Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata

I just want to share my analysis of this book here in my blog.

Wasted Effort in Kawabata’s Snow Country

Throughout the novel, which has been called a ‘Nihilistic Fairytale’, the phrase ‘wasted effort’ from Shimamura has been recurring. The first time it was mentioned is when Komako told him that she just listed down everything she read and the characters in the story, but when Shimamura asked her purpose of doing it, she just replied, “None at all.” And then he retorted, “A waste of effort.” (41). In this case, it seems that Shimamura’s definition of “wasted effort” is when you do things without any purpose. It appears to him that Komako was listing everything she read in her diary without any reason for doing it. The second instance that it was mentioned was when he found out that, ‘If Komako was the man’s fiancée, and Yoko was his new lover, and the man was going to die—the expression “wasted effort” again came to Shimamura’s mind. For Komako thus to guard her promise to the end, for her even to sell herself to pay doctor’s bill—what was it if not wasted effort?’ (61). In this point, it is evident that the “wasted effort” was used to describe the effort of the two girls struggling for the benefit of Yukio, to think he is already dying on that part. This time, the meaning of that phrase expounded because the “wasted effort” is then not only for doing things without purpose, but also exerting too much effort on things which are ephemeral. For the third time the phrase was indicated is when Komako was practicing her samisen only through a score, ‘To Shimamura it was a wasted effort, this way of living. He sensed in it too a longing that called out to him for sympathy.’ (72-73). In this passage, we can sense how ‘cold’ Shimamura is, to the perseverance of Komako in learning the samisen. The next time the phrase was mentioned was when Shimamura was climbing the mountain, ‘Though he was an idler who might as well spend his time in the mountains as anywhere. He looked upon mountain climbing as almost a model of wasted effort. For that very reason it pulled at him with the attraction of the unreal.” (112). In this part, the phrase meant of the endless cycle of events. He compared that to climbing the mountain in which he would struggle his way on top, but when he reached his goal, he would go down again. The last statement on that passage is also important. It seemed that it shows that after he viewed something which he considers as “wasted effort”, he diverted his attention to the “unreal”, perhaps to retain his vision of beauty in doing that matter. The last time it was reiterated is during his encounter with Yoko, ‘He was conscious of an emptiness that made him see Komako’s life as beautiful but wasted, even though he himself was the object of her love; and yet the woman’s existence, her straining to live, came touching him like naked skin. He pitied her, and he pitied himself.’ (127-128). At this point, he is aware that both of them live in a pointless affair because he knew that it would soon end. He pitied both of them because he thinks what happened to them and their efforts in sustaining their relationship is ‘wasted’ because he knew theirs was fleeting. One common factor on those things that he considers as ‘wasted effort’ is he considered those things as empty; things that will not progress, but will just remain as stagnant.

Shimamura viewed life as if he was detached to the tangible essence of it because he dwelled too much on the ‘unreal’. He kept on telling ‘wasted effort’ on the things being done without any assurance of the result, to think that is one of the realities in life. In Makoto Ueda’s analysis, he stated that “Snow Country is a novel embodying a sustained search for the purest, noblest, supremely beautiful way of life. . . The search is difficult, almost futile, because a physiological existence inherently has something foul in himself.” Komako will certainly achieve the ‘beautiful life’ at the end, when she becomes a ‘nun’, in the context of taking care of Yoko after the tragedy in the end of the story. But in contrast to that, Shimamura’s view is different because he prefers that melancholy is beautiful. His focused more on the ‘futility’/ ‘wasted effort’/ ‘emptiness’ of the “search”, hence, he only viewed life or beauty as perishable, unreal, sad, but pure.