Of A Mirror and A Bell

There’s a different kind of evil vs good when it comes to differences between Eastern and Western Fiction. In Of A Mirror and A Bell a prime example of some of those differences are shown. Eastern ‘evil’ usually is dependent (but not always) on themes of revenge. The farmer’s wife in this story gives away a prized possession because she wanted to do something to benefit everyone, but her heart was not fully in it. She gives up a hand mirror that was passed down in her family and ultimately regrets it because of all the great memories she has of the mirror. When the people of Totomi start to melt down all of the items the inhabitants donated for their new public works project (the bell) they come to realize that the farmer’s wife was not honestly giving up her hand mirror with all of her heart because the mirror did not melt. When the woman commits suicide due to the public shame she is receiving, she has given herself to the afterlife as a vengeful spirit. Then the story starts to go into details about the phenomenon nazoraeru. To me nazoraeru is a kind of karma, and whatever energy you give into the world will be given back to you, depending on whether the intentions were positive or not. In this case, the woman died in anger, maybe because she didn’t honestly put her heart into giving up the mirror. In our western culture, we can view this as potentially and ‘evil’ act because the task of breaking the bell was almost impossible and made people go mad with greed. Although in Eastern stories, at least to me, I think that there is always a balance between the good and evil, it having a lot to do with intention and how that energy is put back into the world. If the woman intentionally killed herself with the thought of driving people mad with greed who once called her selfish, then she could be considered ‘evil’. Although, I think she knew that someone who was pure of heart would be able to find a loophole in her rule. Which is why to me, I think that is the true balance between good and evil. It was more of a karma thing. The people who actually needed money in order to live are the ones who were able to “break the bell”. Although we do not know if the man who made the bell out of clay technically earned his riches, but it is implied that he does. Meanwhile in American fiction, I think good vs evil is more black and white. If you kill someone, you are evil; If you save someone, you are good. I think the Eastern style is much more realistic, karma aside. Don’t put out bad energy into the world and you will not receive bad energy back.