The Image And The Humanity Of Men In The Later Works Of Higashino Keigo

Most of domestic researches on Higashino Keigo’s work lay emphasis on the images of women,evil women and maternity,and fewer researches focus on the images of men.In the eyes of many people,the men portrayed in the works of Higashino Keigo are the symbol of patriarchy.They were self-interested and lead to the women’s tragedy.However,in the works based in the 1990 s,men were miserable and in trouble,but still had a warm heart.This paper focuses on the image and the humanity of men in the later work s of Higashino Keigo.Chapter one expounded Higashino Keigo’s later works as well as their creation backgrounds.Japan had experienced rapid economic development in the 1990 s.The whole society was immersed in high spirit and joy.However,the accompanying collapse of the economic was unexpected.In such a great fall,men had to face all kinds of difficulties,and meet the big test of humanity.Higashino Keigo’s later works were created in such a complicated transitional background,so that the characteristics of the times are attention-getting.The men in those works exhibited the most real humanity in various states in such a background.Chapter two analyzed men’s image in his later works and extracted their characteristics,such as the father of low status in the family,the husband snubbed by his wife,the struggling lover,the detective in economic dilemma,the teacher incapable of self-identification,and the high school student driven by desire.In short,all the male images in Higashino Keigo’s later works were in dilemma.Chapter three studied the characteristics of humanity as seen from these images of men.Higashino Keigo depicted the image of men in trouble based in Japan in the 1990 s,showing that men confronted life directly,separating from tough appearance and traditional gender advantage,and thus showed the truest side of men in trouble.But Higashino Keigo didn’t rest on depicting the predicament of men in his later works,but deeply excavated their humanity out of caring about men.It is the most real humanity of men that although they had many shortcomings,and were in trouble,they still pursued love,kind and freedom.It was also the spirit that Higashino Keigo wanted to manifest.Chapter four concluded the reasons for the author to create the image of these men: the first one is the personal experience of the author;the second one is the harsh social reality;and the last one is the cultural background of the development of mystery novel.