Destroying Society's Human Being
A Critique of No Longer Human

Picture
Source: dazai.or.jp
“All that can happen now is that one foul, humiliating sin will be piled on another, and my sufferings will become only the more acute. I want to die. I must die. Living itself is the source of sin,” wrote Osamu Dazai in his novel, No Longer Human [1]. The book chronicles the life of Japanese man Yozo from childhood to adulthood, detailing his gradual self-deterioration. The book is eerily autobiographical, with many events paralleling Dazai's own life including attempts at suicide. Some time after publishing the book that became the second best selling ever in Japan, Dazai committed suicide. Perhaps it was the steadfast belief that he would never find a place in society, or possibly his ingrained lack of faith in humanity that triggered this tragic spiral, but the theme of isolation continues to resound in Japan and among its people.

No Longer Human is, in simple terms, about the plight of a human who thought too differently from others. The book opens with narration from a novelist who is looking into the life of Yozo through photographs and diaries. Yozo's own peculiar narration only begins after it is firmly established that there is something off—not quite human—about him.  From a young age, he characterizes himself as something other than human, completely detached from normal emotions and needs, even claiming an inability to feel hunger. Without a sense of empathy, happiness, or grief, he questions the genuine intent of others: “If my neighbors manage to survive without killing themselves, without going mad, maintaining an interest in political parties, not yielding to despair, resolutely pursuing the fight for existence, can their griefs really be genuine?”[1]

Projecting onto the real world

This theme is not rare in literature. J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye acquired an enormous following by depicting disillusionment with the world through an adolescent's perspective. However, the main difference lies in the protagonist Yozo, who is far more detached from humanity than Salinger’s Holden, who frequently demonstrated sentimental moments that he later denied. On the other hand Yozo is so completely detached that he only comprehends absolutisms. Because humans do not behave according to absolutisms and often display contradictory behavior, Yozo cannot understand them and thus fears them, but he must attempt to accommodate them out of necessity.

Labeling this lack of human connection as sociopathic is superficial. While not every person can necessarily relate to Yozo's (and in many ways Dazai's) emotions and views, the aspect of isolation and social rejection is particularly significant. In Japan, where the number of hikikomori (those who seclude themselves in their houses or even rooms) is a national issue, readers are likely to find some sort of connection with Yozo's sense of isolation. In fact, hikikomori has become somewhat of a focus in Japanese media and  culture. In the 2002 anime Welcome to the NHK, the themes of the show largely draw upon the same cynicism and mistrust of humans that No Longer Human does. The show explains Yozo's position in society precisely: “According to the results of my research, not just hikikomori, but all emotional problems are caused by an inability to conform to one's environment. Basically, because you can't get along well with the world, various difficulties arise.”[2]

Like many Japanese, whose integration into society is based on understanding many social nuances and respectful gestures such as bowing, Yozo in fact cares to an extreme degree what others think of him. Perhaps a more accurate phrasing is that he keeps up an act as a defense mechanism against being different—to avoid the “assaults of apprehension and terror at the thought that I am the only one who is entirely unlike the rest.”[1] This motif of an individual being swallowed up by society corresponds quite closely with the increase in pressure placed on students. The competitive environment, the social nuances at school, and the implicit social restrictions create a sense of inescapability from other humans, prompting many to accept a hikikomori lifestyle.

What it means to be human

Would isolation be considered running away from one's fear? No Longer Human does not answer that question, nor does it seek to. Ultimately the book does not serve to give others who feel isolated by society a solution or a concrete result; it simply serves to deconstruct the makings of humanity through a single main character. By the end of the novel, Yozo states that he is “disqualified as a human being.”[1] However, his definition of human being is flawed: he believes that a human is one of the homogeneous masses while a deviation is inhuman. But from a reader’s perspective, there is nothing as humanizing as his directionless, deteriorating story with no real plot and no real end.

This book does not read like a fictional account. There is no main focus or concrete story other than Yozo's life itself, and even then the events are told from a potentially unreliable narrator. Each chapter is draining and full of insight into the main character, whose head is a torrent of conflicted and despondent thoughts cannibalizing one another to produce an emptiness that resounds in the reader. It is debatable whether or not the novel is a tragedy. The ending is not particularly tragic or impactful, and rather than building up events culminate in a downfall, No Longer Human starts at the bottom of the fall and only trudges further into the dark.

More importantly, there is no single event causing "great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe."[3] Yozo, like many young hikikomori and even elderly/older Japanese citizens, experiences disillusionment and reality in an excruciating way. Perhaps the fact that Yozo is born socially isolated and cynical is miraculously convenient, but it paints a very different type of character (and human) compared to the stereotypical loner in the reader's mind. Can such a person still experience tragedy? Happiness? Or perhaps since childhood, Yozo was already condemned to his fate and happiness was impossible; he was dying since he was born.

To have been dying since birth seems to be the main lament that comes across the pages and Dazai’s words create a slow, inevitable descent into a profoundly human end.


References

[1] Dazai, Osamu. No Longer Human. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1958.

[2] Takimoto, Tatsuhiko, Lindsey Akashi, and Laura Wyrick. Welcome to the N.H.K. Los Angeles: Tokyopop., 2007.

[3] Oxford English Dictionary. Accessed September 30, 2015.

Lucy Zhang is a freshman at Duke University.