finds redemption. But unlike this character, Yozo never comes to terms with any ideas for his future. No Longer Human is about many things including but not limited to the artist’s struggle, privilege guilt, the human condition, nihilism, suicide, etc. but at the end of the novel, many find themselves sympathizing with the sometimes-annoying Yozo. He certainly complains a lot throughout the novel, not from a place of disdain for society, but from his own alienation from it. Yozo, no matter what he claims, never truly hates anybody but himself. This deep, dark dive into the human psyche is certainly an undertaking not to be taken lightly, and I maintain that what lies between the lines is more important than any plot that may appear, but if you’re able and willing, you might discover that this novel, and thus Dazai, speaks to you in a way you haven’t been spoken to before. Of course, it’s been said, but the world is a worse place without more of Dazai’s work, and the continued support of his novels testifies to this. At the age of 39, he took his own life, but he also left Japan (and eventually the world) with a novel that understands the more heartbreaking worlds, thoughts, feelings, and actions contained in the human mind.
-Samuel McFerron, Blog Editor.
Samuel McFerron – Blog Editor, Prose Editor & Poetry Editor: Samuel is a Junior at Lewis University. They are double majoring in English and Philosophy with a concentration in Literature. They aspire to become a professor of Ethics and spend most of their free time reading and writing. They hope to improve upon their writing skills as well as their literary analysis skills during their time here at Lewis and are seeking publication within this time frame. Some authors they recommend are David Foster Wallace, Milan Kundera, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Emma Goldman.