A Personal Matter Kenzaburo Oe Pdf

Kenzaburo Oe’s 1964 novel, A Personal Matter , is a semi-autobiographical examination of a father’s existential crisis, focusing on his struggle to accept a child born with a severe brain abnormality. The work uses a "personal matter" to explore themes of postwar Japanese identity and moral responsibility. A detailed analysis of the novel's themes can be found on

An Analysis of the Image of Bird in the Novel “A Personal Matter” a personal matter kenzaburo oe pdf

“He had become a man who could not even save one small baby.”
— Bird’s self-condemnation before the rescue. Kenzaburo Oe’s 1964 novel, A Personal Matter ,

“The monster was his own personal matter, and no one else’s.”
— The ironic understatement that gives the novel its title. “He had become a man who could not

“He had chosen to live with the baby. That meant he had chosen to live with himself.”
— The final moral resolution.

Ōe uses the deformed baby as an allegory for post-WWII Japan. The country, like the baby, was "bombed" (literally at Hiroshima/Nagasaki, figuratively in defeat). Bird’s desire to let the baby die mirrors the Japanese desire to forget the war and rush into economic prosperity. Bird’s final acceptance of the disabled child mirrors Ōe’s plea for Japan to accept its scarred history.