THE SHORT STORY LANTERN BY OSAMU DAZAI: AN ANALYSIS
THE SHORT STORY LANTERN BY OSAMU DAZAI: AN ANALYSIS

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the paper is to analyse the short story Lantern by Osamu Dazai, based on a reader-response approach. Readers have a high contribution in reacting and interpreting this short story, as well as in siding with the narrator. This short story shows us how the narrator can feel isolated from society, as well as rejected, due to the situation of her family. In addition, she mentions she would have been happy if she had not been an only child, but would have had a younger sibling to take care of. She projects her own need to be accepted by the community on her boyfriend, forgetting he had enough money to buy a swimsuit. However, the narrator feels that her boyfriend sounds depressed about going to the seaside with his friends, and she believes that the reason is that he cannot be like them as he has no money to buy a swimsuit. She believes this is a reason that is enough for her to steal a swimsuit from a store, and then to present her case to the policeman interrogating her. The narrator has an idealistic, utopic vision of society, which, however, is clearly unrealistic.

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