i felt sorry for shigeru as he lived his whole life with honour yet in the end his own uncles led to his death. i also felt sorry for takeo who had to try and please so many people yet pleasing one would mean the others would want him dead.
I was able to relate very much with the characters of the book, especially Takeo, Kaede, Shizuka and Shigeru. Takeo: Since he is the main character, we got to learn the most about him. As with all the four main characters, we really felt like they were real people. They have a personality, especially Takeo. We empathise with Takeo when his family his killed. We can feel his anguish when Shigeru dies.We want him to marry Kaede. Everything Takeo experiences, I can fully relate to. Kaede: The 15 year old who lived as a hostage until she was taken away to be married. Kaede is one of the most interesting characters in the book. She goes through tough times in the book and appears to be fragile and weak minded. However the truth is hidden inside her and quite the contrary. She is able to combat the troubles that rack herself and the tribes by delving deep into her inner strength. Like Takeo, I could fully relate to her. Her sorrows for her sick mother. The annoyance of having no rights and not being able to marry who she pleased. Her love and desire for Takeo. All these traits make Kaede an appealing main character. Shizuka: Part of the Kikuta clan, disguised as Lady Kaede’s maid. She helps Kaede get through some rough times. She’s almost like a mother to her. I felt sorry for her when Lord Arai wanted nothing to do with Shizukar after they’d been lovers for years. Shizuka is a character who always puts others first and places her life on the line to care for Kaede. Shigeru: Lord of the Otori. He saves Takeo from the massacre at his home village. Shigeru was a very honourable and understanding man, which not surprisingly gained the respect of his people. The more he tried to please others, the closer he got to his inevitable death. It made me sad that he and Lady Maruyama could never truly be together and angry that his own brothers killed him. He was an honest man and very dignified. It was nice to know that the people made him a demi god. This was the extent that I was able to relate to the central characters of the plot.
I actually only found it easy to relate to the character Kaede. As I have mentioned in a couple of other comments, Shigeru's (constant) and Takeo's (unclear) name changes make it extremely difficult for me to consistently empathise and focus on them. Kaede's name stays the same, concreting her character in my brain and not letting my mind wonder when I read about her, as opposed to Shigeru and Takeo, who's (name) changes make me lose a level of interest in the story. Also, I find Kaede's part of the story superior in courage, hope and persistence. This does not mean she was my favourite character, it simply means that she responded the best to the amount of hardship forced upon her. Some may argue that Takeo suffered just as much, if not more when his village was attacked and his (old) identity lost, but the fact of the matter is, Takeo had friends: Shigeru (very closely) plus Itiro and Muto Kenji to an extent. Kaede, however, had suffered just as much, she was almost raped, she had to kill the guard who tried to rape her out of self-defence, she is forced to marry when she isn't ready, maybe even to someone she doesn't like and Iida tries to rape her at the end of the book. Kaede suffers through all this with hardly any friends and family. Her mother is very sick and her father, who she hardly sees, seems like "...a stranger to her" (pg 99). Also, Kaede is upset about the fact that women seem to have no rights, which she tries to fight for by, as Ben said, 'using her inner strength.'
For Kaede to suffer through all this 'alone' and pull through is extremely 'heart-warming'. I can relate to an extent because I know that things can always get worse, but at the same time, the strength we need to survive depressing situations grows.
Jono, I understand why you could relate with Kaede, (nice comment!) but why couldn't you relate with any other characters? Surely you could relate with Takeo as he is the main character alongside with Kaede?
In the book Across The Nightingale Floor I had no idea how I could relate to the characters on a personal level because as Stroudilicious said it was very hard to relate to characters in a made up fantasy Asian world in a time far older than what we live in but as I learnt more and more about the main characters there was much more that I could relate to.
With Takeo I could relate to him because the author described his emotions and what was going on inside his head very well. I could understand the level of confusion inside him as he belonged to three different tribes. I could feel his love for his father Lord Shigeru and the rage inside him when his friend Muto Kenji betrays him and when his own family kills him and as The Big Ben said we want him to marry Kaede.
When I was reading the book I could almost sense the way that Lord Shigeru thought and the way that he demanded respect and he would return it to you. You could feel his love for Lady Maruyama and how he wanted to marry her. Lord Shigeru was a honourable man who spent his whole life preserving his honour. It was a sad how he died so shamefully.
I could also relate to Kaede who was sent to be a hostage for most of her life. She was sexually assaulted a number of times at her age which is troubling enough. Another problem was that she was being arranged into a marriage, which she did not want. You could feel the trouble she was going through. Just imaging that you had no idea who your parents really were as people is really shocking.
All these emotions that we feel towards these characters are no accident. They are craft fully threaded into each chapter of the book by the author and I must commend him on that.
Ben, I understand where you are coming from. I even surprised myself to an extent! I too thought that Takeo would be one of, if not singularly my favourite character, as he is the first personality introduced at the start of the book. But the point that I have stressed is the fact that Takeo was such a harder character to follow for me. If you have read my other comments, you will know this is because of his dully-explained name-change that made me totally lose focus on his character. Also, I found Kaede’s struggle to be happy a lot more inspiring. To say I can relate to her in the sense that her life and problems reflect my own is definitely pushing it. To relate to Takeo however, is like crawling from one end of the spectrum to another. But Kaede’s experiences are in some way similar to mine. There are times that I feel totally alone and times when I feel distant from my family. On the contrary, I have never witnessed the slaughter of my whole village and realized I had super powers brewing inside me! I read your comment Ben and I applaud you for great evidence and passion for your opinion, but this is just how I feel.
I found it very difficult to relate to the characters. Firstly because it is based in an the past in a made up asian place which seems a bit cliched to me and its not a cliche i like. I find it difficult to imagine how the characters would feel in this made up place and time as i havn't experienced it. Despite both Takeo and Kaede being my age they didn't seem to be be my age in the way they thought and felt. The story didn't tell us anything about what the Hidden beleived and that made it difficult to understand Tomasu's(Takeo) transition. Also some of the concepts were a bit farfetched eg. the second self and invisibility abilities Takeo inherits from the tribe. Takeo himself says people don't understand him because of his abilities and only the Kikuta master truly relates to him. Kaede was difficult to relate to as she had been kept from the outside world all her life. I therefore had no idea what she had been through as she didn't talk much. I feel Shigeru was hiding emotions and keeping things from us which made it hard for me to relate to him. I liked Shizuka. I felt she was very chirpy and honest. This made her easy to relate to.
The characters were hard to relate to as I have a disliking of stories set in the past. Therefore I wasn't really interested and didn't get into the book.
I wasn't really able to relate to most of the characters, because they all held different beliefs and ideas of how to live their lives, such as the idea of killing yourself to preserve honour because you've done something stupid or lazy. If I had to relate to anyone in particular, it would be Takeo, because he is confused about what he needs to do, what and who he is and how to deal with losing his family, identity and life. For example, he finds out that he is from the Tribe, and the plan emerges to kill Iida, and must learn to go over the nightinggale floor without it singing, and learn all the skills of the tribe from Muto Kenji.
10 comments:
i felt sorry for shigeru as he lived his whole life with honour yet in the end his own uncles led to his death. i also felt sorry for takeo who had to try and please so many people yet pleasing one would mean the others would want him dead.
I was able to relate very much with the characters of the book, especially Takeo, Kaede, Shizuka and Shigeru.
Takeo: Since he is the main character, we got to learn the most about him. As with all the four main characters, we really felt like they were real people. They have a personality, especially Takeo. We empathise with Takeo when his family his killed. We can feel his anguish when Shigeru dies.We want him to marry Kaede. Everything Takeo experiences, I can fully relate to.
Kaede: The 15 year old who lived as a hostage until she was taken away to be married. Kaede is one of the most interesting characters in the book. She goes through tough times in the book and appears to be fragile and weak minded. However the truth is hidden inside her and quite the contrary. She is able to combat the troubles that rack herself and the tribes by delving deep into her inner strength. Like Takeo, I could fully relate to her. Her sorrows for her sick mother. The annoyance of having no rights and not being able to marry who she pleased. Her love and desire for Takeo. All these traits make Kaede an appealing main character.
Shizuka: Part of the Kikuta clan, disguised as Lady Kaede’s maid. She helps Kaede get through some rough times. She’s almost like a mother to her. I felt sorry for her when Lord Arai wanted nothing to do with Shizukar after they’d been lovers for years. Shizuka is a character who always puts others first and places her life on the line to care for Kaede.
Shigeru: Lord of the Otori. He saves Takeo from the massacre at his home village. Shigeru was a very honourable and understanding man, which not surprisingly gained the respect of his people. The more he tried to please others, the closer he got to his inevitable death. It made me sad that he and Lady Maruyama could never truly be together and angry that his own brothers killed him. He was an honest man and very dignified. It was nice to know that the people made him a demi god.
This was the extent that I was able to relate to the central characters of the plot.
I actually only found it easy to relate to the character Kaede. As I have mentioned in a couple of other comments, Shigeru's (constant) and Takeo's (unclear) name changes make it extremely difficult for me to consistently empathise and focus on them. Kaede's name stays the same, concreting her character in my brain and not letting my mind wonder when I read about her, as opposed to Shigeru and Takeo, who's (name) changes make me lose a level of interest in the story. Also, I find Kaede's part of the story superior in courage, hope and persistence. This does not mean she was my favourite character, it simply means that she responded the best to the amount of hardship forced upon her. Some may argue that Takeo suffered just as much, if not more when his village was attacked and his (old) identity lost, but the fact of the matter is, Takeo had friends: Shigeru (very closely) plus Itiro and Muto Kenji to an extent. Kaede, however, had suffered just as much, she was almost raped, she had to kill the guard who tried to rape her out of self-defence, she is forced to marry when she isn't ready, maybe even to someone she doesn't like and Iida tries to rape her at the end of the book. Kaede suffers through all this with hardly any friends and family. Her mother is very sick and her father, who she hardly sees, seems like "...a stranger to her" (pg 99). Also, Kaede is upset about the fact that women seem to have no rights, which she tries to fight for by, as Ben said, 'using her inner strength.'
For Kaede to suffer through all this 'alone' and pull through is extremely 'heart-warming'. I can relate to an extent because I know that things can always get worse, but at the same time, the strength we need to survive depressing situations grows.
Jono, I understand why you could relate with Kaede, (nice comment!) but why couldn't you relate with any other characters? Surely you could relate with Takeo as he is the main character alongside with Kaede?
In the book Across The Nightingale Floor I had no idea how I could relate to the characters on a personal level because as Stroudilicious said it was very hard to relate to characters in a made up fantasy Asian world in a time far older than what we live in but as I learnt more and more about the main characters there was much more that I could relate to.
With Takeo I could relate to him because the author described his emotions and what was going on inside his head very well. I could understand the level of confusion inside him as he belonged to three different tribes. I could feel his love for his father Lord Shigeru and the rage inside him when his friend Muto Kenji betrays him and when his own family kills him and as The Big Ben said we want him to marry Kaede.
When I was reading the book I could almost sense the way that Lord Shigeru thought and the way that he demanded respect and he would return it to you. You could feel his love for Lady Maruyama and how he wanted to marry her. Lord Shigeru was a honourable man who spent his whole life preserving his honour. It was a sad how he died so shamefully.
I could also relate to Kaede who was sent to be a hostage for most of her life. She was sexually assaulted a number of times at her age which is troubling enough. Another problem was that she was being arranged into a marriage, which she did not want. You could feel the trouble she was going through. Just imaging that you had no idea who your parents really were as people is really shocking.
All these emotions that we feel towards these characters are no accident. They are craft fully threaded into each chapter of the book by the author and I must commend him on that.
Ben, I understand where you are coming from. I even surprised myself to an extent! I too thought that Takeo would be one of, if not singularly my favourite character, as he is the first personality introduced at the start of the book. But the point that I have stressed is the fact that Takeo was such a harder character to follow for me. If you have read my other comments, you will know this is because of his dully-explained name-change that made me totally lose focus on his character. Also, I found Kaede’s struggle to be happy a lot more inspiring. To say I can relate to her in the sense that her life and problems reflect my own is definitely pushing it. To relate to Takeo however, is like crawling from one end of the spectrum to another. But Kaede’s experiences are in some way similar to mine. There are times that I feel totally alone and times when I feel distant from my family. On the contrary, I have never witnessed the slaughter of my whole village and realized I had super powers brewing inside me! I read your comment Ben and I applaud you for great evidence and passion for your opinion, but this is just how I feel.
I found it very difficult to relate to the characters. Firstly because it is based in an the past in a made up asian place which seems a bit cliched to me and its not a cliche i like. I find it difficult to imagine how the characters would feel in this made up place and time as i havn't experienced it. Despite both Takeo and Kaede being my age they didn't seem to be be my age in the way they thought and felt.
The story didn't tell us anything about what the Hidden beleived and that made it difficult to understand Tomasu's(Takeo) transition. Also some of the concepts were a bit farfetched eg. the second self and invisibility abilities Takeo inherits from the tribe. Takeo himself says people don't understand him because of his abilities and only the Kikuta master truly relates to him.
Kaede was difficult to relate to as she had been kept from the outside world all her life. I therefore had no idea what she had been through as she didn't talk much.
I feel Shigeru was hiding emotions and keeping things from us which made it hard for me to relate to him.
I liked Shizuka. I felt she was very chirpy and honest. This made her easy to relate to.
The characters were hard to relate to as I have a disliking of stories set in the past. Therefore I wasn't really interested and didn't get into the book.
I wasn't really able to relate to most of the characters, because they all held different beliefs and ideas of how to live their lives, such as the idea of killing yourself to preserve honour because you've done something stupid or lazy.
If I had to relate to anyone in particular, it would be Takeo, because he is confused about what he needs to do, what and who he is and how to deal with losing his family, identity and life.
For example, he finds out that he is from the Tribe, and the plan emerges to kill Iida, and must learn to go over the nightinggale floor without it singing, and learn all the skills of the tribe from Muto Kenji.
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