Swaddling Clothes by Ashley Galeas [STUDENT]

ashley737996 — 2024-10-17 15:16:24 UTC

"She knew that she would never forget the sight of the baby, wrapped in stained newspapers and lying on the floor--it was a scene fit for a butchershop." (Par 8).

ashley737996 — 2024-10-17 15:20:25 UTC

"No doubt Toshiko derived a certain satisfaction from her somber thoughts: she tortured herself with them without cease." (Par 17).

ashley737996 — 2024-10-17 15:51:03 UTC

In the story, "Swaddling Clothes", Mishima's use of repetition contributes to his purpose of showcasing how much mothers can worry about their child's future regarding things like social class. Throughout the story, the author reiterates "newspapers", symbolizing the baby's social class. "She shut her eyes for a moment and all at once she saw the newborn baby lying before her: on the parquet floor the infant lay, and his frail body was wrapped in bloodstained newspapers." (Par 6). Typically, newborn babies are properly swaddled and taken care of, however, in this instance, the baby was wrapped in some loose newspapers and lain on the floor. The mother was not of high class therefore the doctor disregarded the baby. This disregard for the baby's well-being stemmed from disdain or discrimination, all because of the mother's lower social standing. This scene haunted Toshiko, a mother, because she couldn't fathom how a baby could be mistreated from birth, judged solely on its social class. "As she observed the sleeping figure wrapped in its newspapers, she was inevitably reminded of the baby who had lain on the floor in its wretched swaddling clothes." (Par 23). Again, Mishima repeats the symbol of "newspapers" to emphasize social class. This man lying on the bench was of lower class, which is regarded by many, specifically Toshiko, to have the lowest quality of life. Over and over again this symbol is repeated to showcase how it haunts Toshiko; how she constantly fears the future of that baby of lower social class and how she can't do much about it, therefore leading her to a lifetime of worry and guilt.

ashley737996 — 2024-10-17 16:02:08 UTC

Yoshiko serves to represent many mothers who care tremendously about their children's well-being. However, she is also a woman who lacks self-confidence and is therefore riddled with worry, shame, and guilt. She is described at the beginning of the story as being "oversensitive since girlhood: that was her nature" (Par 2), and this is continuously expressed throughout the story, specifically during the scene in which the baby was swaddled in "bloodstained newspapers" (Par 6). She couldn't even express herself to her husband because she feared that "he would think her oversoft, oversentimental" (Par 8). Now, because of her qualities as a mother, and the natural quality to care for young children, she couldn't withstand the sight of the newborn baby being mistreated and improperly swaddled. Her strong nature of being sentimental and overly caring made her worry about the baby, how it was mistreated, how it would be treated in the future, and its pride. Anything and everything about this child, she could not stop worrying. This worry turned to guilt, that she had been the only one to witness its shame, its mistreatment/discrimination due to social class, and that she could do nothing about it because that's just the way it had been and would be. She felt guilty and feared that because the baby had been born into the lower social class, it would have the lowest quality of life and she compared it to her baby which she knew would live a long and happy life. Towards the end of the story, Toshiko approaches a scene in which it seemed to her that "all her fears and premonitions had suddenly taken concrete form." (Par 24). The fear that the child had lived in poverty and helplessness, the guilt that she could not do anything, and the hope that she would be punished by the child to rid her of her guilt were all emotions that she felt during the ending scene. The text states, "Is it because I feel uneasy about the future of my own child? Say twenty years from now, when our boy will have grown up into a fine, carefully educated young man, one day by a quirk of fate he meets that other boy, who then will also have turned twenty. And say that the other boy, who has been sinned against, savagely stabs him with a knife..." During the ending scene, Toshiko is likely thinking that the man on the bench who grabbed her wrist is going to take revenge upon her, possibly stabbing her to death. The last sentences state, "She did not feel in the least afraid and made no effort to free herself. In a flash the thought had struck her, Ah, so the twenty years have already gone by!". Due to the guilt she felt that day, she felt as though she deserved punishment from the child, thus why it's likely that she felt the man was going to take revenge and stab her to death.

ashley737996 — 2024-10-17 19:05:31 UTC

ashley737996 — 2024-10-17 19:14:44 UTC