Characters and Characterization

The main character of this story is Toshiko. Besides Toshiko, there are several minor characters that
support this story such as Toshiko’s husband, Toshiko’s baby’s new nurse, the doctor, Toshiko’s
husband’s friends, and unknown man who assaulted Toshiko at the end of the story.

Toshiko

Toshiko is a protagonist character. She was a married woman, a wife of an attractive actor. She was
raised in solid comfort life. Toshiko is pictured as a thoughtful, sensitive, and kind woman. She felt bad
for the newborn baby, being left by the mother and treated as if he was a trash by the doctor. She was
dumfounded to hear her husband and his friend laughing at the incident as if it was an amusing story.
She kept thinking about the newborn baby until the end of the story.

Toshiko’s Husband

Toshiko’s husband is not named in the story. He is one of the minor characters. Toshiko’s husband
was an actor in Japan. He is pictured as an uncaring, unsympathetic, and insensitive character in the
story. He treated the incident like it was an amusing story to tell and laugh at.

Toshiko’s Husband’s Friends

Toshiko’s husband’s friends are also minor characters in the story. The only appeared in the
beginning of the story, laughing to Toshiko’s husband’s story about the horrifying incident two
days ago. They are pictured as an insensitive people. They, along with Toshiko’s husband, laugh at
the horrifying incident which was for Toshiko was not funny at all.

The New Nurse

The new nurse is pictured as irresponsible woman because she left her son lying on the floor in its
newspaper wrappings. She is also a minor character in the story.

The Doctor

The doctor is a minor character. He was seen as a cruel and heartless character in the story. Doctor,
who was supposed to be caring and kind, left an innocent newborn baby wrapped in the newspapers
lying on the floor just because the baby was an illegitimate baby.

The Unknown Man

The unknown man is the picture of the future newborn baby in Toshiko’s head. He reminds her
about the baby because she found him slept on the bench covered by layers of newspapers. He is also
the symbol of unrespectable man, a lonely rat, and crime that illegitimate children will be in the future
in the eyes of many people’s eyes.
 Character Revelation

Toshiko

Toshiko is pictured directly as an oversensitive woman by the author. It is showed in the second
paragraph.

Toshiko had been oversensitive since girlhood: that was her nature. As a result of constant worrying
she never put on weight, and now an adult woman, she looked more like a transparent picture than a
creature of flesh and blood. Her delicacy of spirit was evident to her most casual acquaintance.

She is also kind. It is showed by her action.

Overcoming her disgust at the entire scene, she had fetched a brand-new piece of flannel from her
cupboard and, having swaddled the baby in it, had lain him carefully in an armchair.

Her thoughts about the illegitimate baby and her own baby show how thoughtful she was.

Even if that baby should grow up in ignorance of the secret of his birth, he can never become a
respectable citizen, reflected Toshiko, pursuing the same train of thoughts. Those soiled newspaper
swaddling clothes will be the symbol of his entire life. But why should I keep worrying about him so
much? Is it because I feel uneasy about the future of my own child? Say twenty years from now, when
our boy will have grown up into a fine, carefully educated young man, one day by a quirk of fate he
meets that other boy, who then will also have turned twenty. And say that the other boy, who has
been sinned against, savagely stabs him with a knife….

Toshiko’s Husband

Toshiko’s husband is insensitive man. It is showed by how he told the birth story to his friend as if it
was a joke or humorous story.

‘It’s a fantastic story,’ he was saying, gesturing flamboyantly as if in an attempt to outweigh the
attractions of the dance band. ‘here this new nurse for our baby arrives from the employment
agency, and the very first thing I notice about her is her stomach. It’s enormous- as if she had a
pillow stuck under her kimono! No wonder, I thought, for I soon saw that she could eat more than the
rest of us put together. She polished off the contents of our rice bin like that…’ He snapped his
fingers. ‘“Gastric dilation”- that’s how she explained her girth and her appetite. Well, the day
before yesterday we heard groans and moans coming from the nursery. We rushed in and found her
squatting on the floor, holding her stomach in her two hands, and moaning like a cow. Next to her our
baby lay in his cot, scared out of his wits and crying at the top of his lungs. A pretty scene, I can tell
you!’
 Besides insensitive, the husband was also uncaring and unsympathetic. Instead of helping the nurse
first, he rescued their rug from the floor and their floor by spreading a blanket for her to lie on.

‘Indeed it was! And it gave me the shock of my life. You see, I’d completely swallowed that story
about ‘gastric dilation.’ Well, I didn’t waste any time. I rescued our good rug from the floor and
spread a blanket for her to lie on. The whole time the girl was yelling like a stuck pig. By the time the
doctor from the maternity clinic arrived, the baby had already been born. But our sitting room was a
pretty shambles!’

Toshiko’s Husband’s Friends

Like Toshiko’s husband, his friends were also insensitive. Instead of feeling bad and
sympathetic, they laugh at the story.

‘Oh, that I’m sure of!!’ said another of their friends, and the whole company burst into laughter.

The New Nurse

The new nurse had no self-respect and did not respect others. She had sex and got pregnant before
married. Not only that, but she also lied about her pregnancy. What makes everything worse was she
dared to give birth beside Toshiko’s son’s crib while the baby crying. The event was told by
Toshiko’s husband at the night club when he was telling his friends about the incident.

‘It’s a fantastic story,’ he was saying, gesturing flamboyantly as if in an attempt to outweigh the
attractions of the dance band. ‘here this new nurse for our baby arrives from the employment
agency, and the very first thing I notice about her is her stomach. It’s enormous- as if she had a
pillow stuck under her kimono! No wonder, I thought, for I soon saw that she could eat more than the
rest of us put together. She polished off the contents of our rice bin like that…’ He snapped his
fingers. ‘“Gastric dilation”- that’s how she explained her girth and her appetite. Well, the day
before yesterday we heard groans and moans coming from the nursery. We rushed in and found her
squatting on the floor, holding her stomach in her two hands, and moaning like a cow. Next to her our
baby lay in his cot, scared out of his wits and crying at the top of his lungs. A pretty scene, I can tell
you!’

The new nurse is also pictured as an irresponsible woman. She left her newborn baby at
Toshiko’s home, on the floor being wrapped by newspapers to be exact. It was revealed by
Toshiko’s thought.

I am the only person to have witnessed its shame, the thought occurred to her. The mother never saw
her child lying there in its newspaper wrappings, and the baby itself of course didn’t know.
 The Doctor

The Doctor is also one of uncaring characters. Instead of wrapping the baby with proper
swaddling clothes, the baby was being wrapped in newspapers. Not only that, but he also left
the poor baby on the floor, for god’s sake!

Toshiko was sure that the doctor had done the whole thing out of spite. As if to emphasize his scorn
for this mother who had given birth to a bastard under such sordid conditions, he had told his
assistant to wrap the baby in some loose newspapers, rather than proper swaddling. This callous
treatment of the newborn child had offended Toshiko. Overcoming her disgust at the entire scene,
she had fetched a brand-new piece of flannel from her cupboard and, having swaddled the baby in it,
had lain him carefully in an armchair.

The Unknown Man

The unknown man is pictured as a homeless young man. His appearance was described in the story.

It was a man in a brown jersey who lay there, curled up on layers of newspapers, other newspapers
covering him. No doubt this had become his normal night residence now that spring had arrived.
Toshiko gazed down at the man’s dirty, unkempt hair, which in places had become hopelessly
matted. As she observed the sleeping figure wrapped in its newspapers, she was inevitably reminded
of the baby who had lain on the floor in its wretched swaddling clothes. The shoulder of the man’s
jersey rose and fell in the darkness in time with his heavy breathing.

The man was also seems like a cautious and fast person. When he realized Toshiko’s presence,
he acted quickly and assaulted Toshiko.

But Toshiko had approached too close. In the silent night the newspaper bedding rustled, and
abruptly the man opened his eyes. Seeing the young woman standing directly beside him, he raised
himself with a jerk, and his eyes lit up. A second later a powerful hand reached out and seized Toshiko
by her slender wrist.