Formal Essay #1 - Rewrite

This is the edited version of my essay #1

Myunghee Yoon

Prof. Kyle Brebner

IERW (04)

10 November 2015                  

Two Different Characters That Have Similar Problems

            Whether we realize it or not, everyone tries to survive in harsh reality. On the other hand, people always have a fantasy like dream and romantic view of life, but it is almost far from reality. Thus, it is very important to reduce the gap between reality and fantasy. There are two books about people who suffer from this discrepancy. One is A Streetcar Named Desire and the other is Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. In these books, the main characters, Blanche and Tsukuru, have a problem that is caused by the gap between reality and fantasy, but there is a fundamental difference between their attitudes toward solving the problem.

One of the stories is called A Streetcar Named Desire. The main character is Blanche who lives in an era of rapid change from traditional society to capitalist society. At first, everyone around her, including her sister, likes her. But soon they turn their backs on her since every word and behavior that she did is exposed as fake. In terms of reality and fantasy, we can think that the reason why she lies is because she wants to keep her past life and doesn’t want to see reality. To her, her past life is her fantasy, so she has to hide her real self.

The other story is called Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. Like the title, main character is Tsukuru who is a colorless man with little personality. Similar to Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, his friends who are everything in his life suddenly turn their backs on him without saying anything before high school graduation. After they reject his several efforts to mend their trouble relationship, he realizes that there is no hope of solving the problem. It seems that there is no alternative but to leave them, so he leaves his hometown. In terms of reality and fantasy, we can interpret that his choice to leave thier friends is an effort to avoid seeing his fantasy collpase.

These two characters are similar but also very different in some ways, especially in terms of a gap between reality and fantasy. Both characters are suffering from reality that is different from their ideal. Interestingly, it is because they can’t adjust to society which changes fast. For example, Blanche experiences the change into industrial society. For her, who still stays in the past, these changes make it harder to face the reality. Similarly, Tsukuru experiences a big change from teenager to adulthood. To him, who doesn’t want to see reality, graduation is a good excuse to rationalize that he doesn’t solve the fundamental problem to avoid facing collapse of his fantasy. This situation, which helps him to escape from the problem, makes him vulnerable to reality.

Despite their similarities, Blanche and Tsukuru are very different. We can see it when we compare their attitudes toward reality. Blanche is stronger than Tsukuru. Of course, there is no doubt that both are afraid of reality. However, at least Blanche tries to survive in reality. For example, in the book, Blanche said, “I mispresent things to them. I don’t tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth…The opposite is desire.” It shows how she treats the problem. During unimaginable trials, including family’s death, she never gives up on life. She struggles to stay in reality by hiding her inner side. It is the only way to compromise with reality. In contrast, Tsukuru gives up everything. For example, after he leaves his friends, he doesn’t eat anything, and almost doesn’t sleep. He doesn’t even take a shower until his body smells bad. So, unlike Blanche, he shows a weak attitude until the end.

In conclusion, both characters are suffering from reality that is completely different from their fantasy. Nevertheless, they are different because they have different attitude toward reality. As we know, there is always a gap between reality and fantasy. All people can be faced with a problem like Blanche and Tsukuru. What is important, however, is how we handle the problem. Someone can struggle to solve the problem like Blanche, and someone just gives up everything like Tsukuru. Therefore, we always have to remember that positive attitude toward solving the problem is very important.