Schoolgirl is a novella by Osamu Dazai, published in 1939. The novella explores a day in the life of an unnamed high school student. Her beloved father has just passed away, and she’s living through a turbulent period, both for Japan and herself. At first, she seems devoid of emotion, but as the story progresses, we can see that she is filled with more hatred for all things than numbness. The story captures the confusion, vulnerability, and self-consciousness of adolescence, social critique, themes of alienation and disillusionment, and psychological depth. I really liked how the author effectively showed just how miserable she was. We get to really see into the mind of a girl going through a hard time, though I think the author projected some of his own experiences because we repeatedly see throughout the book that the girl displays signs of malice and resentment towards women. Although, that could also be a literary device to emphasize her misery.
“Tomorrow will probably be another day like today. Happiness will never come my way. I know that. But it’s probably best to go to sleep believing that it will surely come, tomorrow it will come. I purposely made a loud thump as I fell into bed. Ah, that feels good. The futon was cool, just the right temperature against my back, and it was simply delightful. Sometimes happiness arrives one night too late. The thought occurred to me as I lay there. You wait and wait for happiness, and when finally you can’t bear it any longer, you rush out of the house, only to hear later that a marvelous happiness arrived the following day at the home you had abandoned, and now it was too late. Sometimes happiness arrives one night too late.” (p. 101)
I chose this quotation because it says a lot about the character and sums up the contents of this novella. But not only that, once you lose yourself to sadness, it’s very easy to fall into this mindset, though the sentiment is correct, sometimes happiness comes the following day, too late.