Interesting Idea’s from Yuyu’s Wild Geese Response:

It was interesting to see how Ogai observed these changes instead of just promoting it, despite having his own experience overseas, and the countries atmosphere heading towards change and what they called, ‘progress.’

I realised how he is not only expressing his own thoughts but is also foreshadowing, and hinting the metaphor of the wild geese. The sentence, ‘Without any logical connection, the woman of Muenzaka came into my mind.’ from chapter 24, shows the narrator’s intention to hint the metaphor of the wild geese which could not fly as Otama. Also, with him being the narrator and a character at the same time, his thoughts as a character have more value than the other characters in a sense, since it shows the accuracy of his storytelling as well.

Ogai seems to percieve the western influence as something that we should stop and think more about, rather than just accepting everything in order to catch up with their power.

Interesing Idea’s from Anda’s Wild Geese Response:

As readers, we interpret a sense of female empowerment through Otama’s journey in resisting her role as an obedient mistress. However, this might well be the product of our time

There is almost a sense of irony when Ogai had the hero, as perceived by westerners, slice open a symbolism of western influence to save the linnets. The birds are symbolic of Otama, who could then be seen as a symbolism of Japan from her obedience to classes and duty. This is allegorical of how Japan is training their youth through western education to gain true independence and drive the western superiority out of their lands.

The storytelling’s paradoxical mix of first person narrative and omniscience raises suspicions: does the novel recount an actual love story by which Ogai was never a part of, or a fabricated event in which Ogai romanticized the outcasting of western influence?

With The Wild Geese in mind, discuss with a peer which of the concepts above are involved in understanding the creation of meaning between a text and its context? 

• The text can be seen as a representation in two ways. It is a representation of the transformation of the time period in Japan, of Mori’s life (as it moved from 1880-1912) and the values of society, as we seen in the allegorical nature of the text. It can also be seen as transformative of a reader, for those in our time period, where where understanding the deeper socio-cultural and historical contexts of the work change how we see the misleadingly ‘stagnant’ storyline.
• Furthermore, the concepts we can link together in this text with regards to Mori is that of Perspective and Identity. Mori, subtly, depicts his own strong viewpoint and perception of Japan’s society and events in the story through how his own identity that has been gained from life has shaped his perspective on Japan…