settings+as+reflections+of+turning+points

Empty, desolate settings reflect negative turning points in relationships that the protagonists Siddhartha and Noboru Kuroda have with other characters in their respective novels, shedding light on the progressive deteriorations of these relationships. Settings that are devoid of human presences signify changes in relationships that the protagonists have with immediate family members. In Siddhartha, the main character Siddhartha finds himself on a desolate, dusty road when his son runs away to the town to escape the country life, the emptiness of this scene reflecting the destruction of the relationship as well as Siddhartha’s resulting despair. In // Sailor //, when Noboru is for the first time left at home by Fusako in complete desolation and solitude, the suffocating, disturbing blackness of his mother’s bedroom as viewed through the peephole reflects the growing distance between Noboru and Fusako.( Before, Noboru was able to enjoy an understanding of Fusako’s private life with the use of the peephole, but now, Noboru is barred from Fusako’s private life by the uncomfortable darkness, signifying a beginning dwindling of the connection between him and his parent). In addition to reflecting turning points in family relationships, bleak empty settings show changes that Siddhartha and Noboru have with outsiders that they are close to. When Siddhartha leaves his lover Kamala, he is pictured as being completely alone and despairing under an emotionless night sky in his empty pleasure garden, the coldness of the setting demonstrating the end of the passionate relationship between him and Kamala. Similarly cold, desolate settings are signals of turning points in the relationship that Noboru has with his hero Ryuji. In a scene where Noboru meets with his nihilistic group of associates to discuss the fate of Ryuji as a failing hero, the progressively hostile and wild landscape reflects the deterioration of Noboru’s relationship with his idol, ultimately resulting in the pending death of Ryuji. Thus desolate settings are reflectors of turning points in relationships that Siddhartha and Noboru have with other characters.