No longer human

| Commuters in Tokyo.

by Miriam Gradel

Our review looks into Osamu Dazai's timeles masterpiece No Longer Human, on the 70th anniversary of it's publication. In order to write it, Dazai had thrown himself into vile alcoholism, vanity and greed. On the day it was released, he killed himself.

Thus begins the story of Oba Yozo, the main protagonist whose incapability to identify himself as human leaves him detached and self-destructive. No Longer Human is written as four novels relating Yozo’s memoirs of his life. First told to us in a prologue by an unknown observer, Yozo is introduced in three photos depicting him throughout his life. Each photo is described with utmost contempt for the Yozo’s constructed facade, which in the novels carry over into Yozo’s self-loathing at his own falseness. There is nothing bright or inspiring about No Longer Human. It is a first-hand account of Yozo’s impressions of a world he cannot seem to fit into.

“Mine has been a life of much shame.”

Osamu’s style of writing, in particular in No Longer Human, has a melancholic, yet humorous quality to it. According to Japanese Literature Professor, Stephen Dodd, Osamu quite consciously creates an image of vulnerability in Yozo. “There is nothing mature about Osamu,” he says. “He exhibits a sense of adaptability and sensitivity, opposite of any immovable, fixed masculinity.” Early on in No Longer Human, Yozo shows signs of anxiety towards the world around him: “All I feel are the assaults of apprehension and the terror at the thought that I am the only one that is entirely unlike the rest.” His struggle to find his place in life haunts him throughout his upbringing. “The teenage years are when you first become aware of the world,” says Stephen. “We start to feel that it is phony.” Perhaps this is one reason why Osamu remains a popular writer amongst Japanese students.

The story of Yozo is that of an individual constantly lost. Unable to understand the perils of the World around him, he disqualifies himself from being human. The title in Japanese ningen shikaku quite literally translates as “failed human”. Yozo is faced with the fear of being different. His only means of escape is putting on an alternative persona, his ‘human’ mask.

Throughout all four novels, the tone remains gloomy. But No Longer Human is not just a story of an individual’s self-contempt. When it was written, only three years had passed since Japan had lost the war, its culture, strength and pride. Yozo’s story is that of the post-War Japanese, represented in a young boy caught between the values and expectations of his aristocratic traditional family, and a growing Western influence. From being physically abused in childhood, denied the love of his father and taken advantage of by his friends, Yozo becomes a manifestation of what happens when something broken remains unfixed.

From being physically abused in childhood, denied the love of his father and taken advantage of by his friends, Yozo becomes a manifestation of what happens when something broken remains unfixed.

The language is monotonous, a representation of the author’s string of thoughts constantly trying to find a conclusion to the question of what makes us human.

In No Longer Human, “Osamu is touching upon that which affects all generations; the meaning of life.” says Stephen. The constant search for purpose is the force that drives the novel. And it is Osamu’s capability as a writer that enables him to make his characters’ weaknesses their greatest assets. “In his stories, he [Osamu] is weak and frail,” says Stephen. In No Longer Human, Yozo self-loathing develops into devious self-pity. By channeling his vulnerability, he becomes capable of making those around him do his bidding.

The true sadness about No Longer Human is Yozo’s incapability to acknowledge his own potential. The pessimism of Osamu’s wording speaks of a deep regret towards one self, mortified in the author’s most famous expression “sorry for being born”. Yozo’s story is that of a constant apology towards the people around him. “My unhappiness was the unhappiness of a person who could not say no. I had been intimidated by the fear that if I declined something offered me, a yawning crevice would open between the other person’s heart and myself which could never be mended through all eternity.” As he becomes older, his inability to refuse others develops into an excessive substance abuse. Yet, despite deeply regretting his actions, he never manages to set himself straight. When boredom and vulnerability takes over, he falls further into a downwards spiral of despair.

| No Longer Human aired as part of the Aoi Bungaku Japanese anime TV series in 2009.

There have been many discussion regarding whether Osamu’s fictional final work was in fact a reflection on his own inner struggles. Like his protagonist, Osamu came from a wealthy, traditional Japanese household. And in his later years, when writing No Longer Human, the author threw himself into heavy drinking and solitude in order to fully comprehend what his character Yozo was going through. Vice versa, Yozo’s failed attempt to commit suicide with his lover is parallel to Osamu’s own attempt to do so in his adolescent years. “His relationship with the possibility of the end is an interesting one,” says Stephen. “He uses his own life’s material to describe his relationship with the world.”

Many Japanese authors, including contemporary ones such as Haruki Murakami, has written extensively about the struggle of human beings to fit into society. But Osamu’s style differs from others in its extreme sense of gloom and bleakness written with the author’s own life at the center. No Longer Human is an honest depiction of the brute struggle to exist. It is timeless in its essence and relevant to all who questions what it means to be human.

Buy No Longer Human on Amazon or read it for free online.

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