Sorekara or And Then - a story of a man who does not have to work for living

Sorekara or And Then is the 2nd novel of the Soseiki's early trilogy between Sanshiro and Mon or The Gate. This is a story of a male unmarried intellectual of age 30 named Daisuke, who does not have to work for his living due to his family's wealth (newly rich) and actually does not work, which is a rather unusual situation and not recommended in Japan while his bother works for the family business. Soseki, of course, intentionally made this situation but why ?

I can think of

1. To show the differences between the real world and imaginary world.

2. To show how an unmarried intellectual of age 30 who does not have to work for his living (and does not work, which is an important condition) thinks and behaves.

The Soseki's world is different from the world of lay men like me and the time was different. A man not working and financially depends on the family was a not a thing blamed by Soseki as far as a man  thinks independently or uniquely as a philosopher, poet, writer, painter as shown in his early novels like Neko or I am a Cat, Kusamakura or Grass Pillow and Gubijinso or The poppy.

In his era (late Meiji) there was a big gap between rich people (few in numbers and generally highly educated) and ordinary (massive and generally poor and poorly educated) people. Rich people or families were respected. So a man of 30 financially depending on the family was not so blamed as we think. The problem is the situation of a man not being married even at the age of 30. So the early parts of the story is mostly about this unusual situation and but does not show clearly why he has been unmarried in the first several chapters. The fact and the relation between Daisuke and Michiyo in the past is gradually revealed after Chapter 7. This technique of story telling is enhanced further in the following novel Mon or the Gate. The situation of Mon or the Gate can be regarded as a continuation of Sorekara when we think Daisuke is Sosuke and Michiyo as Oyone though the tones of these two novels are quite different.

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The story is not very dramatic until the last several chapters when Daisuke makes a decision and takes an action which causes him to have to work for living under a special condition of steeling a wife of his friend and highly likely facing a cut of money from the family due to his anti-social activity (steeling a wife). But it is not so difficult to keep reading without particularly dramatic developments until the last part because Soseki is a good story teller.


sptt