Amazing Book ReviewsEssay Questions
Essay #1Write an essay comparing and contrasting Ishigami and Yukawa. In what ways do they act as foils for each other? Consider the following points: → What is the significance of their nicknames (i.e. "Detective Galileo" and "Buddha") in terms of their relationship with each other? → Consider their experience as classmates and the course of their career paths following graduation. What led them to follow different paths? → Consider the ways in which they relate to their students. How does this reflect any similarities or differences in their respective worldviews? → What is the nature of their friendship with each other? In what ways is it a conventional friendship? In what ways does their relationship diverge from a typical friendship? What are the limits of this friendship? Why is Yukawa uniquely qualified to have a friendship with Ishigami? → Yukawa is said to be more empirical in his approach, whereas Ishigami is focused on mathematical abstractions. How does this play into their approach to the cover-up of Togashi's death? Consider the quote below: The shared a common desire to describe the world around them with theorems, but they approached this from opposite directions. Ishigami built his theorems from rigid blocks of mathematical formula while Yukawa began everything by making observations. When he found a mystery, he would go about breaking it down. Ishigami preferred simulations; Yukawa's heart was in actual experimentation.How is this quote illustrative of the differences in their worldviews?
Essay #2: Consider the relationship between fate and free will in influencing how each character makes decisions. To what extent are the characters agents with a capacity for free choice? To what extent are they just victims of fate?
- What is the significance of Ishigami's metaphor of "cogs in a machine"? How do Ishigami and Yukawa differ in their interpretation of this metaphor?
- → Consider the course of the police investigation. Kusanagi laments the fact that the police are committed to a theory that seems to fit all the facts yet diverges from the reality of what happened. How does this play into the dichotomy between fate and free will?
- → To what extent is Ishigami able to rely upon logic and mathematics to develop his scheme? What unanticipated confounding factors prevent him from fully realizing his goals?
- → Consider their nicknames (i.e. "Buddha" for Ishigami, "Detective Galileo" for Yukawa) in terms of their symbolic connotations for the conflict between fate and free will.
- → To what extent is Ishigami a tragic hero bound by fate to meet his end?
Essay #3: In Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment, the central protagonist, Raskolnikov, has much in common with Ishigami such that the latter can said to be modeled after the former. Compare and contrast these two characters. How is Ishigami a Dostoevskian protagonist? → Raskolnikov has a name that means "schizm." In what ways does Ishigami likewise exemplify the idea of a "schizm" in his personality and character? → Raskolnikov finds redemption through a prostitute and makes a final confession at the end of Dostoevsky's novel. How does his experience parallel that of Ishigami's, especially in relation to Yusako? → Both Raskolnikov and Ishigami insist upon a scientific and rationalist view of the world. Raskolnikov in particular aims to become a "superman" who is not bound by conventional morals and ethics. In what way does Ishigami likewise attempt to become a "superman" in his own right?
Essay #4:What is the significance of science experiments and math problems to the unfolding of the plot? How do math problems become a metaphor for the solving of the murder mystery? → Consider the four-color problem, which states that it is possible for a map to be drawn using only four colors and in which no two contiguous shapes share the same color. How does the four-color problem function as a metaphor for the cover-up of Togashi's death? → The N = NP problem poses an interesting question: which is easier, to develop your own solution to a problem or to prove that someone else's solution is wrong? How is this significant in relation to the cover-up of Togashi's death? → Ishigami states that his tests take advantage of the "blinding spots" in students' that assumptions. For example, they mistake an algebra problem for a geometry problem. What is the significance of this in relation to the police investigation? → Throughout the novel, how does Yukawa continue to act as a scientist vis-a-vis the murder investigation? How does he use an empirical approach that involves the scientific method? What is the significance of his experiments in this regard?
Essay #5: For characters in many genres of Japanese film and literature, there often exists an internal conflict dichotomized as giri/ninjo. The former represents one's duty to society, the latter one's feelings and basic humanity. Consider how each separate character (Yukawa, Kusanagi, Ishigami, Yusako, Misato, Kudo, etc.) struggles with their own version of the giri/ninjo conflict.
Essay #6:In feudal Japan, the samurai served the feudal nobility, helping to keep order in their respective daimyos and to defend the territory of their feudal lords. Some, however, became ronin, samurai without a master. The phenomenon of these masterless samurai occurred in the immediate aftermath of a major battle or civil war, such as after the Battle of Sekigahara, when the services of the samurai were no longer in demand. In what ways are Ishigami and Yukawa modern-day equivalents to the samurai and/or ronin of Japan's feudal past?
Essay #7: Characterization in the novel is structured around a whole series of binary oppositions in which sets of characters display contrasting attributes. Consider the sets of character foils below and consider the ways in which these character sets are used to emphasize certain attributes and characteristics. → Misato/Yusako → Kusanagi/Kishitani → Kusanagi/Chief Mamiya