Introduction

Ningen Shikkaku, often known as "No Longer Human," was written in 1948 by Japanese
novelist Osamu Dazai.
No Longer Human is one of my favorite fictional works, and I rank it among my top three
favorite books. When I first came across it, I was looking for a book that studies the complexity
of the human mind. Because I couldn't put it down, I went through it all in a few days. No
Longer Human, in my opinion, is a literary masterpiece that masterfully and delicately captures
the thoughts of a tormented guy.
About the author
 Shūji Tsushima, a child from a prosperous Japanese household born on June 19th, 1909,
chose Osamu Dazai as his pseudonym.
 Osamu endured abuse his entire youth and was constantly alone.
 Osamu struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts as an adult due to his addiction to
drugs, alcoholism, and chronic illness.
 Osamu would write countless classics, but his writing career would end with No Longer
Human because he and his second wife would drown in the local river, committing
double suicide.
Main idea
Many people think that Osamu Dazai's will serves as the central premise of No Longer Human.
This inference can be made by readers and critics based on the information that Osamu
committed suicide shortly after the publication of No Longer Human, and individuals can draw
parallels between Osamu and the main character, Ōba Yōzō, while reading about Yōzō's
experiences. Because No Longer Human is written from a first-person perspective and contains
autobiographical elements, readers may conclude that many of the experiences Yōzō had are
similar to those had by Osamu.
Summary
No Longer Human is told in the form of three different notebooks or memorandums that Yōzō
has written to explain his life from his childhood the to late twenties.

First Notebook - Begins with Yōzō's childhood and how he feels different from other people
and cannot understand people. To protect himself, Yōzō creates a facade as a 'jokester' or 'class
clown' so that he can distance his true self from others. Yōzō is popular amongst the other
children, but because of his fears, he gets himself in trouble countless times and doesn't let down
his facade. Yōzō isn't even able to connect to his own family, and thus when he is sexually
assaulted by a female servant, he doesn't tell anyone and chooses not to report the woman
because he believes nothing will change.

Second Notebook - Yōzō begins high school in the second notebook and at this point is more
confident in his mask. Yōzō is introduced to a classmate named Takeichi and Yōzō learns that
the boy can see under his mask. In fear of Takeichi revealing his facade, Yōzō befriends his
classmate. Yōzō becomes interested in painting and shows Takeichi his self-portraits that he
cannot show anyone else. Yōzō wishes to go to art school but instead is forced to go to regular
college by his father. Yōzō grows unhappy and meets Horiki who introduces him to drugs,
alcohol, and prostitution. The second notebook ends with Yōzō attempting suicide with a woman
he had been seeing, but in the end, Yōzō survives while the woman doesn't and he feels guilty
about this.

The last memorandum is divided into two separate parts and ends with a short epilogue.

Third Notebook: Part One - Yōzō is expelled from university at the beginning of the last
notebook and goes to live with a family friend. Life starts to settle down and Yōzō becomes the
surrogate father for the daughter of a woman he becomes involved with, but abandons them soon
after and moves with a female bartender at a bar he frequents. Yōzō once again moves at the end
of the first part of the last notebook and begins to live with another woman he starts a
relationship who convinces him not to drink anymore.

Third Notebook: Part Two - At this point, Yōzō has given up on his destructive ways and is
living a happier life with the woman who he is now married to and is working as a manga artist.
After sometime though, Horiki returns again and Yōzō falls back into his ways of alcohol and
becomes addicted to morphine. These abuses only increase when Yōzō witnesses his wife being
raped by an acquaintance. Finally, Yōzō attempts suicide for a second time, but once again fails,
and is sent to a mental institution at the age of twenty-seven.

Epilogue - Ten years pass from the end of the third notebook and a man who went to the same
bar as Yōzō discovers his writing. The man meets with an old friend of Yōzō who tells the man
that it wasn't all Yōzō's fault for where he ended up in the end.

Contextualization

When No Longer Human was first released, Japan was under Allied occupation and three years
had passed since the end of World War II. The soldiers in their country were dreaded by the
Japanese people at the time, and Osamu's writing reflected this terror. Because Osamu thought
that post-war Japan was a dangerous environment, the novella captures that period's mistrust of
others as well as the brutality displayed by many characters.

In another sense, No Longer Human is set in the period between 1910 and 1930, when Japan had
economic depressions, as demonstrated by Osamu's decision to have many of the story's
protagonists struggle with money and keep the characters in line with the time period.

Point of View

The Point of View is important to the structure of No Longer Human and in ways connects the
reader to Yōzō.

 Osamu uses the POV to force the reader into Yōzō mindset and makes the other
characters seem alien-like and strange when reading through the story.
 The side characters throughout the story live their lives in a very human-like fashion and
are realistic, but because we only see through Yōzō's eyes, they become something we
cannot understand.
 Osamu uses this to make the reader relate to Yōzō and causes the reader to think about
how they perceive people.

Coclusion

No Longer Human is something I consider to be an extraordinary work of fiction and truly

showcases Osamu’s writing ability to the finest degree. It’s a story about an extremely disturbed
man and if you know Osamu’s own life story while reading, you can draw so many connections
from Yōzō to his creator and see what kind of man Osamu was. Osamu Dazai lived a tragic life
in a time of great change and hardship in Japan and saw himself as nothing, but a waste of space;
when in reality, his life was anything, but a waste. He wrote so many Japanese classics besides
No Longer Human such as The Setting Sun, Run, Melos!, and Schoolgirl which are still read
today and so many of his stories have been turned into movies, TV shows, and manga. Osamu
contributed so much to Japanese culture and entertainment and it’s unfortunate that he’ll never
be able to know or see how much he’s affected other people's lives.