Red Cocoon
Generally speaking, the purpose of most
forms of artistic expression such as
literary art, music, or art itself is a
mode by which the author can express
him/herself with. They use their
respective skills and/or interests to convey
feelings or thoughts on any
given topic. Short fiction is by no means exempt
from this. Many writers use
their literary skills to express dreams,
aspirations, opinions, or even
political viewpoints. In order to make a
dertermination of a probable origin
for a story, research into the authors life
and beliefs most likely will
prove benefical. With this in mind, Abe Kobo’s
story "The Red Cocoon" seems
to be a prime example of an author expressing
his political viewpoints and
his personal conflicts with society through
literature. Given this,
researching his life and political stance might help to
support or negate
such an assumption. "The Red Cocoon" begins with a man
walking down a street
discussing with himself the problem of not having a house
to go home to. The
narrator, who is also the main character, jumps abruptly from
topic to topic
throughout the story, but this reoccuring theme of the lack of a
house seems
to be a central idea. As the narrator comtemplates, he wonders if he
has just
forgotten his house and proceeds to knock on the door of a random house
to
find out if this is what has happened. After he has explained his plight
to
the woman who answers the door, he begins arguing with her over having
proof
that it is not his house. Shortly thereafter, the narrator begins to
ponder
wether or not things such as concrete pipes or park benches are his
house.
Deciding that they are on their way to belonging to someone or
that they belong
to everyone and not just one person, he begins to wonder if
anything exsists
that belongs to no one. At the end of the story, he finds
that one of his legs
begins to unwind into a silk thread and wrap him up in a
cocoon. Abe Kobo’s
story is quite abstract and seems to have little meaning.
In fact, that is just
the opposite. After reading some information about Abe
Kobo, the story seems to
take on a new meaning. Abe Kobo is considered to be
one of the leading authors
during the post-WWII era of Japanese history. Many
of his works use what was
then radical artistic methods of literature ("Abe
Kobo"). In his early
childhood, Abe was living in Manchuria which was
occupied by the Japanese at the
time. Being born in Japan, altough Abe felt
strong ties to the chinese, he was
left feeling like an outsider and rejected
by both societes. After the war, Abe
became more and more antinationalist and
was interested in marxism and
communism. Soon, he even joined the Japanese
Communist Party ("Abe Kobo").
He was quite involved in political issues
at this time and many of his early
writings preceding the early 60’s deal
with his issues about society says
Clerk and Seigal in Modern Literatures
of the Non-Western World (136). With this
information about Abe Kobo, an
interpretation of "The Red Cocoon" emerges
with heavy political and social
tones. The narators central problem of
attempting to find out why he does not
have a house seems to point to not only
Abe’s feelings of isolation
during his childhood, but also his socialist
political viewpoints at the
time. "The Red Cocoon" was written in 1949, a
period of Abe’s life when he
was a strong political activist (Clerk and Seigal,
136). Utopian marxist
or communist views on society center around a flat
heirarchial structure
where no one is more powerful or of a higher class than
any other. The
property of the country is reffered to as property of everyone
and ownership
is somewhat denounced in the strictist forms of the political
stance. Abe’s
character in "The Red Cocoon" seems to be having problems
with ownership of
houses and other pieces of property. The question is asked,
"Even if it
isn’t mine, can’t there be just one thing that doesn’t
belong to anyone?"
This question appears to have socialist undertones as if
one were in support
of everything being everyone’s. A strange yet interesting
parralism is with
Samuel Beckett’s character in Watt. The character has a very
hard time
dealing with the issue of time and is isolated because of that
problem.
Similarly, Abe’s character is isolated because of his lack of
understanding
possesions. As stated before, this situation with the main
character also
points back to Abe’s feelings of isolation during his
childhood. It seems
that Abe is showing a part of himself through his character;
both Abe and his
character feel somewhat rejected and not quite fitting in. Even
with women it
seems since the narrator is coldly rejected by a woman and
states,
"...the woman turns her face into a wall and shuts the window.
That’s the
true form of a woman’s smiling face." Possibly, Abe had also been
rejected
by a woman over some matter and his conveying his feelings about
that in this
statement. The end of the story appears to me to be more complex
and intricate
than the rest of the story. I have a difficult time determining
what is meant by
the narrator being unwound and wrapped in a cocoon other
than the narrator’s
complete isolation from the rest of the world. I have
inclinations to believe,
though that there are politcal issues that are
underlying this part of the
story, but I’m unsure exactly what. What is
somewhat obvious, though is that
Abe is attempting to show how these
issues that he has brought up, such as
possessions, isolation of an
individual, etc., can cause one to isolate
themselves to the point of
becoming fearful of contact with others or even
death. Also, it leads me to
believe that Abe is stating that the only way he
feels at home at all is to
be by himself, an obivious branch off his problems
growing up. The last line
of the story is of some interest, however. Here, the
narrator has been
completely enveloped in the cocoon and his whole body has been
unwound and
incorporated into the cocoon itself. A policeman comes by and sees
the cocoon
lying on railroad tracks and picks it up. The policeman takes the
cocoon and
places it in his son’s toy box. Earlier in the story, the policeman
had
showed up in a small role to forcefully remove the narrator from a
park
bench. Keeping in mind that the story possibly has a motivated political
opinion
built in, it is likely that the policeman represents the government
of power.
So, it appears that the government Abe is talking about has
lead to the
isolation of Abe and contributed to his feelings of neglect. The
last
circumstance of the cocoon being placed in the toy box quite possibly
means that
the government has not taken the movement of Abe’s politcal party
seriously
and has considered it a joke. Abe’s story is full of symbolism and
underlying
meaning in my view. It is very interesting that he write such an
intricate and
abstract piece of literature and still get a message across. As
in the case of
many works of art, a little knowledge of the originator will
very likely be of
some help in detereming the meaning of the work as well as
the motives they had
for producing it. Art, in all forms, is an extension of
the self and knowing a
little bit about someone else will help you in
understanding them and
their
work.