A long suicide note in the form of a book!
"Disqualified as a human being. I had now ceased utterly to be a human being."
No Longer Human is a tale of a young man, Oba Yozo, who is struggling with alienation, depression and addiction in life. "Mine has been a life of much shame." The book starts with the preceding sentence, which alerts reader to brace themselves for a poignant and, at the same time, repulsive story about depression and anxiety.
The short novela is written in 1948 by a Japanese author Osamu Dazai, who committed suicide after publishing the last chapter of No Longer Human. It is considered a classic in Japanese contemporary literature. Due to the many parallels in the lives of the protagonist of the novel and the author, many critics argue that, actually, Osamu Dazai is telling the story of his life through the character of Yozo.
It is fascinating that Japanese authors and readers are obsessed with dark side of human personality. Depression, mental anxiety, sexuality, imagination and suicide are common themes in Japanese literature. These themes are also very common in the writings of another prominent Japanese author Haruki Murakami. His book Kafka on the Shore, more or less, touches all these aspects of human personality.
No Longer Human is a brutal and honest depiction of human nature. It comes from a man (Yozo) that couldn't blend in with others because of people's innate pretense, hypocrisy and deceit. Since it describes the true nature of human beings, many readers find the book difficult and repulsive as it challenges their perceptions about themselves. For instance, in the first notebook Yozo is bewildered how humans deceive one another without knowing that they are deceiving one another: "I find it difficult to understand the kind of human being who lives or who is sure he can live, purely, serenely and happily while engaged in deceit. Human beings never did teach me that abstruse secret." Yozo also tries clowning - pretending in front of others while concealing his true nature - to get along with other people, and, over time, he becomes quite adept at it. Constant clowning, though makes him acceptable to others, turns his life upside down and put him in severe depression.
As Yozo is getting older, his alienation from his family, friends and society increases. In order to evade the harsh realities of living, he turns to alcohol and women. He attempts suicide twice. First time with a woman he loves, but she dies and Yozo survives. Second time, he overdoses. He survives again. At this point Yozo writes, "I felt as though the vessel of my suffering had become empty, as if nothing could interest me now. I had lost even the ability to suffer."
Mental health problems are real, especially for men. However, most of us are oblivion to the fact that some people might be suffering from life-threatening mental health issues. It is a bitter reality that, instead of helping such people, our society dubbed them as weak, mad, or lunatics. Osamu Dazai beautifully highlights this point in the book. When Yozo was admitted in a mental hospital towards the end of the novel, he feels that now he has became a madman. "Even if released (from the hospital), I would be forever branded on the forehead with the word 'madman,' or perhaps, 'reject.' Disqualified as a human being. I had now ceased utterly to be a human being."
We must empathize with such people, and talk to them with a gentle smile on our lips. Even our small gesture can have tremendous effect on someone's mental health. As Yozo was in hospital coughing with blood, his friend, Horiki, comes in and asks him about his health with a smile on his face. Yozo writes, "I felt so grateful, so happy for that gentle smile that I averted my face and wept. I was so completely shattered and smothered by that one gentle smile."
The last few sentences of the book is absolutely heart-wrenching. It describes the culmination of pain and desolateness in Yozo's life.
"Now I have neither happiness nor unhappines.
Everything passes.
That is the one and only thing I have thought resembled a truth in the society of human beings where I have dwelled up to now as in a burning hell.
Everything passes."
Yozo dies in the mental hospital.
While reading the book, I remembered the work of Émile Durkheim on suicide. One of the poineers of Sociology, Durkhèim conducted rigorous research on rates of suicide in several European countries. He found out that not only the rate of suicide vary among countries, but it also differs between different groups within a country. He concluded that Protestants are more likely to commit suicide than Catholics, men have high tendency to take their lives than women; the unmarried are more likely to kill themselves than the married ones. This indicates that loneliness, alienation and individualism are key factors that underlie suicide. However, it's not just the individual to be blamed for committing suicide, societal forces are also play its role. Society put constraints on our behavior that we unconsciously follow without question. In fact, it becomes our second nature. And, in my opinion, people who know this fact, it's difficult for them to survive.
One should not read this book if he/she is not mentally prepared for it. It's a kind of book that demands a long walk outside, preferably with a friend, after reading it; otherwise it'll leave you depressed. For me, personally, it sensitized me to how people with mental health issues feel and what goes on in their minds, and why they struggle in life. It made me more empathic to people with mental health conditions. I cannot add everything in this review, but there will come moments in the book that will resonate with your life. It is a great book, albeit depressing, but, nonetheless, a fascinating one!
Sheraz Khan can be reached at sherazreads@gmail.com
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