하야시 후미코의『굴(牡蠣)』론 -시류(時流)에 영합하지 못하는 청년의 좌절감-

Abstract

Fumiko Hayashi paid out of her pocket and held a publication launch party after publishing ‘Kaki’. As her first objective novel, it can be said that this is an important work for Fumiko. When the novel was published, the society of Japan was rough between the Manchurian Incident in 1931 and the Sino-Japanese War in 1937. While adopting the Western culture, the city of Tokyo was rapidly modernized and the population was increased then. The hero of ‘Kaki’, Shukichi Morita aged 34 and the heroine, Tama Higuchi aged 25 came to Tokyo from their hometowns. Shukichi came from Takamatsu and changed his job many times in Tokyo. One day, he worked as a gardener and fell on ground and injured his head. It caused a disability of concentration and made it difficult to use public transportation. Then, he was not willing but made some women's bags at home to survive. However, the cheaper mass-production bags came into the market and he struggled even more after that. He decided to come back to his hometown, Takamatsu with his wife but the people there treated them as strangers. Then they returned to Tokyo even though they had nothing to do in the capital. Finally, Tama left her husband and started work as a hostess at a bar. Shukichi was abandoned not only by his wife, but also by an older sister in law. He thought the problem had been caused by himself, and had not need to financially struggle if he had a sewing machine. However, he could not afford to buy one, and it made him mentally distracted. While going through this stage, the author drew not only struggling Shukichi, but also the people who could not catch up the main stream of the modernization, which made all the people in the cities strangers.