Dazai Osamu: The Background Of His ’Changing Direction’ And Its Influences On His Literature

DazaiOsamu,one of the three greatest Youth writers in modern Japan along withNatsumeSouseki and Murakami Haruki, is also the representative writer of Reigh andRascal Literature. Being ‘the flag-bearer of the20th-century Literature’,andtherepresentative writer ofSyouwaLiterature.He led a tragic life. He ended his life when his40th birthday was around the corner.Although he had a short life, he had rich experiences, in which his participation in theCommunist Movement and ‘changing direction’ from it is worth attention. It is not onlybecause the reason of his ‘changing direction’ has never been made clear, but also becausethe views of the critics vary differently,sometimes even run in opposite directions. Howeverthere is no controversy that his involvement with the movement has imposed a greatinfluence upon his life and literature.Dazaigot to know the Marxism when he was in Hiromae high school, in which he showedstrong interests in, but he didn’t take an active part in the political movement.After his entrance into the Tokyo Imperial University, he began to participate in thepolitical movement. We can not deny his efforts to the movement even in1930，when heplayed a role as a mere politician.The reason of his ‘changing direction’ from the Communist Movement, has always beenregarded as the pressure from his family, which is not entirely correct. It was almost causedby his own mind. However as a small bourgeois intellectual, compromise to thefeudal‘Family’culuture and reactionary power is also an inevitable trend of the era. Itseems that he surrender to the police meant his ‘changing direction’, but in fact, the realchange in his mind had already been brewed for a long time.After the SecondWorldWar, Dazai witnessed a new change in his attitudes toward theCommunist Movement and his ‘changing direction’.At first,he expected thereestablishment of the Party, but later he became filled with disappointment and angerabout the reality. Dazai relieved himself from guilt and started to review and judge thepolitical movement before the war and the Party’s reestablishment after the war calmly andobjectively. However, even at this time, the spearheads of his criticism were somebig-names of the leaders and writers. His enthusiasm and faith in the Social Theory havenever changed since the moment he got to know it.