Why You Should Read No Longer Human

            “Mine has been a life of much shame. I can’t even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being” (21). These are the striking opening words of Osamu Dazai’s 1948 novel, No Longer Human. The story is told through the discarded notebooks of Oba Yozo, an estranged, dejected, wretched, and utterly hopeless man, and our protagonist. We follow Yozo as he navigates his way through his miserable, isolated life. This novel is one of the most bleak and utterly despairing pieces of fiction ever written, yet it is also beautiful, and you should read it.

            The story opens with a prologue, featuring an unnamed narrator who, when presented with three pictures of our main character, describes his appearance as something other than human. Oba Yozo was born in a small village in Northeastern Japan to an affluent, “well-to-do” family. From an early age, Yozo felt completely disconnected from those around him. He could not understand human beings. He had a mortal fear of people, and he dreaded their company. Yozo was terrified at the thought of disappointing others, letting them down. He felt that he could not say no. It was because of this, that Yozo’s “clowning” came to be. He would always put on a smile and pretend to be happy and would never show his true self to others, and Yozo hated himself for it. This clowning led to intense feelings of shame and misery, which are manifested in the form of severely self-destructive behavior. These themes of alienation and depression are a constant throughout the novel.

            Many parallels exist between Osamu Dazai and his character, Oba Yozo. These similarities make this disturbing novel almost autobiographical in nature. Dazai, similarly to Yozo, was born in a small village in Northern Japan to a wealthy, influential family. As he grew older, he began to engage in many of the self-destructive behaviors of Oba Yozo. He would squander much of his allowance on alcohol and prostitutes, he was unfaithful to his partners, and he later became addicted to morphine. Dazai also attempted suicide several times throughout his life, and each depiction of attempted suicide in the novel, mirrors his own attempts. ("Dazai Osamu"). These parallels allow Dazai’s work to possess an extremely powerful genuineness, a deep understanding.

            As the story concludes, we are left with the trampled remnants of what was once a man. Emotionless, greyed beyond his years, and deathly ill after his last suicide attempt, Oba Yozo feels nothing. He feels neither happiness nor sadness. “Everything passes” (169). The story closes with an epilogue, which features the same unnamed narrator as the prologue. The narrator meets a character who once knew Yozo personally, who describes him as a good boy, and an angel. This moment, the closing words of the novel, leaves us with the realization that maybe Yozo was not this lowly, despicable being which he had labeled himself, but rather a sensitive, compassionate man.

            No Longer Human is a poignant, painful story of a man who felt completely alienated from society. “Disqualified as a human being. I had now ceased utterly to be a human being” (167). Ironically, this “nonhuman” is the center of an extremely human story. The story of a man with so many despairs and so many weaknesses that “any one of which if borne by my neighbor would be enough to make a murderer of him” (25). This is a story in which there is no happy ending, no reprieve, just utter despair. And it is beautiful. You should read No Longer Human.

Works Cited

Dazai, Osamu. No Longer Human. 1948. Translated by Donald Keene, 1958.

Lyons, Phyllis I. The Saga of Dazai Osamu: A Critical Study with Translations. Stanford University Press, 1985.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Dazai Osamu". Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 Jun. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dazai-Osamu. Accessed 1 September 2021.