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Part III, Chapter 4: Ruth
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Tale for the Time Being, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Time, Impermanence, and the Present
The Difficulty of Communication
Life vs. Death
Coincidences and Connections
Sexual Perversion and Violence
Summary
Analysis
(1) The first date that Babette set Nao up with was with a stylish, rich man who worked in an ad agency—Nao says that she’ll call him Ryu in her diary. He wore Armani suits and carried a platinum lighter with diamonds on it, and Babette told Nao that he was very polite and gentle. Before the date, Nao was so nervous that she felt nauseous, so she refused Ryu’s offer to go have dinner beforehand.
Ruth’s suspicions about Babette turn out to be true. Earlier, Nao described the hostesses’ customers as their “dates,” so the “date” that Babette set Nao up on was probably with a client who paid for sex.
Themes
Ryu took Nao to a nice love hotel, where he opened some champagne and took off all of Nao’s clothes. Nao was so nervous that Ryu couldn’t penetrate her, and after trying unsuccessfully to have sex, Nao started weeping. She blamed the champagne for her tears and also said that she was moved by Ryu’s kindness. He was being really nice about everything although he’d paid for this date with her. Ryu wrapped Nao in his soft shirt because she was shivering, and Nao ended up wearing all his clothes, including his pants and tie.
In this section, it becomes clear that Ryu paid for sex with Nao. He took her to a “love hotel,” which is a type of hotel in Japan where customers pay for rooms by the hour, and it is understood that guests are there only to have sex. Nao knew Ryu paid a lot of money to have sex with her—and since she didn’t mention that she had any of it, most (or all) of the money probably went to Babette. Rather than being upset about this, Nao feels guilty that Ryu is unable to have sex with her, which shows the extent of Nao’s naïveté and her unhealthy dependence on Babette’s friendship.
Themes
Then, Nao took off her wig, and Ryu told her she looked like a beautiful boy in her buzz cut. Nao told Ryu to pretend he was her while they had sex. Afterward, Ryu asked her how old she was—she was about to say 15 but suddenly realized that it was her birthday that day, and she was 16. Ryu gave her his platinum lighter as a present. On a later date, Nao had Ryu wear her school uniform; he looked so foolish and his passivity irritated her so much that she started to hit him as hard as she could. Ryu stopped her, saying that she was just hurting herself.
While Nao was helpless and crying earlier, she felt more empowered when she wore Ryu’s clothes and pretended to be a man. This implies that she saw her femininity as a weakness. Nao also felt a strong sense of self-derision and felt enraged at Ryu when he dressed like her. All the difficulties in her life have led to make poor choices, and Nao felt disgusted at herself. She had reached a very low point in her life.
Themes
(2) Nao and Ryu met often for sex, and after, Nao liked to wear his expensive suits and go for walks, enjoying feeling like a man. When Nao’s hair started growing back, Ryu vanished. Nao was developing feelings for him by this point, so she was heartbroken. She kept asking Babette about him, but Babette said that Nao must have done something wrong to drive him away, and that it was time for her to stop moping and start dating again.
Again, this passage shows that Nao liked taking on a male identity. She had suffered indignities and abuse as a woman, and she continued to be in a dangerous position as a sex worker. So, Nao enjoyed the opportunity to pretend that she was a powerful man who wouldn’t have had to suffer these things. Unfortunately, Nao ended up becoming quite attached to Ryu and was devastated when he disappeared. He seems to have fetishized her bald head and no longer desired her when her hair grew back. Nao shaved her head in an attempt to protect herself from sexual predators, but it ironically ended up leading into an even more dangerous situation with Babette and her clients. With this, the novel suggests that there is no surefire way for women to protect themselves from sexual violence and exploitation—anyone can be victimized, regardless of what they look like.
Themes
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(3) Nao felt like Babette was her only friend, since her parents were too distracted to focus on her. Previously, even when Haruki was suicidal, he was always interested in something—whether origami bugs or 9/11 victims. Now, he ignored everything around him, including Nao and Tomoko. In the computer’s cache, Nao saw that her father was part of an online suicide club and that he was trying to convince a high schooler in the club not to kill herself. Nao found this very hypocritical. Then, she got the idea of killing herself too.
Since Nao was so lonely, she seemed to be obeying Babette in a desperate attempt at friendship—even though, in reality, Babette was far from a friend. Nao also noticed that Haruki was losing all interest in life, and she suspected that he was finally really serious about killing himself. Nao hinted that his previous interests were evidence that he didn’t really want to die, but Haruki no longer seemed to care about anything. Nao’s life was spiraling out of control, and she realized it. Suicide ended up seeming like a good option to her. Like Haruki and Haruki #1, Nao saw it as a way to regain control.
Themes
