The invisible japanese gentleman ~~ theme

看不见的日本人In this sort story, Greene creates the favorable image of a girl, who is not only attractive in looks but also firm in spirit. She has just had her first novel published, and now intoxicated by her success and inflated by the publisher’s praise, she wants to stake her future on a writer’s career. For such a girl, Greene expresses great sympathy and deep concern, himself being a veteran author who knows all the problems and sufferings of being a writer. While he seems to be worrying abut the particular girl, he offers all young would-be writers his reflections on being a writer and his advice to them on choosing other careers than writing.

Greene seriously believes that writing requires enormous pains and is never an easy job.

A writer may put forth “years of effort” but end up in “doing nothing well”. The girl obviously did not realize this when she set out to write. Beside, writing calls for extremely keen observation. The girl is certainly not up to the job, for she fails to notice even those Japanese gentlemen seated highly visibly in an English restaurant. The girl is sure to suffer if she really embarks on a career as a novelist. As an older person of about her mother’s a ge, Greene cannot bear to see her, whom he has affectionately portrayed in the story, suffer in her future life. He would like to advise her to take up some other job, because in his words, “she deserves better of life” then toiling as a professional scri bbler.

The girl’s fiancé and the Japanese gentlemen have respective roles to play in the story. The man is described as weak in personality and as such, serves as a perfect foil for the girl’s strong character. In several places of the story, the author gives meticulously detailed descriptions of the Japanese gentlemen at the fish dinner. Although the girl is also mentioned as having looked at them on a number of occasions, her glances have never come to anything. In this way, the girl’s exaggerated po wers of observation are set well apart from a true writer’s watchfulness. The title of the story epitomizes this meaning.

男女性格The girl has both the pretty looks and the strong character of the typical Regency girl, for she know clearly what she wants. The man, by contrast, has only Nelson’s look, but not his courage, foe he does not even have his own mid, always relying instead on what his mother or his uncle says. The girl was always on the offensive and the man could only use other s’ words to defend himself. He was weak in nature.

环境描写The Bentley’s restaurant, then Roedean or Cheltenham Ladies’College, and Chablis, together wirh miniatures---all these cues, each with rich cultural connotations, work subtly to build up a picture of privileged young couple with a wealthy family background. Certain names, such as the names of certain places, restaurants, leading newspapers and periodicals, or brand names, can have connotative significance. They are used by writers of every language to create a backdrop, as atmosphere.

她作品题目(title sounding hollow or profound, signifying the eternal cycle of life and death; her choice of words suggesting her naivety as well as ambition )(The original title might not sell the book well. The publishers would have a shrewd idea of what title fitted a book better.) Chelsea --- a fashionable district in west London, famous as a quarter where popular artists of a rather shallow talent, concerned mostly with fashion and popular music, gather and show off. (He’s very Chelsea. – he lives in a way which is less restricted than most people, taking no notice of conventional rules of behavior.)~~ Besides, “the ever-rolling stream” was an awkward collocation, for the usual collocations would be “ever-rolling waves” and “gurgling streams’. The new title “The Chelsea Set” was more alluring, and put the book into the right category where it belonged.