The long tunnel symbolizes the changes Shamamura, Yuko, and Komako are going to take. Shamamura needs to revive his life by getting female companion. Komako wants to change her life to help a young person, but she needs love while Yuko needs somebody to help her survive when her fiancé is ill. All this happens during the journey in the long tunnel. For this reason, the long tunnel is a symbol of change.
In the book, the author chronologically introduces the three characters to bring out the plot of the story. Shamamura represents a Japanese wealthy old man in search of companion ship. Introduction of Yuko shows how Shamamura needs a companion, but he has a lot to see. Finally, Kawabata introduces Komako to show the different Japanese cultures of love that are making their love not to work.
According to the story, Komako attracts Shamamura because she is too clean and innocent despite being a geisha. At first, Shamamura meets Komako as a businessperson while traveling in search of companionship to spark his life. The attraction does not start at first sight but slowly forms when he comes to know Komako. Komako represents a Japanese woman who becomes a geisha because of poverty and the wish to save a young man’s life.
Shamamura is attracted to Yuko because of her beautiful voice he had heard on the train. Secondly, he is attracted to Yuko because of the way she attends to the needs of Yukio when he is sick. Yuko poses the qualities of an excellent Japanese woman who holds the cultural values.
Komako changes from a young, clean girl to becoming a geisha due to poverty. Komako is compared to a woman suffering of poverty forcing her to enter into the life of a geisha. In the society, women do not choose what to do, but fate chooses for them.
Shamamura plays a dominant role in the book by showing the true qualities of a Japanese old rich man. Japanese men have a lot of power. In this case, they work while the women attend for their domestic duties.
Komako and Yuko are rivals where they see each other as the destroyers of each other’s relationship. Yuko is the fiancé of the sick man while Komako is just a friend. This is not told to the readers to maintain suspense in the story.
Shamamura chooses Komako as her lover instead of Yuko. This is because Yuko tends to attend to her needs as a woman. Additionally, as long as Komako is a symbol of poverty, she is clean and young driven to become a geisha by circumstance. The main aim of showing their fate is to show the readers the different Japanese cultural values of men and women.
The book contains certain motifs that nature and create the story. These stories are giving readers clues to certain meanings in the story like how people suffer in the night. For instance, the motif of falling things shows the hard times of the relation while the rising things show the capital times of the relationships.
The four seasons of love, lament, travel, and elegies together with motifs tend to create character in the story. In this case, readers understand how the Japanese love, lament, and travel. In this case, different characters in the book behave differently in these seasons. The motifs in the story are enhancing characteristics through the motifs. For instance, Shamamura has a rising love of caring in the season of love. This shows how Japanese women take care of their men in relation to their cultures.
In the book, there is a certain way different words connect together linking characters and story lines. According to this story, it is in an early twentieth century of Kakari where Kawabata shows how love is moving from one relation to another.
Japanese culture is marred with many beautiful artistic items that are a part of the culture. In the book, the weaving chijimi cloth shows what Japanese women are supposed to do in the society.
The book has a tragic ending that symbolizes the end of the relation. The fire symbolizes how they characters have burned their changes to create a new pure beginning in their lives. The Milky Way is considered the only way to follow in the Japanese cultures.
The beginning of the story shows a woman whom is a geisha portraying the different characters in the book. Shamamura is a wealthy old man looking for companionship. On the other hand, the ending of part one is showing how Shamamura is enjoying the companionship despite the fact that the beginning of the story was rather gloomy.
In the story, certain breaks exist disrupting the flow of the story. In this situation, the abrupt breakdown craetes monotony of the story making it be more enjoyable. Additionally, people are able to understand the different cultures just by reading this book. Finally, it is making it easier for the readers to read the story.
In the beginning of the story, Shamamura sets on a journey with the aim to travel and look for companionship so that he can rejuvenate his life like before. It can be noted that the beginning is extremely calm. However, the end is tragic and sad. This shows how the story has changed from a hopeful to a tragic one in the end.