Literary Criticism (Psychological Criticism)

THE TUNNEL

A Zen Story

Zenkai, the son of a samurai, journeyed to Edo and there became the retainer of a high official. He fell in love with the official's wife and was discovered. In self-defense, he slew the official. Then he ran away with the wife.

Both of them later became thieves. But the woman was so greedy that Zenkai grew disgusted. Finally, leaving her, he journeyed far away to the province of Buzen, where he became a wandering mendicant.

To atone for his past, Zenkai resolved to accomplish some good deed in his lifetime. Knowing of a dangerous road over a cliff that had caused the death and injury of many persons, he resolved to cut a tunnel through the mountain there.

Begging food in the daytime, Zenkai worked at night digging his tunnel. When thirty years had gone by, the tunnel was 2,280 feet long, 20 feet high, and 30 feet wide.

Two years before the work was completed, the son of the official he had slain, who was a skillful swordsman, found Zenkai out and came to kill him in revenge.

"I will give you my life willingly," said Zenkai. "Only let me finish this work. On the day it is completed, then you may kill me."

So the son awaited the day. Several months passed and Zendai kept on digging. The son grew tired of doing nothing and began to help with the digging. After he had helped for more than a year, he came to admire Zenkai's strong will and character.

At last the tunnel was completed and the people could use it and travel in safety.

"Now cut off my head," said Zenkai. "My work is done."

"How can I cut off my own teacher's head?" asked the younger man with tears in his eyes.

A Zen story is something that teaches an important value to the readers which is a very popular genre in Japan. This story will be further analyze through Psychological Criticism. The basis of this approach of Literature is the idea of the existence of human consciousness---those impulses, desires, and feelings about which a person is unaware but which influence emotions or behavior. Thus, it goes without saying that the focus will be on the character's desires and how this affect his reactions toward his environment.

The main character, Zenkai went through a lot before realizing the lesson that those adventures had emphasized in his life. At first, one could say that he's a ruthless person since he killed the official and ran away with the latter's wife. However, at the middle of the story, he grew tired of being wicked and did a good thing.

The author probably tries to play with the reader's emotions at first by making the character bad. This was sure an effective technique in making the story clear  and understandable to the readers. Moreover, the son of the official's character played an important part in the story. Using his character, the author was able to present the change that he wanted to show out of the main character. 

Zenkai's strong desire to pay off his bad deeds pushed him to sacrifice by helping the people. He did this by doing a very dangerous task alone. On the part of the official's son, his strong desire to earn his revenge for his father's death brought him to where Zenkai is. But it has a surprising ending that gave a satisfaction to the readers.