II. The association of the author and reader
Through the use of texts, Ozeki manages to illustrate the interdependence of reader and writer along with the notion of how different people interpret a piece of writing in a different manner. Among the texts introduced in A Tale for the Time Being, the most important relationship lies between Nao and Ruth although they never meet in person, Nao’s diary creates a medium for the two to have an impact and influence each other.
Nao’s diary is a text that acts as the central pillar of the novel in which forms an alternating narrative between Ruth, where Nao is portrayed as the writer and Ruth as the reader. This can be presumed from Nao’s first person and Ruths’s succeeding third person narrative, where the majority of Ruth’s narrative is taken over by impressions and detective work of the diary. Ozeki’s use of irony of situating a writer on the other side of the spectrum enables the audience to experience how a writer interprets a piece of writing produced by the sixteen…show more content… Although the ocean is mentioned in the novel for the context of Nao’s diary drifting to Ruth through the island, the ocean is also used as a vehicle to carry Nao and Ruth together. Examples include Nao taking about her future in her diary when she mentions “The way you write ronin is […] with the character for wave and the character for person, which is pretty much how I feel, like a tiny little wave person, floating around on the stormy sea of life.”2. It is also used when the narrator is expressing Ruth’s thoughts on her husband as “…Ruth had been fascinated by the meandering currents of his mind, and even though he often grew impatient, trying to flow its flow, in the end, she was glad she did.”3, in which is used as a symbol to cohere both Nao and Ruth from different countries and a different continuum. FIGHTING