Chiyoko Flashcards
This is the first introduction of Chiyoko in person; previously we only know she is in love with Shinji from her mother.
Chiyoko, the daughter of the lighthouse keeper, was standing at the far end of the pier, holding a Boston bag (p.58)
Irony is created by the inverted commas around ‘refinements’. This mocks the results of academic learning as being artificial and leading only to a change of attitude, as university education is not based on direct experience of love or the natural world.
She always wore a gloomy expression (p.58)
As Shinji and Hatsue almost make love in the storm, Chiyoko shelters in the lighthouse. She learns about books rather than directly experiencing love stimulated by feelings connected with the wildness of the sea and wind.
She memorized the names of a group of Victorian lady poets…exactly as though she were memorizing Buddhist scriptures. (p.79)
As she sits studying in the lighthouse, away from the power of the storm, Chiyoko misses city routines, and how all its artificial, mechanical inventions provide security.
She longed for the Tokyo where, even on such a stormy day, the automobiles went back and forth as usual, the elevators went up and down, and the streetcars bustled along. (p.79)
Chiyoko’s unhappiness goes unnoticed because of her self-isolation, which implies it is only through her own action that she might help herself.
Outdoors was the storm; indoors, domesticity. Nowhere was there anyone to heed Chiyoko’s unhappiness. (p.80)
After she dares to confront her feelings on the beach with Shinji, and ask him about what matters to her most, her appearance, she gains wellbeing from her openness.
Chiyoko’s face was full of life … “He told me I’m pretty.” (pp.117-118)
This closes Chiyoko’s character arc - redemption based on recognition she has done wrong, and willingness to take a stand to make it right
If her mother would act as a go-between and persuade Terukichi to let them get married … This was the condition she set for her return to the island. (p.169)
