Invent and populate four lists of your own

The Pillow-Book of Sei Shonagon

Summary

The article starts off with a poetic reflection of the four seasons followed by a list of pet peeves going by the name “Hateful things.” Examples of hateful things that the author mentions include annoying inkstick mistakes, tiresome visitors, sleepy priests carrying out extortions and distorted conversations. The writer goes ahead and lists things that are not comparable such as day and night. Later, she proceeds to mentions things that she finds embarrassing. Examples include listening to the servants having a comfortable conversation with the guests, a man repeating himself several times after taking alcohol. Others mentioned by Sei are people being able to listen to a chat that involves badmouthing other people, ugly children receiving a doll-like treatment from their parents, stupid people, having a conversation with someone but the person goes ahead to sleep, and mistakes made by musicians when composing and performing their pieces. Next, the author vividly describes the characters of Masahiro as a weird, awkward and lowly regarded by the courts. She concludes the article by listing the things that she finds pleasing. They include knowledge, books, puzzles, recovery of loved self-confidence portrayed by men, praise, poems and bad dreams being meaningless. Finally, she finds the act of people making way for her when she is called by the emperor pleasing too.

Meaning

The story is all about the explanation that despite the challenges people face, life goes on.

Style

Paradox

The style describes words that have opposite meanings. Examples in Sei’s articles are Rain and sunshine, Summer and winter, Young and age.

Imagery

The style is used by the author to help the author picture the information or idea they are trying to communicate. An example of imagery in the article included “As the light creeps over the hills, their outlines are dyed a faint red and wisps of purplish cloud trail over them” (Shōnagon, 1979).

Tone

From the article, Sei Shonagon is a straightforward, intelligent and skillful in writings and very observant. However, when going about with her daily life, she chooses to keep her thoughts and ideas to herself since, in their Japanese culture, she was not allowed to let them out for people to know. If she did, she faced the penalties of being executed or burnished from the imperial life.

Form

Wit

Wit refers to a quality of speech or article created from a combination of elements of verbal cleverness and keen perception. In the article, the author applies with when writing about contradictory elements. An example is “A person’s laughter and his anger,” “the little indigo plant and the great philodendron” (Shōnagon, 1979).

Effectiveness

The author applies this form to make the story interesting, easy and fun to read through.

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References

Shōnagon, S. (1979). Pillow Book, Translated by Ivan Morris.