At the 2009 Mark Twain conference, the lecturer, Yoko Yamaguchi, talked about revenge in Mark Twain’s works and Japanese novels. In Mark Twain stories, people judge murder under the law. For example, Tom Sawyer testifies that Indian Joe killed doctor Williams in the court and he won by legal way. However, old Japanese novels show that revenge is not only legal way, but also illegal way is not bad. In Samurai period, some people killed enemies secretly in revenge. Killing people is bad, however, it was tolerated. For example, if a A person kills B person’s boss or family, B person will revenge A. We call this act “Adauchi” in Japanese. In conclusion, Mark Twain shows we should take revenge in a legal way. However, Japanese novels show that we can use illegal way if we do not have any other choice. Thus, I think this topic is very difficult for American people if they do not know about Japanese culture. Even I did not understand some part of the lecture. However, the topic was very interesting for me. I could realize other ways to understand Mark Twain’s novels.
http://www.elmira.edu/resources/shared/pdf/academics/distinctive_programs/twain_center/ConferenceLowRes09.pdf
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