R. Heydrich Character Analysis

Mr. Baynes (who is actually German dissident Rudolf Wegener) has informed Tagomi and General Tedeki of the Nazis’ plan to bomb Japan—and the only way to stop total destruction is for the Japanese to ally with Heydrich, one of the most violent and despicable Nazis. Tagomi’s black-and-white conception of “evil” falls apart as he is confronted with this predicament: every choice causes harm, and so there is no way to do anything purely good. The novel then makes this ethical “muddle” visual (there is only a “chaos of light and dark”), as if Tagomi is quite literally unable to perceive the best course of action.

Interestingly, though Tagomi’s confused visual is almost exactly how he will later describe the little Edfrank triangle he gets from Childan’s shop: he sees the jewelry as at once “dark” (symbolizing “decay and collapse”) and “light” (“pulsing with life”). Ed and Frank’s artwork thus embodies the moral contradiction that Tagomi finds himself in—and, in doing so, makes something almost beautiful out of this confusion.