; also known as "''Pluck the Bud and Destroy the Offspring''") is a 1958 novel by

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese author

Kenzaburō Ōe was a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His novels, short stories and essays, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, deal with political, social and philosophical issue ...

. It is Ōe's first novel, written when he was 23 years old. It was originally published in 1958. It was reprinted by

Kodansha is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...

on 2 November 1994. An English translation was released in 1995 by

Marion Boyars Publishers Marion Boyars Publishers is an independent publishing company located in Great Britain, publishing books that focus on the humanities and social sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the b ...

.Tayler, Christopher.
The Changeling by Kenzaburo Oe
" ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. Friday June 11, 2010. Retrieved on November 9, 2012.

Plot

The novel deals with fifteen

adolescent Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated w ...

boys from a reformatory in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The boys (including the unnamed narrator and his brother) are sent to a rural village (strongly echoing the regions of

Shikoku is the smallest of the List of islands of Japan#Main islands, four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu ...

in which Ōe was raised) to live and work. Upon arrival, the boys find the village afflicted by plague, with piles of rotting animal corpses dominating the atmosphere. Soon after the boys' arrival, the villagers flee from the plague to a neighboring village, barricading the boys in and abandoning them to their fate. The group is joined (in stages) by a

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

n boy named Li, a deserter from the

army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

, and a young girl who has been abandoned in a warehouse. The boys attempt to make the most of their situation; Li teaches them to hunt birds, resulting in a jubilant festival, and the narrator finds love with the young girl. Their situation turns after a few days, however; the girl dies of plague after being bitten by a village dog, the narrator's brother runs away into the wild forest (and is presumed dead), and the villagers eventually return and are furious with the state in which they find the village. Fearful of the repercussions should it become known that they abandoned the boys to die, they stab the deserter and alternately threaten the boys with violence and ply them with food. All members of the reformatory boys eventually agree to keep silent about the actions of the villagers, with the exception of the narrator. At the close of the novel, he is chased into the forest by the villagers to an unknown fate.

References

External links

Internet Book List entryAmazon.com entry
{{authoritycontrol 1958 Japanese novels Novels by Kenzaburō Ōe Novels set during World War II Novels set in Japan Kodansha books 1958 debut novels

Plot

See also

References

External links