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
(1) Oliver says that Babette seems like a nice friend for Nao. He remarks that he’d like to visit Akiba someday and says that he feels sorry for the bugs. Ruth shuts the diary, turns her back to Oliver, and turns the light off. As they lie there in silence, it feels like a huge amount of time passes.
Ruth is moved by Nao’s struggles and also seems to sense that Nao’s friendship with Babette is potentially dangerous or manipulative, given that Babette is a much older woman. This is why Oliver’s carefree comments annoy Ruth—yet Ruth is also aware that moments of silent anger are a waste of time.
Themes
(2) Finally, Oliver asks if he said something wrong, and Ruth replies that he did. She says that after all the horrible things Nao has been through, including a father who selfishly tried to kill himself, Oliver can only talk about bugs and Babette. Oliver says that he sees her point, but that it’s still nice that Nao has a friend. Ruth says that Babette is “a pimp” who is “recruiting” Nao, since she is “running a compensated-dating operation” out of Fifi’s. Oliver is surprised to hear this.
It seems that, as a woman, Ruth is more attuned than Oliver to the sexual dangers that women face. She suggests that Babette is essentially trying to recruit Nao into sex trafficking, and that Fifi’s café is just a front for an escort or prostitution service.
Themes
(3) Oliver admits that he was wrong about Babette, but he says that Ruth is wrong about Haruki not trying to help Nao. He explains that Haruki almost won the auction—he was “C.imperator”—and it wasn’t his fault that he lost at the last minute. Cyclommatus imperator is the Latin name for the staghorn beetle, which Haruki had made an origami version of and won a prize for.
Oliver is a careful listener and has connected the dots to discern that Haruki tried to buy Nao’s panties. Nao, too, seems to have known this. She didn’t explicitly explain it in her diary, though she dropped hints and expected her reader to make the connections.
Themes
Ruth hates that Oliver has made all these connections and explains all of it “so slowly and carefully” to Ruth—as if “she were an imbecile or had Alzheimer’s.” Oliver used to use the same tone on Ruth’s mother. Oliver continues, saying that he thinks Nao figured this out. This was why she understood her father’s line in his suicide note about the pointlessness of clinging to life when he had nothing more to offer—her father had no more money to offer in the auction. Ruth is annoyed that Oliver sounds so smug.
Oliver is most likely just trying to be kind and explain things in a way that makes sense, but this triggers upsetting memories of Ruth’s past. Her fear that she will get Alzheimer’s like her mother clouds her emotions and makes her angry with Oliver, because he made connections that she didn’t.
Themes
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Ruth says it’s disgusting that Haruki bid on his daughter’s panties, and she calls him a “sicko.” Oliver is surprised—he says that Haruki only wanted to stop some hentai from buying them. He says that Ruth must be “the sicko” to think that Haruki might get sexually excited by the panties. Oliver says that Haruki may be a loser, but he’s not a pervert. Ruth retorts that Oliver would surely understand about losers.
Oliver clarifies that Haruki wasn’t trying to buy Nao’s panties for perverted reasons—he was only trying to protect her by preventing an actual pervert from buying them. In her anger, Ruth makes some comments that she doesn’t quite believe, implying that Oliver would understand Haruki because they are both losers.
Themes
(4) Ruth immediately apologizes, explaining that she was angry because Oliver had called her a “sicko.” However, she knows it is too late as she sees the look in Oliver’s eyes.
Oliver seems deeply hurt because Ruth implied he was a loser, and her apology doesn’t make a difference. Ruth’s mean comment has cut off all effective communication between the couple.
Themes
(5) Ruth and Oliver don’t fight often, and they know to avoid certain subjects that are triggers. Oliver knows Ruth is sensitive about her memory, and she knows that the word “loser” hurts Oliver’s feelings. Ruth knows that he isn’t a loser—he is, in fact, the smartest person she knows. His mind has helps Ruth learn new things and open up her perspective.
Ruth knows that Oliver is insecure about being a “loser,” just like she is insecure about her memory. Even though Ruth is in awe of Oliver’s brilliance, she doesn’t tell him these things, and instead lies next to him in silence.
Themes
Ruth thinks that Oliver isn’t egotistical or ambitious. He says that his land art projects are successful when he separates himself from his work. Ruth thinks that this means Oliver thinks his work is only successful if he erases himself—yet doing this makes it harder to earn a living. Oliver is insecure because he doesn’t make enough money, and he says that he feels like a loser.
Oliver feels like a “loser” because his work doesn’t make much money. Despite this, he stays true to his artistic vision and has no qualms about his identity and personality as an artist being erased, as long as his work lives on. In this way, he seems similar to Jiko, who is focused on her job of enlightening as many people as she can but is unconcerned about her own mortality.
Themes
