Symbols
Samurai and Swords
Ludo frequently revisits the image of a “real samurai,” often alluding to particular scenes from the Japanese movie, The Last Samurai. Such allusions lead one to inquire about Ludo’s definition of what it means to be a “real samurai,” and illustrate a possible parallel between Ludo and the Japanese warrior. Examining the context in which Ludo brings up this image, one can infer that Ludo is using a metaphor: swords represent truth and intelligence. After lying to his potential father figures that he is their son, Ludo always says, “I was glad we weren’t fighting with real swords. If we had been this might have killed me." The “swords” in this context can be read to say “truths.” Another instance that illustrates the metaphor is when Ludo suggests, “The master swordsman isn’t interested in killing people. He only wants to perfect his art." In this passage, Ludo draws a parallel between swordsmen (samurai) and geniuses, suggesting that real geniuses people do not acquire knowledge to flaunt their knowledge but rather learns for the sake of learning, just as samurai do not practice their swords to kill but only to pursuit them as a sort of aesthetic. Ludo also utilizes his knowledge as a weapon that can effectively be used to defend oneself if used carefully and appropriately.
Read more about this topic: The Last Samurai (novel)
Famous quotes containing the word symbols:
“Many older wealthy families have learned to instill a sense of public service in their offspring. But newly affluent middle-class parents have not acquired this skill. We are using our children as symbols of leisure-class standing without building in safeguards against an overweening sense of entitlement—a sense of entitlement that may incline some young people more toward the good life than toward the hard work that, for most of us, makes the good life possible.”
—David Elkind (20th century)
“Children became an obsessive theme in Victorian culture at the same time that they were being exploited as never before. As the horrors of life multiplied for some children, the image of childhood was increasingly exalted. Children became the last symbols of purity in a world which was seen as increasingly ugly.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“As usual I finish the day before the sea, sumptuous this evening beneath the moon, which writes Arab symbols with phosphorescent streaks on the slow swells. There is no end to the sky and the waters. How well they accompany sadness!”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)