The kitchen is a symbol of renewal, warmth, comfort, psychological support against the hurtfulness of the world. The Moon is a symbol of destiny, the supernatural forces that influence people’s lives (something Yoshimoto believes) and of hope, new beginnings. Dreams, flashbacks and premonitions again show the supernatural and forces like destiny at work – Mikage says that people choices are made ‘unconsciously’, connecting our decisions more to fate than conscious choice.
Students can record notes for each quote on their already annotated copies of HANDOUT#1 and HANDOUT#2 (annotated when they were working at home and in pairs), or the teacher can type notes on HANDOUT#1 and HANDOUT#2 projected on screen instead of using the power point. These notes can then be saved and mass-mailed to students or posted on the CLC.
At the start it is the homesickness of Mikage that drives her to live with Yuichi and Eriko and gives her a ‘family’. Also, Mikage says ‘truly happy memories always live on, shining’, proving that although nostalgia can make us feel sad – especially thinking of people we have lost – in the end it is an important part of healing. The ‘shining’ quality of good memories sustains us and can, like it does when Yuichi’s gloom threatens to engulf Mikage at the novella’s end, restore us and break the spell of death.
Note how the sometimes dreamlike feel of the novella (see notes on style) reflects Mikage’s view of dreams and reality – in the sense that this style blurs the distinction between the two just as Mikage does in the quote on the next slide.
The idea of destiny is important here, reinforced by the fact both times a lighthouse appears in the novel Mikage is dreaming or thinking about Yuichi. Note also how the beam of the lighthouse touches Mikage in the final image, and then makes ‘a pathway of light on the waves’, which reminds us of when she said ‘I saw a road leading from me to him. He seemed to glow with white light.’ (7) This is reinforced by the fact she phones Yuichi soon after the vision of the lighthouse. Even if she realizes she is ultimately alone and must experience life ‘with or without Yuichi’ there is a clear sense of connection established in their sharing the song in their shared dream, and in the choice of the word ‘pathway’ on p. 104.
