Nana

Nana is the main character and first person narrator of the short story “A First-Rate Material.” Nana is engaged to Naoki. At the start of the short story, she goes out to eat with her friends sporting her new human hair cardigan. When her friends see the garment, they exclaim at its beauty, insisting that “Human hair is just the thing to wear for formal occasions, like meeting your future in-laws” (2). Nana is proud of the sweater. She even took out a loan to afford it. However, when her friends suggest wearing it in front of her fiancé’s family, Nana feels guilty. The one thing she and Naoki disagree about is the ethics of wearing and using products made from the body parts of deceased individuals.

In the narrative world of “A First-Rate Material,” it is commonplace to convert deceased individuals’ body parts into furniture and clothing...