On Parole by Akira Yoshimura

ISBN:9780156011471

About the book:
After spending sixteen years in prison for a crime of the heart, Shiro
Kikutani is released into a world he no longer recognizes. He must
readjust to the bright and vigorous stimulus of Tokyo while fending off
his own dark memories.
In a spare yet powerful style, Akira Yoshimura paints the psychology
of a quiet man navigating his way through the unsuspected traumas of
freedom-finding a job, finding a home, even something as simple as
buying an alarm clock. Kikutani takes comfort in the numbing
repetition of his new daily life, only to be drawn inexorably back to the
scene of his crime. A subtly powerful story, On Parole explores the
fragile life of a murderer and the conditions of freedom in an
unforgiving society. Yoshimuras startling novel raises provocative questions of guilt and
redemption.
Discussion Questions:
Q. In what ways is On Parole an investigation of the burdens of freedom and the risks of
commitment? How does Yoshimura present those burdens and risks, in relation to Kikutani and
others?
Q. In what ways do uncertainty, bewilderment, and confusion continue in Kikutanis life after
his years in prison? Why is he unable to overcome these impediments to a normal life? Does this
inability derive primarily from his years in prison or from his character, or from a combination of
the two?
Q. What experiences and details of modern life that we take for granted are completely new to
Kikutani? How do his reactions prompt us to see details of everyday life in new ways? Why does
Yoshimura single out these details?
Q. Why is Kikutani unable to feel remorse for his two murders? Why is he, nevertheless,
compelled to remember them in such tormenting detail? Standing at Mochizukis mothers
grave, why does he feel only a "sense of satisfaction.. .at having destroyed Mochizukis house"?
Q. To what extent does Kikutanis state of indefinite parole represent every persons
predicament in living and functioning adequately-and with a full sense of self-worth-within
society? To what extent do societys rules, by their very nature, preclude Kikutanis-or anyones-
ability to comply with them? How do we deal with the demands and constrictions of society?
Q. One reviewer has noted that Kikutanis three primary emotions are rage, fear, and numbness.
What does he fear, and why? What, in terms of both the past and the present, prompts his rage,
and why does it persist? How does he deal with his fears and his rage? What causes the
numbness?
Q. In what ways-and why-does Kikutani model his life outside of prison on his life within
prison? Why does he have such difficulty in adapting to a life of freedom? In what ways does the
chicken farm reflect the conditions of life in prison?
Q. After his first nervous conversation with Koinuma, Kikutani feels that his past is "still coiled
tightly about his heart,waiting to destroy him." What indications are we given from this point
on that his past may destroy him? What decisions and actions on his part shape his "in-evitable"
fate? What might he have done differently?
Q. Even more than three months after being paroled, Kikutani sees the outside world as an
"emptiness" and quails before the "vast, borderless expanse known as society." Does he ever lose
this sense of emptiness and this view of society? How can society be a "vast, borderless expanse"
and, at the same time, a restrictive, rigidly ruled setting for ones life and work?
Q. After seeing the "hotel woman" on his way back from the department store, Kikutani decides
that "he needed to face squarely what he had done, what his crime meant." What efforts does he
make to do so? Does he succeed or fail, and why?
Q. Why does Kikutani return to his village and to the graves of his victims? What other
meanings of laying his past to rest are open to him?
Q. As he sits alone in the village shrine after his detailed recollection of the murders, Kikutani
feels "a sudden resolve, a determination to stop hesitating and do things." How is this resolve
related to the memory of the murders just narrated? In what ways, since his parole, has he been
hesitating and not doing things? What are the results of this sudden resolve?
Q. We are told that Kikutanis childhood aversion to pain, suffering, and violence persisted into
his adult years. "But if he hated blood and suffering so much, why had he been so calm and
collected as he stabbed his wife to death?" How would you answer that question? What was the
"unknown element" that "seemed to lurk inside him" and "manifested itself in the red haze"?
Q. When he returns to the drastically transformed fishing village of Urayasu, Kikutani has "the
unsettling feeling that he had come to some foreign territory." To what extent is his sense of
entering a foreign territory the consequence of external changes and to what extent is it the
consequence of his crime, of his separating himself from everyday, normal life?
Q. What correspondence does Yoshimura show, explicitly or implicitly, among prison life, life
as a parolee, and normal everyday life?
Q. What role does loneliness play in Kikutanis life, from his childhood through the present?
Q. Why does Yoshimura provide so much information about the wholesale egg industry?
Q. "They say you committed a crime," Kiyoura says to Kikutani, "but one could almost say
instead that the crime happened to you." He then presents his theory of the law and societal rules.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with Kiyouras view of crime, the law, imprisonment,
and parole and his attitude toward Kikutani and other parolees? Does Kikutani, as a man who
committed two murders and feels no remorse for those murders, deserve the opportunity to
become a member of society again?
Q. As Toyoko persists in her plans for Kikutanis expression of remorse and his redemption, "he
wanted to scream, to tell her not to do this." Why doesnt he tell her not to do it? Why doesnt he
tell her how he feels and what he thinks? Is this failure linked back in any way to his relationship
with Emiko and her murder?
Q. After killing Toyoko, Kikutani weeps "as the words of the court finding came back to him: a
momentary homicidal frenzy. It was simply fate, something over which he had no control." To
what extent is this true? What does Yoshimura seem to be saying about the role of fate and
personal choices in individual lives?