Paper #2 Draft B
Yuki Okuda, the protagonist of Kyoko Mori’s short story “Silent Spring”, is a lonely, misunderstood and depressed Japanese teenage girl who lives in Japan. Yuki suffers more than the average Japanese teenage girl unhappiness at home throughout her entire teenage years. Yuki’s was 12 years old when her father Hideki was rumored to be the cause of Yuki’s mother Shizuko tragic death when she committed suicide. After Shizuko’s death, Yuki’s lives with her father Hideki who is selfish and fearful. Hideki gets remarried to Hanae, the antagonist of “Silent Spring”. Hanae is an unsympathetic woman and also self-centered like Hideki. Yuki and Hideki had a weak relationship before the death of Shizuko; this caused Hideki to never truly understand his daughter Yuki making it hard for his new wife Hanae. Hanae hates Yuki and treats her badly and becomes the wicked stepmom to Yuki, causing Yuki to avoid going home whenever she can. Yuki gets extremely involved with school. “Silent Spring” is the story of how a teenage girl uses the mental pain and misfortune she experiences as motivation to become an independent and determined person.
Yuki’s had a life changing tragedy when she was 12 years old, Yuki’s mother Shizuko committed suicide. Yuki and Shizuko’s family blamed Yuki’s father Hideki for being the cause of Shizuko’s decision to commit suicide, according to Mori ” The thought of Yuki, as far as he could remember, brought him nothing but a useless sense of guilt—guilt for her mother's unhappiness, guilt for her eventual suicide, for which, Hideki knew, Yuki held him responsible”(Mori 156). “In-laws as an admission of blame on his part for his first wife's death”( Mori 156) . Yuki used her mother Shizuko’s death as motivation to carry on her mother’s tradition and become a great artist.
Hideki’s only considers how situations would affect him and chooses to never stand up for his daughter Yuki. Hanae says anything out her mouth about Yuki