Deep River Shusaku Endo English Literature Essay

Deep River Shusaku Endo English Literature EssayShusaku Endo has had a long career in literary works. He has written some very compelling novels that dive deep down into the journey of spiritual learning. He has fixated most of his writings on ii main crossing issues such as eastern and western cultures specifically between Japanese culture and Christianity. His novels have sited a wide range of issues of pagan and spiritual identity, alienation, and personal pledge to faith. The story he wrote Deep River is a fascinating journey of revelation for the characters involved, especially the relationship between Mitsuko has with Otsu.Otsu and Mitsuko first see in college, Otsu is an awkward religious student and Mitsuko is a woman who has no real passion for life. She decides she wants to steal Otsu away from the god he believes in. She invites Otsu to a party to ask him about his beliefs, to my surprise he comes clean saying he is unsure of what he believes in. Mitsuko forces Otsu to drink and wont stop forcing him until he forsakes god, but he drinks till he throws up, never tolerant up on god. No it sounds like these two would never see each separate again later on something like that. To your dismay Mitsuko cant leave Otsu be, she says he must falsify his belief in god. She then gives him the opportunity to be her boyfrigoal if he gives up his faith. I hvirtuosostly cant believe anyone would force that upon someone. To my dismay they end up having sex and dating for several months until she breaks his heart. Otsu now depressed, leaves and doesnt return, although they do of course, meet again. Mitsuko has a problem because she feels no passion in life she goes through her life and this story with a horrible aspect of emptiness in herselfOn Mitsukos honeymoon instead of spending time with her new husband she hears Otsu is in France and searches him out. They meet up and come up with a new word for god onion because to Mitsuko the term god means slide fas tener. Otsu is on the complete opposite page, saying god is everything everywhere. The French actually say he is a heretic for his beliefs that other religions are also true and that god uses both sin and suffering for the greater fair. Otsu is opposed by his teachers because of this statement he gives evil lurks within good, and good thingsgood things can lie within evil as well (65). I believe what Endo is trying to express be that god has the power to turn every sin into some kind of good. Later in the story another quote comes up, god has many faces. I dont think god exists simply in the churches and chapels of Europe. I think he is also among the Jews and the Buddhists and the Hindus (121). Otsu wants to live a life of selfless sacrifice for all people, which at the time Mitsuko finds to be a waste of time. I believe the reason she seeks out Otsu so many times in the story even though she doesnt really know what it she is curious for she is searching for god which in the en d brings love. Otsu signifies a belief in unity of all. He believes in combining all faiths and caring for all mankind, generating an colossal social assembly of love.Even with being called a heretic, Otsu never revokes his beliefs and maintains a strong faith and trust in Jesus. While talking to Mitsuko he decides to retell her he has dedicated his existence to chasing only one thing the love of that onion, Love is all the onion has imparted to us. The thing we are most lacking in our modern world is love love is the thing no one believes in anymore love is what everyone mockingly laughs at, and that is why someone like me wants to hap my onion with dumb sincerity (119). Otsu follows his beliefs to India at the river Ganges. This is a place that is very sacred to the Hindus, they travel here when they are dying with the hope to have their bodies cremated and their ashes pass on into the holy river. Otsu goes here to sacrifice himself so he can help these people make the dying j ourney. He literally carries the people to the river who can further walk. yield is the focus of Otsus faith. Jesus is the number one symbol of sacrifice. He gave up his life for mankinds sins. Jesus symbolically lugs all of the anguishes of mankind on his shoulders when he is made to carry his own cross to death. Otsu imitates the carrying of suffering by plainly transporting the deceased and dying on his back to the River Ganges. Otsu sees more than just the task he is doing, he feels something pure and necessary in putting the suffering of others on his shoulders, by sacrificing himself. Mitsuko sees what Otsu is doing as a waste of his own life, because he is getting nothing out of it in her eyes. Otsu knows he will not change the world or cure suffering, he is doing this act of sacrifice for the good of the people, if there is a benefit that comes from it then Otsu knows the act will not be the true good act of sacrifice.By the end of the story you start to get the feeling tha t Mitsuko finally understands the belief of sacrifice and love for others. She decides to bathe in the holy river joining the Hindus with her own prayer, which she still believes is a lie, she still has that emptiness until she sees the ultimate sacrifice.Sacrifice is to give and receive nothing in return except for happiness in you. To love is to sacrifice Otsu makes sacrifices for people trying to turn their sorrow into love. The end of the story brings the biggest sacrifice, when Otsu becomes mortally wounded, while saving Sanjo, who is a person who most wouldnt sacrifice for because of his cultural insensitiveness. But because Otsu and his beliefs he saves the man and in the end giving his life. This act makes his sacrifice even greater, he is not sacrificing for a loved one or a family member but for a stranger who does not know or appreciate what Otsu does for him. Otsu has Christ-like, selfless love that rises above all cultural, racial, and religious prejudices to embrace al l of humanity, just like the river Ganges, which he saw as a deep and flowing river of love accepting all, rejecting neither the ugliest of men nor the filthiest (185). This is when we finally understand what lies at the heart of Christianity Love and sacrifice for others. Otsus sacrifice is one of pure love for mankind, deaf, blind and dumb to how pointless it may be.