Seeking The Spiritual Strength Hidden In Despair Interpretation Of No Longer Human From Perspective Of Existentialism

Osamu Dazai is a famous writer in Japan who takes the same reputation as Yasunari Kawabata and Mishima Yukio in the postwar years in Japan.With a semi-autobiographical style and transparency into his personal life,Dazai's stories are very popular with many readers.His books appear a lot of important topics like human nature,mental illness,social relationships,and postwar Japan that bring vital worthy heritages to people.As magnum opus,his book named No Longer Human describes life and death.He addicted to suicide and finally died from suicide.Also he used a number of negative vocabularies to express his feelings about death so that people looked down upon his books when he was alive.But as time passes,scholars and researchers have different ideas about his book gradually that makes his literature renew its vigor.At the appearance of the new academic viewpoint,No Longer Human was seen as powerful instead of negative.Existentialism influenced a number of writers not only in western but also in Asia.Sartre,the representative of the existentialism held the point that people is ridiculous but have the freedom to have options.Also he considered that human beings have no essence before their existence because there is no Creator.Thus,he said "existence precedes essence".These point are related to Dazai's books,so through the Existentialism,people can understand No Longer Human more deeply.This paper will expound from the following aspects:Firstly,In the first place,talk about the explicit spirit of character in No Longer Human written by Osamu Dazai.It contains three factors: the position of the other,Consciousness of crime and the thought of “Superfluous Man”.Secondly,expound the implicit aspect that No Longer Human is related to Existentialism as well as the death of Osamu Dazai is another way to survive.