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Essay / Obstacles in Life: Understanding the Samurai Garden
The Samurai Garden by Gail Tsukiyama is a book about a young man, Stephen, who is confronted with tuberculosis and changes the course of his life by taking you to a small, peaceful village, Tarumi. . When he first arrives in Tarumi, he meets Matsu, Sachi, and other characters from the village. His experiences in Tarumi are unique and he learns many lessons from Sachi's experiences. Before Stephen, Sachi was a young and beautiful woman admired by everyone in the village. All this until the leprosy epidemic in Japan. Many people across Japan and in many areas of Tarumi were affected. Among the many people infected, Sachi, unfortunately, was one of the many people who contracted the disease. When this happens, Sachi is faced with obstacles that she cannot overcome due to her limited understanding, at the time, of these obstacles. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In the story, time and again, Sachi demonstrated her power over her fears and obstacles through life experiences that brought her to realization. Throughout Gail Tsukiyama's Samurai's Garden, the author uses Sachi's thoughts and feelings about the Japanese idealism of honor and his experiences with leprosy, to show that to overcome adversity, he takes time and an understanding of the obstacles one faces. During her life, Sachi was a beautiful Japanese girl. He was someone his family was proud of and loved very much. In her early life, Sachi had no problems and her life was happy. At that time, she loved and was loved by her family and by a young man named Kenzo. At that time, Kenzo and Sachi were considered lovers. It was at the same time that Sachi contracted leprosy. When Sachi contracted the disease, her family reportedly lost its honor by having a daughter with the disease. According to the Japanese code of honor, highly respected by her family, Sachi had to be held by honor and commit suicide to preserve her family's honor. When Sachi remembers, “At seventeen, I had shamed my family twice… my father wanted me to honor the family by committing suicide. »(79), it is shown that Sachi had to make the choice to commit suicide to preserve the family. honor. This also shows the Japanese honor code system and how heavily her family involves it. After her decision not to commit suicide, she was considered a disgrace to her family, and she was alone because of the honor code. Her family wanted nothing to do with her because of what she had become and rejected her. When she is forced to commit suicide, she explains, "I have brought great dishonor to my family by not committing suicide" (109), this shows how important her family's honor is to her and her place in society. The Japanese code changed his relationship with Kenzo, and even his family. This is a huge obstacle for her because it means she has no family or people who love her, because of the honor code. Overcoming her adversities finally happens, when Stephen tells Sachi that her honor doesn't matter because it will never affect Matsu and Stephen's love for her. This is a turning point for her, as she finally understands that her honor shouldn't matter to the people who truly love and care about her. Although it takes her a long time to understand this, she finally understands it when she realizes the adversity of the Japanese code and abandons her idealism of not being honorable. The honor of Sachi's family is,.