Cultural Madness. A closer inspection of Japanese culture using the "Chrysanthemum Tryst" a tale from the Ugetsu Monogatari.

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Cultural Madness

This imperfect world is a breeding ground for immorality. Goodness and purity has this tendency to deviate, in order to survive in the world. Changes and revolutions bring about a new set of order, apparently people who find it difficult to conform to new ideas and situation succeed in only joining the ranks of the deceased. The degree of loyalty and love shown between the two characters from the "Chrysanthemum Tryst" convey a strong sense of warrior ethics, but also failure at retaining friendship in the corporeal world. It is possible to derive from the text that good friendships and pure intent will either struggle to coexist or be crushed because humanity is inherently flawed. Furthermore, the extent of warrior like fortitude that Akana demonstrates when committing suicide, only confirms the lack of rationality that the character suffers from.

The cultural content in the text provides a similar parallel to Mishima Yukio's "Patriotism."

In both stories, there is this sense of duty that the suicidal character embodies. The Lieutenant refuses to fight against the Imperial army nor his friends, the only option left for this character is seppuku. His wife follows him in death. This situation, in its entirety is ridiculous and unreasonable. Fortunately as a Westerner, death, symbolized by the grim reaper suggests bad things; eventually it was confirmed that death is tasteless and somewhat dreadful. Additionally, the death of a close family, friend or even acquaintance is a horrific mishap and inflicts immense pain. Akana, too absorbed in his warrior ways, did not consider Samon's emotional response to finding out that he would be eternally separated from Samon. Some critics would consider it a selfless act that Akana sacrificed his life to keep a pact, but this act of self-destruction brought great suffering upon his...