Annotated Bibliography
for
Pale View of Hills
by: Tanya Earp
Agatucci, Cora, Professor of English. (1997). Kazuo Ishiguro and Pale View of Hills. English 339: Literary Genres, Eastern Oregon Univ., in partnership with Oregon State Univ.- Cascades, Bend, OR. Retrieved May 6, 2003 from: http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/eng339/coursepack/Ishiguro.htmAgatucci discusses the life of Kazuo Ishiguro. He was 6 years old when his family moved to England. His parents intended to move back to their homeland in Japan, but they never made it back. Agatucci states, "Ishiguro grew up straddling two cultures, the Japan of his parents and his adopted country England". Agatucci points out that he is considered one of the leading writers in the new generation. In 1982, Pale View of Hills won the Winifred Holt by Prize of the Royal Society of Literature. Agatucci uses an excerpt of an interview with Ishiguro in 1998. "In the first two books, I very much wanted to appeal to the Japanese side of me," states Ishiguro. The interview discusses the problems that Ishiguro faced when he was asked to review other Japanese literature. He said, "I started to feel very uncomfortable because I knew very little about Japan." He felt an urgent need to write about Japan before he forgot. Ishiguro wants to be seen as a "universal" writer not only Japanese literature. Ishiguro feels there is much more "universal" literature for everyone to read in the last 20 years.
This web article was very interesting because it gave a lot of background to the life of Kazuo Ishiguro. The personal interview gave a sense of where the writer was coming from in his writing. He is very well educated. This article also discussed the other books that he has written. The article was more autobiographical than theories of what Kazuo Ishiguro's books really meant. Agatucci had a section on critic feed back, but I used the information in another source by Contemporary Authors.
Annan, Gabriele. “On the High Wire”. New York Review of Books 37.19 (1989). 3- 4. <http://www.galegroup.com/informarks/>
Gabriele Annan feels Pale View Of Hills is "eery and tenebrous". She notes it is a ghost story that even the narrator Etsuko does not even know. Her English daughter Niki does not live at home, and cuts short a visit with her mother because of her sisters ghost. Etsuko had guilt from uprooting her first daughter Keiko from Japan to England. Annan notes the guilt that Etsuko portrays in the novel for taking Keiko from her home in Japan to England. Etsuko dreams back to when she was alone and met Sachiko and Mariko. She wanted to help the little girl Mariko to become a good Japanese girl to get her mind off of her misery and complete obsessions. Annan depicts Etsuko as being disapproving of Sachiko and Niki, while Ishiguro shows Etsuko's own disapproval of herself. Annan feels that Ishiguro is vindictive and severe sometimes and never lets the characters go unpunished.
I found this article useful in my research. Gabriele Annan depicts some very good ideas on what she feels is behind the author and his views. The idea that this novel is a ghost story in the sense that problems are not being solved, is an interesting revelation. As the reader, we can see what is going on, but the narrator does not seem to know why her life is the way it is. I don't necessarily agree that Ishiguro is vindictive and severe. The book needed to show the devastating lows to incorporate the hope they felt throughout the story.
By Dezign WWW Web background. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2003, from
http://www.graphicsbydezign.comBy Dezign is a web graphics design site that offers many different options for personal or business web pages. They have the following items for free use: templates, interfaces, clipart and backdrops. They have weekly updates with new items to browse through and use for web pages. Bookmarks are required to link back to By Dezign in order to keep the graphic designs that are chosen.
I found this web site very useful in finding templates. My home page was borrowed from By Dezign. They change their designs and colors on a weekly basics, which makes for interesting web designs. This site was user friendly for people at most computer levels.
"Kazuo Ishiguro, 1954 - ." [New Entry: 5 June 2001.] Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2001. Rpt. Gale Literature Resource Center [Online Subscription Database]. The Gale Group, 2003.This article was written by a few authors regarding Kazuo Ishiguro. They gave personal information where he grew up and where he was born. They listed his career and awards that were given to him. They discussed all 5 of his novels with different critics and their opinions of each book. Many critics found that Pale View of Hills could have excluded all details not pertaining to the theme of the book. Paul Bailey from Literary Supplement stated, "that at certain points I could have done with something as crude as a fact". Other critics and readers felt the layering of themes and images gave Ishiguro narrative power over his writing. Jonathan Spence in New Society states, "Ishiguro develops his themes with remarkable insight and skill". Ishiguro's novels show the ruins of a culture, but not without hope of recovery. Critics saw the survivors will and strength as courageous. Rosemary Roberts with the Los Angeles Times Book Review stated, "there is nobility in determination to press on with life even against daunting odds. Ishiguro has brilliantly captured this phoenixlike spirit; high praise to him".
The difference in opinions were comical. There were critics who wanted more facts to the novel and some that thought there should be less detail. I respected what Rosemary Roberts had to say in regards to the determination of the characters in the novel that keep pushing forward. This article gave a lot of background history of Kazuo Ishiguro like a few other articles that I have read.
Ishiguro, Kazuo. A Pale View of Hills. 1982. New York: Vintage International-Random House, 1990.Ishiguro uses his amazing talents to write a novel from a women's point of view. The book describes the life of two different women who at some point seem very much the same people. Etsuko is the narrator as well as the main character in the novel. She is a Japanese women, who now lives in England, reliving her life in Japan during World War II. Etsuko had two daughters named Niki and Keiko. Her first daughter named Keiko was Japanese and committed suicide with the move to England. Etsuko's daughter Niki lives in London away from her mother. The story depicts Etsuko in a dream state, remembering what life used to be like in Japan during the War. Ishiguro brings a women named Sachiko and her daughter Mariko into the novel to compare the difference in the way the two women live their life. Sachiko seems to show no concern toward her daughter Mariko. Mariko does not go to school and wanders around by herself after dark. Etsuko is very concerned about Mariko and her safety. The story between Etsuko and Keiko resemble the story line of Sachiko and Mariko. Etsuko relives through the story of Sachiko to deal with the suicide of her daughter Keiko. The story ends with Etsuko facing her fears and guilt of losing her daughter to suicide and her other daughter Niki living in London.
This was a very powerful book. I interpreted that the story and dream of Etsuko was really the life of Sachiko. Etsuko ends up leaving her Japanese husband and moving to England to marry an English man. The story about Sachiko shows how she is in a constant battle to get out of Japan, and in denial of where her life really exists. Sachiko seems to be quite different, but Etsuko relates to her and is her friend. This book was very unusual in the underlying themes. There are many ways the book could be interpreted with all the different themes. There is definitely no right answer to the meaning of this book.
Nicholson, Boone. (2002). A Comparative Study of Pale View of Hills and Rhapsody in August. English 339: Literary Genres, Eastern Oregon University, in partnership with Oregon State University Cascades Campus, Bend, Or. Retrieved May 6, 2003, from: http://web.cocc.edu/wr316ca/boonen/TermProject/differentimages.htm
Boone Nicholson did a comparative study of Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro and Rhapsody in August by Akira Kurosawa. Nicholson points out the guilt and shame as being a dominant effect in Pale View of Hills. He discusses the selective memory of Etsuko. She uses the past to deal with her shame and guilt. Etsuko's Japanese shame comes from loyalty and tradition. Nicholson makes a point that Etsuko uses her past to make amends for the future. He sees Etsuko using Sachiko to fend off her own shame. Nicholson points out that Sachiko and Mariko are more characters than real individuals. He concludes that by the end of the book, Etsuko admits that Keiko never would have been happy in England. He shows that the story of Sachiko and Mariko are used to represent Etsuko and Keiko.
I thought his comparative study was interesting to show the similarities in the two books. He also uses his sources to reach conclusions about the characters in Pale View of Hills. The most helpful idea in his project was the idea that Etsuko used selective memory to remember the past. Etsuko showed shame and guilt for the loss of her daughter Keiko to suicide after leaving Japan.
The Northwest Cyber-Mall. (n.d.) Retrieved April 20, 2003, from
http://www.nw-cybermall.com/Wall Papers.htmThe Northwest Cyber-Mall is a Library of wallpaper and background designs. These are free hits for personal use. This organization is located in Arvada, CO. They require any items that are used to be bookmarked back to their web site. They have wallpaper backgrounds from clouds to flowers and bricks to stones. The Library is full of all different colors using different visual effects and dimensions to create different backgrounds. Each background has a different style number that is used to copy and be saved to transfer to your requested area.
The Northwest Cyber-Mall had many wonderful background wallpaper available. The background on this page was used from this exact web site. The use of their web site was simple and self-explanatory. Wallpaper or different backgrounds can make a huge difference in the look of each web page design.
Meshner, D. "Kazuo Ishiguro, November 8, 1954 - ." Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 194: British Novelists Since 1960, Second Series. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Ed. Merrit Moseley. The Gale Group, 1986. 145-153. Rpt. Gale Literature Resource Center [Online Subscription Database]. The Gale Group, 2003.This article gives some background to Kazuo Ishiguro. He was born in Japan, but moved to Guilford, Surrey, in 1960. His father was an oceanographer, who was temporarily employed by the British government. Ishiguro's family never went back to Japan. His first trip back to Japan was in 1989. Ishiguro was educated at Woking County Grammar School for Boys, studied American literature at University of Kent, graduated with honors degree in English and Philosophy in 1978. He received his M.A. in 1980 at the University of East Anglia. Ishiguro was married in 1986 to Lorna Anne MacDougall. Their daughter Naomi was born in 1992.
Ishiguro used his initial interest in fiction to remember his roots in Japan. He stated in an interview that, "I had a very strong emotional relationship with Japan that was severed at a formative age:. Ishiguro's first few novels use the fascination of unreliability in the narrator. In Pale View of Hills, the narrator fabricates actions, motives, and characters. This novel starts with a woman who is hiding from her past. She names her second daughter Niki to be more American and to forget her past. The suicide of her daughter Keiko forces Etsuko to deal with her past. Etsuko feels responsible for her daughter's death although she has no regrets of leaving Japan. The novel starts with a visit from Etsuko's daughter Niki. During this visit, she remembers Sachiko and the summer in Nagasaki. The recollection of Etsuko's summer in Nagasaki is what makes the novel of Pale View of HIlls. Etsuko starts a relationship with Sachiko because she is a new mother to be and alone. Etsuko has much concern for Sachiko's daughter Mariko because of the neglect that is shown by her mother. The significance of Sachiko and her daughter Mariko is compared to Etsuko and her decision to leave Japan with Keiko. There is debate about the "day trip" where "Keiko" is later said to have been very happy. This is seen as a projection of Sachiko and Mariko. The misleading interpretations lead readers to believe that Sachiko and Mariko are just in Etsuko's imagination. In an interview by Gregory Mason, the author explains what he intended for the novel. The flashbacks are very clear and have realistic fiction. The memories are not murky or manipulated. The author feels he was a young writer at the time and did not have as much control of his writing as more experienced writers.
I found this article very useful. I never thought of the idea that Sachiko and Mariko could be a figment of Etsuko's imagination. This is an interesting idea. The author does make a good point in his defense that the ideas are solid and not murky. This article gave some great background to Kazuo Ishiguro's life and his other works. Ishiguro comes off as a very modest writer. I found the novel portrayed a vivid picture of what life would have been like in Japan after the bomb. He only lived there for 6 years, but he did keep his roots.
UWCSEA, UWC Family of Colleges. Pale View of Hills. Retrieved May1, 2003, from the UWCSEA Web site: http://www.uwcsea.edu.sg/thinkbilingual/a2/literature/paleview/a_pale_view_of_hills.htm
This article is a study guide of A Pale View of Hills. They have study questions for each chapter. There are different ideas and themes that are brought up. They bring up the contrast between Etsuko's motherliness and Sachiko's lack of concern for her daughter. When the two women are searching for Mariko, their concerns are very different. They also discuss the attitude of Niki toward motherhood compared to those of her own mother. They also bring up the question that the narrative does not tell us the entire story. There are fragments and suggestions throughout the novel that the reader has to make their own interpretations of what might be factual. They also bring up the topic about music and how Niki doesn't want to take piano lessons, Etsuko doesn't want to play in front of Ogata-San, and her unwillingness to think about the past. The article also discusses the game of chess between Jiro and Ogata-San and the father's persistence to get his son to write a letter to Shigeo Matsuda. Another idea is the knowledge of murdering of children. This is a quiet aspect of the novel. Another main idea is the hints from the narrator of how the Japanese housewife came to leave her husband in Japan and move to England.
This article brings to light different symbols and themes in the novel. There are many qualified questions that are asked that are difficult to answer. This article will help me in writing a study guide for my final project. They ask a lot of questions, and don't give any answers. I would tend to answer the questions or give tips on where to find the answers to the questions. I found it very useful that they went chapter by chapter to refresh my memory of what happened during the sequence of the book.
Water Imagery in A Pale View of Hills: Group Discussion. A Road to East Asia: A Journal of Contemporary East Asian Literature in English. Retrieved May 19, 2003, from Founders College of York at Web site: http://www.yorku.ca/iwai/water.html
This article is a group discussion regarding what water symbolizes in Kazuo Ishiguro's novel. Jennifer Henry describes water as a negative aspect of the novel. There is pain for Mariko to see her kittens killed by her mother. She also describes the scene with the bridge as Mariko is running over it as she tries to escape. Kevin Perkins describes the water as a symbol for Mariko too. In order for her to run to the woods, Mariko runs over a bridge of water. He raises the questions, "is this why Etsuko left Japan, crossed the water, and moved to England"? Han Ki describes the water as suffering. Etsuko sees the kittens being drowned by Sachiko in front of her daughter. The rain reminds Etsuko of her daughter and her suicide. He also brings up the muddy and damp fields of Nagasaki that are a reminder of the atomic bomb. Daniel Jacobs describes water in the novel as danger and sadness and a division between sickness and health. Water is also described as an escape from the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean to crossing the bridge to the West.
I found the water imagery in this article very useful. The authors each described a different image of water that was used in the novel. There was sadness and disappointment with the images of water, but it also brought freedom and escape. The descriptions in this article were interesting and useful for my final project.
Yamahata, Yosuke. The Nagasaki Journey. Retrieved June 10, 2003, from Web site: http://www.exploratorium.edu/nagasaki/journey/journey1.htmlThis web site is a gallery of photographs by Yosuke Yamahata of Nagasaki and the aftermath of the atomic bomb by United States in 1945. He arrived just days after the bombing, which gave him a real perspective. He gives insights to the photographs he takes and what he truly saw. He believes these photographs will never let people forget what Nagasaki used to look like.
This web site was very real and heart wrenching to see the loss and pain the Japanese suffered. Yamahata's photographs capture the true faces and pain that was inflicted. These people suffered tremendous loss, and Yamahata was able to capture these events on film so they will never be lost or forgotten. I recommend this web site for anyone who haven't seen the effects of the bombing on the Japanese people. The people and the town were destroyed. The photographs are vivid and incredible to view.
