"The Samurai"

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes and reviews the novel "The Samurai," written by Shusaku Endo. The paper provides the historical background that the novel is based on and discusses the context in which it was written. It describes the themes and plot of the book and discusses some of the points of view revealed in review articles related to "The Samurai."

From the Paper:

"After the ill-fated expedition to Rome, by the time Hasekura returned to Japan, the period known at the Tokugawa shogunates had begun. The shoguns and the samurai warrior class saw no merit in Western culture, and no need to expose themselves to any aspect of it. They closed off the West and they barred Christianity because Christianity offered any idea the shogunates feared: social mobility, no matter how unworldly, no matter how limited. The shoguns and the samurai maintained a society of defined and rigidly fixed class lines. In a nation of some 30 million, the two million Samurai held brutal power, this class open only by birth to a samurai family. Social mobility was non-existent. Each person had an allotted place and stayed in it."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Book Review of The Samurai." BrothersJudd.com Oct. 1, 2003, accessed Dec. 8, 2006. Available at <http://www.brothersjudd.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/reviews.detail/book_id/1323/Samurai.htm> Internet.
• Bull, George. "Shusaku Endo's Enduring Legacy." Shusaku Endo's Enduring Legacy." Undated, accessed Dec. 8, 2006. Available at <http://www.hugopublications.com/endo.html>. Internet.
• Cargis, Harry James. "Japan's Novelist Endo Wrote of Faith, Endured." National Catholic Reporter Online. Oct. 25, 1996, accessed December 6, 2006. Available at <http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/102596/102596l.htm> Internet.
• Durant, Will. Our Oriental Heritage. (New York, New York: Simon & Schuster 1935)
• Endo, Shusaku. The Samurai. Van G. Gessel, trans. (New York, New York: Harper & Row, 1980).

More papers on "The Samurai":

• Analytical Essay # 130824 : "The Samurai Banner of Furin Kazan" and Social Order"
• Book Review # 100620 : "Yasushi Inoue's "The Samurai Banner of Furin Kazan"
• Book Review # 145711 : "Christianity and Japan -Shusaku Endo's The Samurai"

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