Yasumari Kawabata The Sound of the Mountain

Nearing the end of The Sound of the Mountain it becomes increasingly evident that Shingo, the troubled main character, is responsible for the dysfunction as we would say today of his own family - he laments that his son is an unfaithful husband but look at his own behavior - he thinks nothing of hiring geishas I.e. Prostitutes and continues to take his young secretaries out "dancing" - the apple doesn't fall far from the tree so to speak. He sees himself as a victim but he is just as much a perpetrator - much like Japan itself at that time? Also worth noting: the scene in which the family learns through a newspaper story of the shameful and craven suicide attempt by estranged son-in-law is a microcosm of the whole book - their pathetic attpt to maintain calm and decorum and to. Change the subject - only the unfavored daughter has the capacity to cry out in anger and pain.

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