The Inheritance of Loss - Part 2
Jul. 27th, 2008 07:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranThinking about this a bit more...
In my last post, I mentioned that all the characters are weak, yet they're ultimately still sympathetic. It's interesting to try to work out how this was achieved.
One aspect that most of the characters share is that they're all trying to hide some perceived defect, either from others or from themselves. None of them are high-achievers. These aren't the types who are going to go out and conquer the world. At best, they're barely competent to hold down the roles they have, or at least that's how they perceive themselves. Even when they appear to have status or success, the author mercilessly shows us the clay feet under their robes.
The one exception to this is Sai, one of the most prominent characters and potentially the protagonist, except for the fact that she does practically nothing throughout the entire course of the novel (although, by the end of the story, she has, like most of the characters, been thoroughly changed). Her situation is largely sympathetic from the start, owing to the helplessness of the position she is trapped in. Like most of the characters she is not so much the victim of her own choices, but of the choices made for her by others, often before she was born. The inheritance of loss indeed.
In my last post, I mentioned that all the characters are weak, yet they're ultimately still sympathetic. It's interesting to try to work out how this was achieved.
One aspect that most of the characters share is that they're all trying to hide some perceived defect, either from others or from themselves. None of them are high-achievers. These aren't the types who are going to go out and conquer the world. At best, they're barely competent to hold down the roles they have, or at least that's how they perceive themselves. Even when they appear to have status or success, the author mercilessly shows us the clay feet under their robes.
The one exception to this is Sai, one of the most prominent characters and potentially the protagonist, except for the fact that she does practically nothing throughout the entire course of the novel (although, by the end of the story, she has, like most of the characters, been thoroughly changed). Her situation is largely sympathetic from the start, owing to the helplessness of the position she is trapped in. Like most of the characters she is not so much the victim of her own choices, but of the choices made for her by others, often before she was born. The inheritance of loss indeed.
