Osamu DAZAI (native name: 太宰治, real name Shūji Tsushima) was a Japanese author who is considered one of the foremost fiction writers of 20th-century Japan. A number of his most popular works, such as Shayō (The Setting Sun) and Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human), are considered modern-day classics in Japan. With a semi-autobiographical style and transparency into his personal life, Dazai’s stories have intrigued the minds of many readers. His books also bring about awareness to a number of important topics such as human nature, mental illness, social relationships, and postwar Japan.
Setting Sun is about a family of 3 that are struggling to fit into contemporary society after the war and cultural revolution in Japan. There are a mother, an elder brother and a younger sister. The story is written in a biography style from the sister's POV.
Throughout the book, we learn that the aristocrat family are despised by current society and people often find ways to ridicule them. The family are coping it with a different mechanism, the mother and the sister are true aristocrats by holding on their beliefs and continue living in solitude. However, the sister often felt the pressure of social expectation that a woman should marry for financial help. She tried to be independent and earn for herself, yet she often falls short of it. Meanwhile, the brother tried to fit in and went on partying and drinking to get approval from society. However, no matter how hard he tried, he is still a bystander.
“When I pretended to be precocious, people started the rumor that I was precocious. When I acted like an idler, rumor had it I was an idler. When I pretended I couldn’t write a novel, people said I couldn’t write…but when I inadvertently groaned because I was really in pain, they started the rumor that I was faking suffering.” This is written in the brother's diary which shows the irony of pretending and honesty.
There are several symbols used in the book. The main symbols are the setting sun, snake and the fire. The name 'Japan' means 'Land of the Rising Sun', The setting sun indicates that Japan is slowly descent into destruction and madness. The fire depicts the decline of aristocracy where contemporary values are slowly engulfing it. The snake symbolizes death where it appeared whenever death is coming. Personally, I felt the author also used it as a symbol of sin as the snake that appeared in front of Adam and Eve in The Bible. It's like the sin and guilt are passed on for generations because of the wrong deed of a person, their father?
There are several Bible passages inserted in the book where the characters mocked about it. The book sets during post-war, where missionaries came to Japan to preach the gospel. Obviously, until now, most Japanese are atheist and did not embrace Christianity.
All in all, the book depicts the post-traumatic stress after a war, the struggles of embracing a new culture and the side effects that are remaining in the society till now.
(Just wanna quickly mentioned that the story is originated from his admirer, Shizuko Ōta. Osamu formed a relationship with her to obtain her diary, then abandon her after it. Shizuko also published her diary shortly after to retaliate, but she didn't get the recognition. This poor girl really need some credits :( )