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Part 1: Sensei and I
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Kokoro, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Loneliness and Friendship
Modernity vs. Tradition
Mentorship
Self-Reflection and Living in the Past
Summary
Analysis
The narrator returns home to find his father’s health relatively unchanged. His father praises him for his graduation, which first pleases the narrator, then annoys him, as he sees the overbearing praise as proof of his father’s “naïve provincialism.” He says as much, and his father explains that his excitement was in part because he did not initially believe he’d live to see it. The narrator feels great shame and shows his father his creased diploma. Privately, the narrator discusses his father’s health with his mother, but she seems surprisingly unworried, noting that her husband appears to be healthy. The narrator shares his knowledge of the disease, but his mother brushes him off, as does his father, though the latter listens more attentively.
The narrator criticizes his father’s enthusiasm over his diploma, seeing it symptomatic of his “naïve provincialism.” His father flips the situation on its head, revealing that he was just excited to have lived to see him graduate. What the narrator took as evidence of his father’s inferior, unsophisticated worldview thus highlights the narrator’s own egotistical and selfish nature.
Active
Themes
The narrator and his mother continue discussing his father’s mortality. His mother concludes that, by worrying so much, her husband is likely to live for many years, while they could die soon. His parents discuss a celebration for the narrator’s graduation, but the narrator protests. Secretly, he hates the opportunistic party-guests, though he tells his parents that it is the elaborateness of the party that bothers him. They guilt him with talk of public embarrassment, and he relents. His father criticizes the narrator’s argumentative attitude, claiming it’s a product of his education, and the narrator realizes his father resents him. Later that evening, they reconcile and agree amicably on a date for the party. When the emperor becomes ill, however, the plans are canceled.
The narrator and his parents clash over having a graduation party for the narrator. While the narrator sees the party as further evidence of his parent’s crass rural attitudes, intended only to impress their neighbors, his parents view the party as worthy cause and a necessary social courtesy. After the diploma incident, however, the narrator’s father proves less forgiving, openly critiquing the narrator’s argumentativeness. This marks a turning point in the narrator’s relationship to his father, with both sides now openly acknowledging their resentment and dislike for the other’s worldview.
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Themes
The narrator struggles to read in the quiet of his parent’s country house, often succumbing to sleep. He writes to friends, including Sensei, hoping that his letter will reach him. Sensei does not write back, and the narrator’s father, fixated on the declining health of the emperor, begins to grow quiet and anxious. His mother claims it’s just depression, but the narrator is less sure. When the emperor dies, the narrator’s father is crestfallen. The narrator thinks about the light of Sensei’s house shining in the gloom-filled city of Tokyo. He does not know yet that the light will soon be snuffed, leaving him in total darkness.
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Themes
The narrator rejects an offer for a mid-tier teaching position at a secondary school. His parents are not upset, expecting that he will get a better offer. The narrator explains that times have changed, that jobs are harder to come by than when his older brother graduated. Concerned with their reputation in the community, the narrator’s parents explain that they expect him to become financially independent and suggest he ask Sensei for help. The narrator does not attempt to explain his disillusionment with their world, nor Sensei’s imposed idleness, which they as working folk do not understand. The narrator senses his father ruminating on his death, picturing the narrator’s mother all alone in their house.
Active
Themes
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To convince his parents of his earnestness in finding a job, the narrator writes a letter to Sensei asking for help. He is only half serious, but he is bothered when he does not hear back after a week. He toys with the idea of visiting Tokyo, temporarily forgetting his father’s worsening health. His father forgets this too, and he does nothing to sort out his affairs or inheritance. In September, the narrator decides to go to Tokyo, asking his father for an allowance until he finds a job. His father agrees but scolds him for needing his parents’ financial support. The narrator returns to his room, reflecting melancholically on the fate of those close to him, like Sensei and his father. He comments that, because they are so different, he cannot think of one without the other.
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Themes
The narrator compares his knowledge of his father to his limited understanding of Sensei. When his father dies, he will be sad, but no more than any son. However, the thought of Sensei dying before the narrator can learn more about him is unbearable. Two days before leaving, the narrator’s father faints again, and the narrator postpones his departure. His father claims he’s improving, boasting a hearty appetite. However, the narrator and his mother write to their family, warning them of the narrator’s father’s condition. A doctor informs them the crisis could come at any moment, and they hire an in-house nurse. Despite this, the narrator’s father seems oblivious, expressing his wish to travel to Tokyo when he is better.
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Themes
The narrator remembers his graduation dinner with Sensei. Death was merely a matter of speculation then; now it seems poised to become reality. Still, he attempts to cheer his father with false promises of visiting Tokyo. His father’s condition worsens, and the house grows busy with visiting relatives and neighbors. Finally, the narrator sends telegrams to his brother and sister. His brother promises to come, but his sister, who is pregnant, has her husband come in her place. Though the narrator finds some private moments to read, he is depressed by the lack of work he has accomplished over the summer. He thinks of life after his father’s death, and he compares his father to Sensei again. The two men are so different in position, education, and character.
Active
Themes
The narrator and his mother discuss his father’s health, but they quickly switch to the topic of his employment. His mother guilts him to write to Sensei regarding employment, suggesting it would comfort his father, but the narrator does not, privately fearing Sensei’s contempt. The narrator’s brother arrives and the two of them discuss their father’s habit of reading the newspaper, worrying that he won’t understand or like what he reads. His sister’s husband also arrives, and the narrator’s father expresses his desire to visit his daughter’s new child when he recovers. His father announces news of General Nogi’s death and the narrator comments on the unusual news in the papers.
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Themes
The narrator receives a telegram from Sensei asking him to visit him in Tokyo. The narrator telegrams back he can’t, citing his sick father, and he writes a longer letter to fully explain. Several days later, the narrator receives another telegram from Sensei saying he need not come any more. Two doctors arrive to examine the narrator’s father, and they say he needs an enema. The narrator’s father’s condition worsens, and he grows less and less shameful of his bodily functions. After receiving an enema, his father begins to feel better. His mother tells her husband of Sensei’s telegram, lying that Sensei found him a post in Tokyo. When questioned on it, the narrator leaves the room, as he isn’t brave enough to lie.
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Themes
The narrator finds comfort in the fact that his father’s illness does not cause him suffering. He shares a room with his brother, and despite their past differences, they grow closer under the circumstances. Even so, like his mother and father, his brother fails to understand Sensei and criticizes Sensei’s idleness. The narrator does not reveal his mother’s deception concerning Sensei’s job offer but grows increasingly worried about Sensei’s response letter; he does not want to disappoint his family with bad news, even though he cares little whether Sensei gets him a job. The narrator’s father vomits a strange liquid, and the narrator recognizes it as a sign of death, remembering what Sensei and his wife told him.
The narrator and his brother discuss what to do once their father dies. His brother suggests the narrator stay with their mother, while the narrator suggests it is his brother’s duty, as the eldest child, to do so. Their father begins speaking deliriously. They gather around his bed, and he asks often for his wife, Omitsu. She affectionately tells how he once beat her with a broom. The narrator and his brother discuss speaking to their father of his will, but they put it off. Suddenly, their father enters a coma, only waking occasionally, worse each time. The narrator receives a bulky letter from Sensei, but his father’s condition deteriorates quickly, and he has no time to read it.
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Themes
Catching a short break, the narrator reads the first page. Sensei explains that the letter contains his story, but that he can only reveal it now, not later. The narrator is uneasy, but he is summoned to his father’s bedside before he can skim the rest of the letter. When he does, he discovers that Sensei wrote he will likely be dead by the letter’s arrival. Stunned, the narrator rereads the letter to find evidence to the contrary. After checking on his father once more, the narrator looks for the doctor to request prolonging his father’s life, but he cannot find him. He writes a note to his family and boards a train to Tokyo.
