Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Tale for the Time Being, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Time, Impermanence, and the Present
The Difficulty of Communication
Life vs. Death
Coincidences and Connections
Sexual Perversion and Violence
Summary
Analysis
Ruth includes the first few lines from a poem called “Rambling Thoughts” by a Japanese feminist poet named Yosano Akiko. In the poem, Akiko writes that mountains used to move in the past, and that they will soon move again. She also writes that women are “awakening from their deep slumber.” Akiko expresses a desire to “write entirely in the first person.” Ruth mentions that the poem was first published in 1911.
Akiko’s poem expresses an awareness of vast and inevitable change by talking about the moving mountains. It also expresses a desire for change in the lives of women, advocating for their empowerment and telling their “first person” stories. Nao’s diary does all these things, suggesting that Ruth sees Nao’s diary as a feminist work.
Themes
