What are the motifs in The Man Who Turned Into a Stick by Kobo Abe?

Death is a motif to consider. Death Abe has subtitled this play Death. In the play, there is the imminent death of the man who has turned into the stick, but there is also an overtone of imminent mortality for everyone. It is through the awareness of death that Abe hopes to awaken his audience. Abe's own life was marked with many scenes of death, from the war in Manchuria to his father's death, and the aftermath of bombing raids on Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. His awareness of death prompted him to see life with fresh eyes. Shields writes, "Abe's ability to see ordinary things in extraordinary ways enabled him to suggest to his audience that they could do likewise."