Chapter 1 quotes

"Noboru's mother closed his bedroom door and locked it"(pg. 3)

• Why lock it? Control? Security? Punishment?
• Imprisonment?

"Did the peephole just happen to be here, an accident?" (pg. 6)

• Peephole, not seeing the bigger picture but rather just a small part of it- metaphor.
• Accident- coincidence- reason for everything?

"Shortly after he made this discovery, Noboru began spying on his mother at night, particularly when she had nagged or scolded him" (pg. 7) 

"On nights when she was gentle, he never looked." (pg. 7)

• Spying on his mother at night has a very negative connotation.
• Did he spy on her as a punishment for scolding him? He didn't spy on her when they got along. 
• Women seem vulnerable but sacred- only he can see her, but it's through a peephole. 

"He had a terrible time when she went near the wall mirror, for it hung in a corner of the room he couldn't see." (pg. 7)

• He was sexually attracted to his mother which is a negative connotation. 
• It shows the curiousity in the young teenage boy of the new surroundings. 
• It shows how he can't see the whole picture and some things are out of his view.  

"He wondered if that had anything to do with the emptiness of his own world." (pg. 8)

• Metaphor, he is talking about the house but relating it to how he feels. 

"He never cried, not even in his dreams, for hardheartedness was a point of pride." (pg. 9)

• This hilghlights the culture in which Noboru lives in and the expectations there are on him to be a man. 
• Highlighting the fact that showing vulnerability is not in the books for a boy nor man. 

Part 1, chapter 1

Chapter 1

In this chapter we are introduced to three very important characters,

Noboru Kuroda- a 13 year old Japanese boy. 

Noboru lives in Japan with his mother. His father died when he was 8 years old. In this chapter we see him watching her mother get changed and having sexual intercourse with another man. This makes me think that the boy is very immature and curious about women as he is in that age where girls are on his mind and he starts to wonder about them. Another intereting thing about the boy is that the opening line in this chapter is "Sleep well Dear."Noboru's mother closed his bedroom door and locked it." (pg. 3) This raises questions such as "why is the door locked?" "is he being punished or is it a safety precaution?" "His mother said "dear", how good is the bond between the two?" We already know as a reader that he snuck out after dark, which means the locked door could be a punishment. But we also know they live in hard times, which means the locked door could be a safety precaution.

Ryuji Tsukazaki

Ryuji Tsukazaki- the sailor who had a fling with Noboru's mother. In this chapter we know very little about him because we only see him in a sexual context with Fusako.

Fusako Kuroda- Noboru's mother. 

Fusako- is a 33 year old widow with a young teenage boy. She has fallen in love with the young sailor. According to her son she is a beautiful young lady with a body and face that looks younger than her actual age. She loves "handicrafts" (pg. 5) such as "embroidery".