Carter+30+–+D.H.+Lawrence,+“The+Rocking-Horse+Winner,”+pp.+350-361+Lawrence

Angela Carter, "A Souvenier of Japan"

Setting:

"A Souvenir of Japan" takes place about around the 1970s in the country of Japan.

“A Souvenir of Japan” is a short story about a young American woman living in Japan. American woman feels out of place because of her size and ethnicity. The American woman has a Japanese boyfriend who lives with her in an apartment. The story starts out with the couple attending some sort of celebration. While at the celebration the two are not having fun, so they leave together. Throughout the book we get the feeling that the two are together just to be together, not for love. Their relationship is more physical than emotional; we realize this as the story progresses. The couple does not break up at the end of the story, but we get the feeling that they will break up in another ending.
 * __ Plot __**

VOCAB: -//**Hannabi**//-fireworks -//**Okusan**//-wife -**Indefatigable**- unable to be tired -**Abnegation**- rejection -**Scintillating**- animated, clever -**Somnolent**- sleepy, drowsy -**Rheumy**- moist, damp -**Cicadas**- insects, males produce a high, shrill sound -**Whirr**- to move quickly with a humming sound -**Subfusc**- dusky, dark, dull -**Susurration**- a soft murmur or whisper -**Platitudinous**- showing a lack of originality -**Masochism**- the act of harming oneself for pleasure -**Insubstantiality**- lack of substance and strength -**Transmute**- to transform -**Interstices**- intervals of time or space <span style="color: rgb(145, 0, 255)">-**Androgynous**- having ambiguous sexual identity

Charectors: <span style="color: rgb(168, 52, 55)">Narrator Women: Main character, in denial of the truth that her lover is not in love with her, doomed relationship, not from <span style="color: rgb(168, 52, 55)">Japan <span style="color: rgb(168, 52, 55)">Taro: Narrators love, obsessed with the idea of loving her, but doesn’t actually love her, from Japan.

<span style="color: rgb(51, 153, 102)"> <span style="color: rgb(51, 153, 102)"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"> Point of view and Style <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"> This story is written in 1st person. It is from the point of an American girl living in Japan. The whole story is written in the past tense, so she is looking back on it. Her story allows the reader to see into the complex mind of the narrator. The style of her writing describes, in great detail, the appearance of her boyfriend but not at all what he is thinking. The story would be very different if the story showed what he was feeling.