Natsume Soseki's Kokoro

Anabella Morabito
Professor Thibodeau
English 202U
9 October 2012

Kokoro: An Exploration of Human Relationships
In his work, Kokoro, Natsume Soseki delves into themes of humanity which were being drastically challenged during the end of the Meiji era and the beginning of the modern period. The title of the book translates to something like “heart”, or “the heart of things”, which directly points to ideas of love, friendship, relationships, and the self; all of which Soseki surveys. But more importantly, in this book Natsume Soseki predominantly explores the notion of free will and solitude through the character of Sensei and the implications which our choices – taken under that free will we have been granted – can have on those who surround
us. Ultimate, through Sensei’s interaction with the narrator and his wife, Soseki exposes the idea that in the end human beings are interconnected, knowingly or not, in ways which are inevitable and undeniable.
Soseki explores this idea through various relationships: it can be seen in the narrator’s relationship with his father as compared to his relationship with Sensei, it is also evident in all the romantic attachment, we can see it is in small ways with national events such as the death of General Nogi and the emperor, and the ways in which these two have a profound impact on the Japanese populace. Hence, all these relationships prove the interconnectivity of human beings as it is explored in Kokoro.
The most iconic relationship found in Kokoro is that of Sensei and the narrator. It is complex, yet in it there’s a simplicity that is rather touching. The way that Sensei and the narrator go for walks and talk of each other, or the way the narrator “considered conversation with Sensei more profitable than lectures at the university” (Soseki 22), or the way he respects Sensei’s wife and their home, these are all things which show us the importance of Sensei in the narrator’s life. However, a stark contrast which is drawn in the second part
of the book is that of the narrator’s relationship with his own family. The narrator claims “Inwardly, I compared my father’s unaffected pleasure with the way Sensei had congratulated me that night at the dinner table. And I had greater admiration for Sensei with his secret contempt for such things as university degrees, than I had for my father, who seemed to me to value them more than they were worth. I began at last to dislike my father’s naïve provincialism” (63). In this statement at the beginning of the second part we begin to see the comparison which will haunt the narrator throughout the rest of this part. He continually draws parallels between the two figures going even further into saying that “It was natural that I should associate the two in my thoughts. The contrast between them was so sharp that I could not think of one without thinking of the other” (77), thus, “once more, side by side with the image of my father, there appeared in my thoughts the image of Sensei. With my mind’s eye I gazed upon these two figures, so different from each other in position, in education, and in character” (82). These recurring thoughts dominate the second part of the book and serve to show the bond which ties Sensei and the narrator, a bond which goes beyond the blood ties which unite the narrator and his father. The narrator himself questions the validity of such feelings in the first part when he questions, “For was I not my father’s flesh?” (39). The answer to the narrator lies in that yes, he was of his father’s flesh but Sensei was a paternal figure which he chose. From the start of the book we get the sense that the connection between Sensei and the narrator was beyond any superficial relationship. It was as if the narrator was choosing to become part of Sensei’s future and carry his legacy on until after his death. Towards the culmination of the book Sensei writes that “Without hesitation, I am about to force you into the shadows of this dark world of ours” (99) explaining that this secret world which he before held personally has now become a world of the two, an action which resonates a father-son relationship where the father by raising his child has chosen to share his personal world with him. He later expresses that “Now, I myself am about to cut open my own heart, and drench your face with my blood. And I shall be satisfied if, when my heart stops beating, a new life lodges itself in your breast” (100). A phrase which shows the narrators inheritance of Sensei’s life, for the narrator is receiving life from Sensei’s death. Hence, through the substitute paternal relationship of the narrator and Sensei we see that even in blood ties the choice of the individual can override such a bond, for a person can choose an alternative paternal figure and give it as much, or more, importance than they give to their own father; as did the narrator at the time of Sensei’s and his father’s simultaneous death.
Another indicator of the undeniable influence that our choices have on those who surround us and the connectivity which is inevitable among human beings is seen in the romantic relationships which are present in the story.