Botchan (Master Darling) - Natsume Soseki

CHARACTERS:

• Botchan: the hero of this novel. Born in Tokyo, he has the spirit of an Edokko. He graduates from the Tokyo Academy of Physics, currently Tokyo University of Science, and becomes a mathematics teacher. His defining characteristics are common sense and a strong moral grounding.
• Yamaarashi (Porcupine): A fellow teacher. Yamaarashi is the nickname for a teacher by the name of Hotta, born in Aizu. Yamaarashi has a great, samurai-like sense of justice.
• Akashatsu (Redshirt): Another fellow teacher and Doctor of Literature. He is the typical intellectual. He represents the continental European intellectual tradition, in its modern form, as it drifts toward collectivism (socialism and communism (thus the red shirt)) and relativism/nihilism. He speaks of morals but is Machiavellian and immoral. A rumormonger who for a short time was able to deceive even Botchan. The battle for the heart and mind of Botchan between Yamaarashi and Akashatsu represents the social and political tensions existing in Japan at the turn of the last century. Soseki clearly rejects Akashatsu. Soseki himself was a Doctor of English Literature graduated from Tokyo University and later wrote that "if I were to assign an actual person to every fictional character that appears in Botchan, then Akashatsu would have to be me."^{[citation needed]} He also wrote, "The development of modern Japan must be seen as an on-the-surface phenomenon" and worried that Japan was absorbing European culture at a shallow and elitist level as represented by the character of Akashatsu.^{[citation needed]}
• Nodaiko (The Clown): Art teacher. Nodaiko is a Tokyoite, like Botchan. He prides himself on his good taste but follows others without much thought, which earns him Botchan's contempt.
• Uranari (Green pumpkin): Uranari is a very melancholic, but refined, gentleman. Botchan looks up to him. Most agree that Uranari, or some combination of Uranari and Botchan, is Soseki's ideal of contemporary Japan.^{[citation needed]}
• Tanuki (The Raccoon Dog): The principal of the school where Botchan teaches. He has a very indecisive nature.
• Kiyo: Botchan's servant in Tokyo. Now an old woman, she took care of him when he was young. She is a fallen aristocrat, dealing heroically with her new situation.

(Courtesy of Wikipedia)

In this story, Botchan graduates from a college in Tokyo where hi has lived his whole life and and he secures a teaching position in a small Japanese town. He makes the journey by train, but quickly finds he does not fit in with most of the teachers there. There is a lot of corruption at this small school. Honest, compassionate teachers are forced out of their jobs and the bullies thrive. Botchan refuses to participate in this, first refusing a raise which comes from taking part of a co-worker's wage after he is forced to move to another town, and finally quitting his job when another teacher is fired due to false rumors.

As part of his maturation, Botchan comes to see that it isn't always easy to see who is trustworthy and who has selfish motives. Many of the teachers try to convince him that other teachers are trying to take advantage of him. After awhile, he realizes he can only figure this out for himself. While Botchan's temper is a bit too quick, he has a strong moral conscience. He is a very selfish man at the beginning of the story, but within a few short months he matures a great deal. After quitting his job, he moves back to Tokyo and sets up house with Kiyo, his childhood caregiver who has always considered him to be infallible.

A review from http://quolegatis.wordpress.com/2010/11/01/botchan-by-natsume-soseki/:

A Japanese classic written in 1906, Botchan is often compared to Huckleberry Finn in terms of its relative influence. The title character, from Tokyo, accepts a job as a middle school instructor far off in the countryside on Shikoku. He quickly becomes a pawn and then a player in the school faculty’s inner politics. He helps honorable, stoic Porcupine give the shifty, amoral Redshirt a well-deserved thrashing, even though it costs both Botchan and Porcupine their jobs. There are frequent humorous observations by Botchan, mostly to do with a young hotheaded city man’s view of the backwards country town and its inhabitants.

As frequently happens with “classics,” I now come to realize that there is anallegory behind the story in Botchan. Porcupine represents the old samurai ideal, while Redshirt is the modern, Westernized leader. Kind of throws the tale into a whole new light.