Themes
Redemption through a Prostitute/Dostoevskian Protagonist
When considering Keigo Higashino's character Ishigami, one cannot help but think of the parallels to Dostoyevsky's Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment. In very much the same way that Raskolnikov sees scientific principles as the basis for reality, Ishigami is a rationalist who sees mathematics as the operating principle of the universe. Similar in many respects to Raskolnikov, he attempts to become a Nietzschean ubermensch by outwitting the police and formulating the perfect cover-up, even to the point of committing cold-blooded murder. In fact, Ishigami's ambitions to become such a superman are indicated throughout the novel - that is, Ishigami frequently attempts to push the bounds of what is possible in mathematics. He tries to find proofs for problems where others have failed. Like Raskolnikov, he commits an actual murder, and he does it in order to bring to completion a master plan that will vindicate his faith in logic and mathematical accuracy, which he expresses in his reassurance to Yasuko: "Don't worry. Logic will get us through this." Ishigami's cover-up is to be an unsolvable mathematical problem from the perspective of the detectives and a perfect solution to the problem of Yasuko's circumstances from the perspective of Ishigami. It is a real-life solution to the four-color problem and the N = NP problem, math problems whose solutions proved elusive to even the brightest mathematics researchers. Just as Raskolnikov appeals to abstract principles and scientific ideas to justify his act of murder, so Ishigami also considers his homeless victim a "cog" in the machine whose death will be unnoticed and irrelevant. Just as Crime and Punishment features the character of Sonya Marmeladov, a woman who turns to prostitution in order to support her family and plays a redemptive role in the life of Raskolnikov, so Yasuko fulfills the same role in the life of Ishigami. The parallels are obvious, as Yasuko, being a nightclub hostess, is the modern-day equivalent of a prostitute and also a source of redemption for Ishigami. Being offered salvation and redemption through a prostitute, in fact, is a common motif in Dostoyevsky's writings. Just as Sonya Yusako pushes Raskolnikov to make a final confession, so does Yasuko at the end help Ishigami cry out in sorrow and anguish.
Stalker Figure/ Rashomon and the Relativity of Truth
Upon seeing Kusanagi, Yukawa remarks, "It seems I have stalker." The stalker figure is a recurring motif in the novel, going hand in hand with the idea that such a label is a social construct whose correspondence to reality is conditioned upon the values of the specific person making the judgment. Akira Kurosawa's classic film Rashomon is famous for exploring this idea. In that film, a certain bandit, played by Toshiro Mifune, murders a samurai and rapes the woman under the protection of the samurai. However, each person's role becomes increasingly ambiguous as the narrative is recounted from the perspective of different characters.When we are first introduced to Kusanagi and Yukawa, Kusanagi remarks how he's just finished a "stalker" case. Kusanagi frequently acts as a stalker, shadowing and tailing Kudo, Yukawa, and Ishigami. In his case, though, the "stalking" seems acceptable because he's a detective and is just doing his job. Kusanagi's type of stalking is casually justified with appeals to the interests of public security, but his methods raise serious questions about the ethics of his approach. He uses misleading and forceful questioning to bully Kudo, lies in order to enter Yukawa's campus, goes behind Yukawa's back by talking to graduate students in order to get information about Yukawa's whereabouts, not to mention putting Yasuko under surveillance. This highlights the double standard that is evident when comparing Kusanagi's methods with those of Ishigami's. It further enhances the sense of unfairness the reader will feel later when Ishigami is convicted of being a stalker and points to a kind moral relativity inherent in such social constructs as the "stalker."Yukawa himself has been a stalker to the extent that he seeks occasions to talk with Ishigami in order to observe his behavior. For Yukawa, "stalking" is justified as "scientific experiment" and "empirical observation." For Kusanagi, "stalking" is justified as routine police work. For Togashi, "stalking" is justified on the bais of seeking reconciliation with his ex-wife. In fact, it is only Ishigami who hasn't been a "stalker" in the truest sense of the word, and the "stalker" label, when applied to Ishigami, rings hollow and disingenuous, given what we know about Ishigami's plans, which he undertakes for the benefit of Yasuko.Relativity in moral judgments continually distorts the perspectives people take towards the murder case. For Kishitani, Yasuko is perpetually a devoted single mother whose affection for Misato puts Yasuko beyond suspicion. For Kusanagi, she is a suspect who deserves to be investigated. For Ishigami, she is a source of redemption and someone who deserves to be rescued. For Misato, she is a victim of Togashi's persistent harassment. Ishigami likewise takes on different roles depending on the perspective of the person judging him. For fellow graduate students, he is the "Buddha," an enigmatic figure with few friends and no interests other than math. For Yukawa, he is an intellectual equal and fellow genius deserving of respect and admiration. For Yusako, he starts out as an unremarkable and peripheral figure in her life, a neighbor and acquaintance barely deserving of attention. Later, he becomes a source of anxiety for her as she starts to wonder whether his help might not be conditioned upon her loyalty to him. For Kusanagi, he is merely a high school nature who later becomes a suspect. For the police, Ishigami becomes a stalker guilty of a crime. In the end Yasuko recognizes the truly altruistic nature of Ishigami's self-sacrifice. Throughout the novel, the truth about a person's role in the crime is difficult to establish definitively because of the inherent relativity of people's subjective opinions, which makes it impossible to attain true objectivity.Socioeconomic Instability, Social Inequality, and Poverty
While primarily a murder mystery and detective novel, Devotion of Suspect X also provides a subtle commentary on the dangers of socioeconomic instability and economic hardship. Economic stability and finanical freedom is a cherished dream of many but often exists as an unattainable ideal in a world where people's subsistence is precarious and their future uncertain. Poverty is an ever-present risk for much of society, not the least of which are the characters in the story, for whom economic inequality forms the backdrop against which the murder mystery takes place.Examples of this are abundant. Togashi, Yasuko's ex-husband, was once living the high life, a fact that didn't escape the notice of Yusako. It was Togashi's perceived image of success that accounted for her willingness to marry him. After embezzling money and losing his job, he becomes impoverished, which leads to him venting his frustration and acting out in ever-increasing displays of abuse, culminating in him harrassing Yusako to the point where she has the will to strangle him to death. At one point, Togashi even entertains the possibilty of Misato, Yasuko's daughter from a previous marriage, becoming a prostitute whose services would provide a lucrative source of income. In fact, these are among his final words before being attacked by Misato and then killed by his ex-wife. Had he not been driven to the desperation caused by his economic hardships, Togashi may very well have led a different kind of life and never bothered to harass Yusako.The homeless people living along the Sumida River are the very first minor characters introduced in the story. Among them is one man in particular, the "Engineer," who might very well have been Ishigami or Yukawa in a parallel universe. It is because of the hopelessness of their situation and their lack of status in society that Ishigami calculates that the murder of the "Engineer" wouldn't attract much attention from the police or put him at risk of being discovered.Ishigami himself is man who has fallen on hard times, having once had high hopes of becoming a university researcher. It is because of his parents' ailing health and the concomitant necessity for a steady income that he has to give up his dream of being a university professor and accept a job as a high school teacher. It is also mentioned at one point that math professors in general are not in high demand among private enterprises, whose preference for engineers is ironic given how the homeless "Engineer" is the one who struggles with unemployment and becomes the tool in an elaborate project conceived of by Ishigami, one that is based on the kind of careful mathematical calculation that often goes unappreciated by major engineering firms. One could argue that in a better world, one where economic circumstances made it impossible for homeless people like the "Engineer" to exist, Ishigami would not have been able to carry out his plan. Had the economy been better and math professors better able to find stable employment, Ishigami himself might never had ended up in a position where he could get involved in Yasuko's affairs. Instead, he might've been able to preoccupy himself with university-level research or have an income good enough for him to support his own family.Yusako too is a fitting example of how poverty and hardship forces people to accept less than ideal kinds of life cirumstances in order to survive. As a nightclub hostess, she had to depend on the patronage and goodwill of potentially abusive clients, most of whom were total strangers whose psychological profile could vary from kind and compassionate (e.g. Kudo Kuniaki) to controlling and abusive (i.e. her ex-husband Togashi). Marrying Togashi seemed to provide a temporary way of attaining some measure of stability and gaining some relief from the risks associated with her profession. Later, because of her advanced age, she is no longer able to continue her job as a nightclub hostess and must settle for a job at the lunch box shop. Because of her financial difficulties, she has to sign an apartment lease without a guarantor, which makes her tenancy in her apartment precarious and subject to the whims of an unpredictable landlord. Concern about being able to keep her apartment weighs heavily on her mind as she allows Togashi into her apartment despite wishing for him to stop harrassing her. Finally, the desire for a better life for her and her daughter also lies behind her decision to get closer to Kudo, which in turn triggers the jealousy that leads Ishigami to reveal his involvement in the case. Given this, it's not hard to imagine how Yasuko might have been spared her ultimate fate had she only been able to enjoy some measure of economic stability.
The Superiority of Unrequited Love
The best kind of love is often that which goes acknowledged by its intended target. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in Ishigami, for whom it is enough just to be able to hear Yasuko's voice, even if means never really getting to know her on more intimate terms beyond that of acquaintances who casually pass each other in the hallway or exchange platitudinous greetings at the lunch box shop. Ishigami is content to enjoy the most minimal of contact with Yasuko as long as it means he can hear her voice, see her face, or just be able to live next to her. The following quote illustrates this sentiment perfectly:He held no aspirations of ever being anything to them. He knew he should never even attempt to make contact. It was like his relationship with mathematics: it was enough merely to be associated with something so sublime. To seek any kind of acknoledgmenet would sully its dignity. The desire for someone or something is often more fulfilling and invigorating than is the actual possession or attainment of that someone or something. Once we experience the reality of who someone really is, the mystique and sense of awe that previously captivated us gets lost and forgotten, only to be replaced with sighs of regret and the embittered cynicism that inevitably arises from experiencing people as they really are, with all their worts and wrinklesYasuko's relationship with Togashi is perhaps illustrative of this. Initially, Togashi was an object to be desired. Later on, Yasuko becomes increasingly disllusioned with the reality of Togashi's true nature. She eventually comes to regret ever having married him in the first place.By contrast, Kudo and Yasuko's relationship is one that seems forever destined to be characterized by mutual longing and unrequited love. Both of them are involved in unhappy or unsatisfying marriages (though in Kudo's case this is more implied than actually explained in detail). They wish they could be with each other and yet are constrained by circumstances to maintain a platonic distance. When Kudo attempts to return a lost item that Yasuko leaves behind in a cab, he is met with the jealousy-fueled rage of Togashi. After Togashi is killed and Kudo's wife passes away, both Yasuko and Kudo are apparently free to pursue a new beginning and yet circumstances again prove to be an obstacle to their hope of marriage ever being realized. In the meantime, the best they can do is to enjoy the yearning that results from unrequited love.
Mono no aware
Going hand in hand with the idea of unrequited love is that of mono no aware, a Japanese phrase roughly translated as bittersweet nostalgia. The sense of mono no aware is evoked frequently throughout the novel. Ishigami's final end, in particular, is evocative of mono no aware and provides a convenient starting point for exploring this concept. The reader, realizing the extent of Ishigami's sacrifice and the depth of Ishigami's feeling for Yusako, feels a degree of sympathy for him on the one hand. On the other hand, this sympathy is also mixed with a degree of revulsion due to Ishigami's cold-blooded murder of a homeless person. Another dimension of this sentiment is felt by the reader vicariously through Yukawa, who not only can appreciate and admire the detailed calculation that went into the murder cover-up but can also lament the tragic loss of a great genius whose mind will be destined to waste away in a prison cell for reasons that could've been avoided. A further dimension of this sentiment is conveyed by Kusanagi, who, while relieved that a perplexing mystery has been solved and that the actual murderer will be convicted, can't help feel regret about being unable to initiate a new investigation that will reveal the truth of what happened and incriminate Ishigami for the right reasons, bringing justice to a homeless person killed in cold-blood.Ishigami's final cry at the end of the novel is extremely poignant, both evoking and expressing mono no aware in its purest form. There is a certain satisfaction in seeing Ishigami for once express something approaching genuine human emotion, since up until the moment of that cathartic release, he is mostly obsessed with dry mathematical calculation and cold logic, showing only a blank expression betraying no hint of genuine human feeling. Through his anguished cry of mourning, however, a new kind of emotion emerges, one that had previously remained hidden in the depths of his being, belied by his exclusive and all-consuming passion for mathematics. Regrettably, the only time Ishigami is able to feel and express pure emotion is under the sad and tragic circumstances in which his sacrifice induces a sense of guilt that compels his loved one to confess a crime that will lead to her being incriminated. Conversely, there is also satisfaction in seeing Yusako finally able to appreciate what Ishigami has done for her and to realize the extent of Ishigami's love, yet it's sad that her recognition of this love must come at the cost of ruining his plans and becoming guilty of a crime in the process.Some degree of mono no aware is felt at the loss of Togashi by Sayoko. On the one hand, Yasuko is finally relieved of a tremendous burden - a persistent nuisance whose constant harassment filled her with dread. At the same time, this relief comes at a great cost, as it requires onerous questioning from the police as well as an onerous and stiflying sense of gratitude toward Ishigami, itself evocative of mono no aware since Yasuko is grateful for Ishigami's help and self-sacrifice yet feels constrained to avoid any hint of newfound intimacy with Kudo, which might indicate a lack of gratitude and betrayal on her part.Examples of this phenomenon abound with the ones provided above representing only a small sample. Because of the sense of mono no aware, the reader struggles with ambivalence towards Ishigami and the other characters, not to mention a degree of ambivalence towards the ending. This is most definitely intended and a tremendous relief from the superficial endings of simple morality tales in which the resolution of a novel's central conflict neatly caters to the reader's need for a ritual satisfaction in which romantic longings are fulfilled, justice served, and the final truth exposed.
Fate vs. Free Will
Just as mono no aware is a duality of positive and negative feelings existing side by side in tension with each other, so do the mutually opposing forces of fate and free will constitute a dynamic that serves as an operating principle of the universe.Just before his first encounter with Yasuko, Ishigami was on the point of suicide, saddened by the prospect of being unable to realize the full potential of his genius and also feeling worthless in his role in society. It's at this point that his doorbell rings and that Yasuko appears. It had to be fate, thinks Ishigami. The encounter with Yasuko is interpreted as an instance of fate at work in the universe. Yet this decision to not commit suicide on account of Yasuko is based on a love that leads him to intervene in her life in a way that will also bring about his destruction. While fate saves him, it also brings about his downfall. While he decides to not commit suicide, he also decides to commit suicide in a different way towards the end of the story, becoming a stalker in order that he might be charged with murder so that Yasuko will be free to live her life. Instead of being free, though, she is so guilt-ridden that she uses this freedom to confess her crime and accept the consequences of her actions, which involve being charged with murder and going to prison. Elements of free will and fate coalesce in such a way as to blur the line between the two, underscoring the absurdism that seems to prevail in determining the ultimate fate of human beings.Another instance where fate seems to clash with human freedom is in Kusanagi's pursuit of the truth in the course of his investigation. Even though he is actively trying to discover the true nature of the murder, he does so in accordance with a pre-arranged plan that prevents him from initiating an investigation that will actually uncover Ishagami's role in committing a second murder, one in which an innocent homeless man is killed. While Kusanagi wishes he could change the direction of the investigation, he is unable to do so because the facts of the case match perfectly with the stalker narrative constructed by Ishigami. By the time the dead body of the killed homeless person is to be found, it will have been too late to start a new investigation, as Ishigami will have already been tried and convicted for the murder of Togashi. This prompts Yukawa to note the role of fate in limiting the scope of possible actions available to Kusanagi.Yukawa's use of the metaphor of the the cog in a machine is also illustrative of the dual role of human beings both as free agents that decide their worth in society and as passive instruments whose actions form the basis for the operation of a larger system. From the perspective of Ishigami, the homeless man that he killed in order to cover up Yusako's murder of Togashi was unimportant and irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, since the homeless person contributed little to society, had no family to mourn his death, and had no hope for a future. Yukawa takes exception to this, stating that a "cog" gets to decide its ultimate value in the world. Like the homeless man, Ishigami himself was a man without hope and without parents to mourn his would-be suicide, yet he ultimately decided to live and came to believe that his life had worth, which vindicates Yukawa's statements and shows the hypocrisy of Ishigami's actions. The paradoxical nature of Yukawa's statement about the "cog" underscores how people can both decide to make life meaningful and also be fated to die under circumstances that seem to invalidate everything they've lived for (Ishigami himself being the example par excellence of this).The relationship between Ishigami and Yukawa also provides insights into the free will/fate dichotomy. Ishigami and Yukawa, despite being in the same class and sharing a common bond based on their love for math and science, eventually go their separate ways, one staying in the physics department, the other in the math department. They also go their separate ways in more ways than one, however, with Yukawa ending up a successful university professor and Ishigami ending up a high school teacher in order to cope with difficult life circumstances, namely having to take care of his sick parents, which necessitates taking a steady job as a high school teacher. This idea of being on separate paths that later eventually converge is somewhat evocative of the aforementioned four-color problem in that Ishigami and Yukawa's lives will overlap and become intertwined rather than remain separate (Being a friend to both Ishigami and Kusanagi, Yukawa illustrates how people's lives can mesh and overlap in unexpected ways). It is also evocative of the tension between free will and fate, which is especially connoted in their nicknames, with "Buddha" (i.e. Ishigami) being more connotative of fate in constraining people's life choices (as well as the inevitability of suffering) and "Galileo" (i.e. Yukawa) perhaps being more indicatve of free will, considering that Galileo favored ideas that met with disapproval from the religious establishment of his day.
The Tragic Hero
As stated above, the sad fate that befalls Ishigami evokes a strong feeling of mono no aware, which is also part and parcel of genuine tragedy, with Ishigami representing all too well the archetype of the tragic hero. As readers, we feel sad about how Yasuko and Ishigami will ultimately end up being charged with murder and separated from each other. It is a sad state of affairs whose tragic element is emphasized by the fact that it was brought about largely through self-sacrifice and love, always with the intention of avoiding an ugly fate. The whole affair began with Ishigami deciding not to commit suicide because of his acquaintance with Yasuko. Having made her acquaintance, though, Ishigami is compelled by love to intervene in Yasuko's life so as to protect her from a fate in prison. Rather than protecting her, though, he ends up saddling her with guilt and feelings of remorse, which end up motivating her to make a confession of guilt. Ishigami would also become known as her stalker rather than her savior and end up playing the same role as Togashi, the very man from whom he hoped to save Yusako to begin with.Ishigami's inability to express his love to Yasuko directly also lies at the root of this tragedy. Instead of confessing his love to Yasuko openly and expressing his repressed desires, he chooses to embark on a course of action that requires him to maintain a distance from her and avoid having any interaction with her so as to avoid arousing suspicion. This only further serves to intensify his jealousy, since he must watch as Kudo enters Yasuko's life and offer a possibility for a new beginning. It's only when Yasuko makes her final confession that Ishigami is finally able to express his love in a single cathartic release of repressed emotion. The love that he hoped to avoid expressing directly so that Yasuko would be saved ended up being expressed anyways, and it ended up being expressed precisely because of the actions that he undertook out of fear for expressing those very same emotions to begin with.Logic and the Amorality of Human Behavior
Recalling a previous conversation with Yukawa, Kusanagi remembers Yukawa saying, Murder would've been [Ishigami's] last choice. Perplexed, Kusanagi asks, Why, because he's not vicious enough?" to which Yukawa answers, "It's not a question of temperament. Murder isn't the most logical way to escape a difficult situation. It only leads to a different difficult situation. Ishigami would never engage in something so clearly counterproductive. Of course, the converse is also true. That is, he's quite capable of committing an atrocity, provided that it's the most logical course of action."These words illustrate the fallacy of judging human beings according to the usual simplifying assumptions rooted in preconceptions about how people should or would behave. For Kusanagi, committing murder is a matter of "not being vicious enough." Kishitani is guilty of making such a simplifying assumption about Yasuko, believing her to be too gentle and kind (i.e. "not vicious enough") to have murdered Togashi. Such simplifying assumptions cautions us against viewing human beings in moral as opposed to practical terms. Instead of problematizing human behavior with moral judgments, it is often more productive to seek an understanding for people's actions in which cause-and-effect is taken as one's starting point as opposed to any alleged morality or lack thereof. The amoral nature of logic is reflected here in Ishigami's statements above: as long as it represents the logical course of action, murder is very much within the bounds of possible actions that Ishigami might've taken, though it would've been an illogical way to deal with someone like Togashi to begin with.Kusanagi's inability to grasp Ishigami's potential for murder (vis-a-vis Yukawa) is mirrored by Kishitani's inability to grasp Yusako's connection to the murder of Togashi. Kusanagi bemoans the fact that his junior partner, Kishitani, is hopelessly committed to Yasuko's innocence based on his conception of Yasuko as an affectionate single mother for whom murder represents a remote possibility. It was no use expecting anything like an objective opinion from the man now, Kusanagi reflects, exasperated with the closed-mindedness and naivete of his partner. Ironically enough, Kusanagi is just as closed-minded and naive in his inability to conceive of Ishigami employing murder as a tactic necessitated by logic. Both Kishitani and Kusanagi have failed to accurately assess the character of the people who are suspects in the case, being blinded by their own assumptions regarding how humans behave.The tendency to misjudge other human beings based on one's own preconceptions of how people should or would behave afflicts several characters in the book. Yasuko can't quite understand why Ishigami would take such an interest in her, seeing herself an an ordinary woman past her prime and not worthy of great admiration. Kishitani can't understand how Yasuko could be capable of killing Togashi, failing to appreciate the degree to which Togashi's persistent harassment combined with difficult cirumstances might have compelled her to act in unusual ways. Kusanagi can't understand how Ishigami might resort to murder for the sake of a woman, regarding such a course of action as being too extreme for someone with a simple crush on a woman. Each character, in his own way, lacks the empathy needed to appreciate the motives underlying other people's actions, and this empathy begins simply by considering, from a practical point of view, what factors might lead to people behaving in a certain way. An amoral perspective on human action is not only not mutually exclusive with empathy but rather the starting point for developing a capacity for true empathy.
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