a short story analysis

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Viorica Condrat
THE INVISIBLE JAPANESE GENTLEMEN
SHORT STORY ANALYSIS
Challenging, ingenious, audacious, Graham Greene depicts a society frustrated by self- interest, self-pity, self-distrust, lust, greed and fear. Being an outstanding representative of the modern period, he concentrates on portraying the characters' internal lives, the mental, emotional, and spiritual depths. He aims at revealing the problems of his time with his particular cinematic visual sense.
Lack of communication, when people do not listen to each other, is such a serious problem. Graham Greene masterly reflected it in his short story The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen. This is the story of an estranged young couple who fail to understand one another because of their selfishness as well as of their incompatibility.
The title of the story is very suggestive. At a first glance, it seems to inform about the characters, and only after the reading of the text do we realize its pragmatic function. The title is also very ironic due to the epithet “invisible” placed before “Japanese gentlemen”: not to notice them signifies either racial discrimination or a self-centered person. Graham Greene preferred to deal with the latter.
As a matter of fact, irony (dramatic irony, to be more precise) is the leading stylistic device of the whole story. The self-deluded young writer does not see how ridiculous she is, whereas her much-praised “powers of observations” are only a fancy of hers. In this way the author criticizes the erroneous tendency that everyone “with some reading” can become a writer. On the other hand, he disapproves of the young generation’s lack of patience and seriousness in everything they do, including speaking.
One cannot help admitting that the conversation that takes place between the main characters of the story is a communication failure. Being so egocentric, the girl does not even listen to what her fiancé is saying. His attempts to become an actant are always cut off as in: “He said, ‘But my uncle….’” or ‘My mother says that writing is a good crutch…’. The ellipsis stands for the girl’s refusal to listen to her partner. Moreover, she has chosen the communication strategy of inducing her boyfriend to accept everything she has planned for them without any objection, as in: ‘The wine-trade wouldn’t really suit you, would it? I spoke to my publisher about you and there’s very good chance…if you began with some reading…’ or ‘I thought we might settle down there for six months’. She even threats him when she “harshly” says: ‘I mightn’t comeback if The Chelsea Set sells enough.’ The epithet “harshly” used before “said” emphasizes the girl’s stubbornness and narrow-mindness as well as her tendency to manipulate her fiancé.

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The setting of the story is manufactured. The action takes place in an expensive restaurant where they serve fish. As to the time, it is dinner time ‘There were eight Japanese gentlemen having a fish dinner at Bentley’s’.
The choice of setting is not done at random: usually such a setting is the best place for social intercourse. This is namely what the Japanese gentlemen were doing: ‘They spoke to each other rarely in their incomprehensible tongue, but always with a courteous smile and often with a small bow’. Their intercourse is opposed to that of the young couple. Without knowing the Japanese language, the narrator realizes that their communication is much more successful than that of the two young people. Thus, the author uses the principle of analogy and contrast in order to emphasize the main idea of the story: the modern society is so self-concerned that influences from others are hardly noticed (at the end, the girl with her “powers of observation” does not even notice the Japanese).
As the story basically lacks elements of narration, the task of determining its structure becomes more difficult. The author does not present characters in motion; instead he focuses on their mental and emotional state. The story has an exposition (the author introduces the setting and the characters as well as the conflict), development (the detailed description of the conflict, i.e. the release of the discursive fight between the young girl and her partner), climax (the conflict reaches its apogee, which is marked by the girl’s rather rhetorical question ‘Is this a quarrel?’) and dénouement (the outcome of the conflict). However, the story lacks resolution which implies that it has an open plot structure.
This is very questionable if we take into consideration the psychological nature of the conflict. Definitely, throughout the entire “battle” the girl’s predominance is clear. She is the one who rules. She is the “Regent”, and rhetorically she wins. It is not clear whether she will succeed in materializing all her plans as the Regent is the one who rules until the legitimate monarch takes over the power.
At the same time, a sub-plot is depicted in the text. The author minutely presents the elaborate intercourse the Japanese gentlemen are having, he puts a special emphasis on the respect they bore towards each other as well as towards other people: ‘The Japanese gentlemen had finished their fish and with very little English but with elaborate courtesy they were ordering from the middle-aged waitress a fresh fruit salad’, or ‘the Japanese gentlemen gave tongue simultaneously, then stopped abruptly and bowed to each other, as though they are blocked in a doorway’.
The author introduces this sub-plot to reinforce the main idea that the modern society being too self-centered won’t listen to the others, to say nothing of respecting somebody else’s opinion. It appears as a premeditated desire, as a new mal du siècle.

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As to the characters, the author depicts: two main characters (the young couple), two minor characters (Mr. Dwight and the narrator), one collective character (the Japanese gentlemen) and one episodic character (the waitress).
The main characters are directly introduced “as two miniatures”. Thus, we find out from the story that the girl was “pretty” and that she had “thin blonde hair and her face was pretty and petite in a Regency way, oval like a miniature, though she had a harsh way of speaking – perhaps the accent of the school, Roedean or Cheltenham Ladies’ College, which she had not long ago left” and that she “wore a man’s signet-ring on her engagement finger”. The repetition of the epithet “pretty” is meant to render the young woman’s appealing look, while the exoticism “petite” underlines her frail appearance. The fact that she was fair also adds to the first impression the narrator had about her, i.e. that she was a very naïve and suave young lady. However, this impression disappears the moment he hears her speaking. The epithet “harsh” is supposed to emphasize the idea that the appearance is often misleading and that not everything that glitters is gold. Moreover, we understand that “petite in a Regency way” is a play on words. By referring to the way women looked like during the Regency, the author actually wanted to emphasize the girl’s desire to dominate, to be the ruler. The fact that she wore “a man’s signet- ring” enforces this idea.
As to the young man, he “resembled her physically” and he “should have been a young officer in Nelson’s navy in the days when a certain weakness and sensitivity were no bar to promotion”. So we see the same delicate traits. The author compares him with “a young officer in Nelson’s navy” which implies that his frail appearance should not necessary involve lack of character. However, this is again a play on words with an evident ironic tinge. These words are meant to foreshadow the final remark “the same type of prettiness could contain weakness and strength”, only the traditional roles were reversed the woman stands for strength while the man embodies weakness.
The minor characters are indirectly presented. The narrator appears as an ageing writer who regrets to witness the frailty of the young generation. He arouses different feelings: on the one hand he sympathizes with the girl who is so naïve, on the other he blames her complete lack of tact. One can feel that he is jealous of the girl who is so young and ambitious, but he rejects her vanity. Unlike the girl, he has the “powers of observation” which are so needed to a good writer. The narrator’s considerations regarding his profession and the girl’s ambitions are very ironic as in: “Publishers are human. They may sometimes exaggerated the virtues of the young and the pretty”, or “As the years pass writing will not become any easier, the daily effort will grow harder to endure, those ‘powers of observation’ will become enfeebled; you will be judged, when you read your forties, by performance and not by promise”. In the first example, he doubts the publisher’s honesty, while in the second he bitterly depicts the hardships of his profession.

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His concern for the couple’s future is reflected in: “I found myself hoping that The Chelsea Set would prove to be a disaster and that eventually she would take up photographic modeling while he established himself solidly in the wine-trade in St. James’s”. This statement reveals the idea that one should be realistic concerning their abilities. Thus, the girl should reconsider her vocation and be more objective this time, as to the young man he should be more firm in his decisions.
Mr. Dwight is another minor character who is indirectly depicted. We can draw certain conclusions about his personality due to the girl’s ecstatic depiction of his great qualities as publisher. However, the narrator’s reflections are more somber, he does not believe in the publisher’s unbiased judgment.
The collective character from the short story is very important, it is a ficelle. It has the function of representing how an ideal communication should proceed as well as for author’s implicit criticism of the young woman’s supposed “powers of observation”.
The waitress is rather a background character whose role is to emphasize the great respect the Japanese gentlemen have towards every person.
It goes without saying that all the characters are static. They do not change throughout the story. They can be regarded as types of the modern society. All of them are flat as they do not succeed to surprise the reader in a convincing way. As a rule, we do not have fully rounded characters in a short story due to the space limitations.
The narrator is also a shifter, i.e. a character who links the reader to the author. The short story has three referential characters such as Nelson, her Regency and Mrs. Humphrey Ward. They refer to certain historical moments whose particularities constitute the characters’ personalities.
The characters help to create the atmosphere of the story. It is through hem that the author manages to express his ideas.
I enjoyed reading this story. It made me reconsider several communication strategies. It teaches us to be respectful towards each other while speaking, but above all it strengthens the belief that one should not be driven by vanity while choosing his/her career.