To mask the loneliness, alienation and eternal isolation that results from this, the book’s protagonist, Oba Yozo, wears the mask of a clown. “No Longer Human” is a book fundamentally about someone who thinks too differently from others - from the rest of society. Unable as I was to feel the least particle of confidence in my ability to speak and act like a human being, I kept my solitary agonies locked in my breast…I feigned an innocent optimism I gradually perfected myself in the role of the farcical eccentric.” So, Dazai believes that being truly human means being a part of society’s homogenous masses, and any deviation from them means losing your humanity.
You’re going to do the ostracizing, aren’t you?’…From then on, however, I came to hold, almost as a philosophical conviction, the belief: What is society but an individual?” And as Dazai feared other people, he could never feel a part of society: “I have always shaken with fright before human beings. It’s you, isn’t it?’ ‘Before you know it, you’ll be ostracized by society.’ ‘It’s not society. You’re the one who won’t stand for it – right?’ ‘If you do such a thing society will make you suffer for it.’ ‘It’s not society. He says, “What, I wondered, did he mean by ‘society’? The plural of human beings? Where was the substance of this thing called ‘society’? I had spent my whole life thinking that society must certainly be something powerful, harsh, and severe, but…“Don’t you mean yourself?” ‘Society won’t stand for it.’ ‘It’s not society. Did it mean the narrator was a monster? After all, he does say, “I no longer feel any connection to these monsters, despite being one myself” and “being human is given, but keeping our humanity is a choice.” Does he see himself as someone who isn’t good enough to be a part of humanity? Someone who is too distant - forsaken by those around him? Ultimately, the answer lies in the author’s view of society and himself.ĭazai believes that society is just us: individuals.
I had now ceased utterly to be a human being.”īut what does it mean to no longer be human? This is the question that first came to my mind when I read the title. Even if released, I would be forever branded on the forehand with the word ‘madman’, or perhaps, ‘reject.’ Disqualified as a human being. This is an excerpt from the book…The counselor also stated that the girl used to identify with the characters in the Japanese author’s novel and reacted similarly.” In other translations, the book’s title translates directly to “Disqualified From Being Human” or “A Shameful Life.” Dazai writes, “And now I had become a madman. In her notebook, she has scribbled ‘to fail to be human, to be disqualified as a human being’. The book has even played a part in a teen girl’s double-murder case: “A character in Dazai’s novel called Oba Yozo tries to adapt, cope and fit in but fails to become a human. That is the haunting opening of “No Longer Human” by Osamu Dazai, a novel just as known for its infamy as for the complex and dark themes it deals with and its disturbing content.
I can’t even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being.” – Osamu Dazai, “No Longer Human”
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