Heaven – Mieko Kawakami

Kojima and Eye, Desperately holding onto the ‘sign’ which they believe that it pulled each other together, goes through harsh time relying on each other. Eye is the 14-year-old boy, and the work does not presents his real name. He is called as “Eye” because of his crossed right eye.

About the book

This book portrays the lives of two teenagers in a way that would elicit sympathy from readers, even if they cannot fully relate to the experiences described. The pain inflicted on the characters resonates deeply with those who have personally confronted similar challenges at such a young age of 14.

Kojima and Eye are in the same class, and both of them get bullied by certain groups of other kids. Eye gets bullied because of his crossed eye, and Kojima goes through bullying because of her smell. Through a short letter that Kojima has started, they become friends. They talk about life, how other people are unable to understand why he has a crossed eye or why she doesn’t wash her body. Sometimes long, and sometimes short letters pass between them. Each finds peace when they go over each

While the talk, Kojima keeps on reminding Eye that she loves his eyes, and that it’s a sign that keeps them together, keeps them two as the weak ones who are going though the strong ones’ attack.

Eye was going through a serious breakdown mentally – he was losing weight, couldn’t sleep, and losing his life cycle. Depression came, making him to be isolated from the society, excluding himself from the others, even from Kojima. He started to ignore Kojima’s letter and he did not want any kind of communication with anyone. He did not wanted to talk with Kojima or ay others, just was staring at the night sky, thinking of suicide. His thoughts became plans, and those plans were getting detailed over time. Thankfully, he figures out that suicide is not the right way to end his worse part of his life and pulls himself up the surface of depression. 

Before Eye getting fully recover from the deep depression he had, he met Momose at the hospital. Their conversation shows the difference of the perspective and how the other people think while making others suffer. They have the right opposite thought with Eye, making Eye to be confused and shook. The reason why he get bullied by them was not because of his eyes, it was just because he was there, at that time, existing in that place, while Bullies were not feeling so great. While this talk, it made me feel heavy since I know there are a lot of people who gets bullied like Eye and with no single reason. Just because they are there, just because they were unlucky they get bullied and go through tough time. It reflected several people’s thoughts and emotions, and it makes the reader angry by the fact that Momose’s statement is not wrong at all. It makes sense, although it should not. Momose talk about how the  assailant did nothing wrong – its just victims being weak is the problem. He says that this is also the victim’s task to get over it by themselves, since each other’s life does not matter to each other –  what they do should not hurt anyone. 

There is one scene where the bullying becomes extreme. Ninomiya, Momose and the other people made Kojima and Eye to take off their clothes in the park and started to humiliate them. Their first target was Eye. Eye had to wear nothing but his underwear. When Kojima was told to her her clothes off, it started to rain. She did not move, and Ninomiya, who wasn’t waiting for them to be prepared, made Eye to take her clothes off. Eye could not ignore them – they were going to do it by themselves – which Eye did not like it at all. However, Kojima suddenly started to laugh and smile, taking her clothes off by herself. After only wearing bra top and underwear, she walked to the group of girls and touched their face, in a gentle way. She did the same for the other boys, but not Ninomiya and Momose. They all ran off except those two. When she was about to get hurt, a woman finds them and calls other people to help Eye and Kojima which made them to run away. Meanwhile, Kojima goes with the other adults who came to help her. We never know what exactly happened to Kojima. When Eye signed and said “I never had another friend like her. She was the only one.”, we can know that she got carried away from his life completely. 

Eye talks with his mom and decides to do the surgery after the happening at the park. He goes back to the park, the same place after the recover – and takes off the bandage that was covering his eyes. He was seeing the half part of the world that he missed for his entire life. He saw and felt the golden light, whinging through each leaves and warming his whole body, softly. Even thought Kojima told him several times that he should not change his eyes, he did it, and now he is happier than ever.

How I feel about this book

This book surely is a heartbreaking story. Only because people don’t understand the girl and boy’s thought, they were treated differently. Aactually, it was more than differenently – they were treated in a way that they never should have been treated. Kojima didn’t wash since she wanted to keep her father’s scent on her body, and Eye was born with it, it was not his choice to look in such way. 

I still vividly remember Eye stating that the reason why he was getting bullied. He was in terror and anxiety because of his eyes yet Momose said that it does not matter. Even if his eyes were normalv, he would have got bullied the same, with a different nickname. At the end, it never shows – it never tells the reader if he is now free from bullying, or if he is still trapped inside his miserable and devastating reality. 

However, by the fact that he was fascinated about the world that he is seeing after the surgery, his state must have gone into a better way, increasing the ability of him to get over the ‘stronger’ people on his own way, not the way that he was talking about with Kojima. At that point we cannot see the Eye in depression, having suidical thoughts during midnight.

Although he is enjoying the noble view through his eyes, he might be still willing to think in a way that Kojima does – that he have got rid of his own sign, a special sign, and trying to act like one of the strong ones while being the weakest. Yet, I believe that fixing his eye represents that he is no longer trapped in the past and that he is moving along to get his own life. Thus he can actually be one of the strong ones rather than pretending to be one.

Read: July 27th – July 31st

Wrote: July 31st – Aug 1st