An Artist of the Floating World | Style

An Artist of the Floating World Style

Point of View

An Artist of the Floating World is written in the first person narrative style, told exclusively from the point of view of the main character, Masuji Ono. Ono is not a completely reliable narrator, since an issue throughout the story is the validity of his belief system. Ono is an old man looking back on his life, attempting to justify the choices he's made. At first, our narrator is rather stubbornly fixed in his viewpoints, and refuses to see the outcomes of some of his more disastrous choices. The reader is able to see beyond Ono's limited insight only through the reactions of the people in Ono's life.

Ono initially downplays the importance of the negative reactions of others, clinging stubbornly to the beliefs he's held so dear for most of his life. It is up to the reader, then, to grasp the larger picture based on the contradictions between...
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