A minor character in a novel is usually disregarded due to their lesser role in the story. It is rare in a novel to see any emphasis on a minor character. Nonetheless, no matter how trivial of a part, they still have a role to play in the plot and the story as a whole, whether it is to stand on the sidelines and cheer for the central characters or to support the development of the major and additional characters. A minor character simply known as the Chief in Yukio Mishima’s novel The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea runs a small group of boys who seek to change the world.
As the leader of the group, he has a certain amount of control over the other boys. However, he is shown to abuse this power to get the other boys to do what he wishes. Although a minor character, the Chief has an immense impact on the minor characters as well as the central figure’s actions and development as a character. The high amount of respect Noboru holds for the Chief is ironic. Although the Chief hates fathers more than anything else on earth, he has developed into a pseudo father figure for him. This father-like appearance is first demonstrated when the group of boys begins to dissect the stray cat.
After Noboru beats the cat to death, the Chief “laid one beautiful white hand on Noboru’s shoulder [and said] ‘You did a good job. ’”(61) His actions in this scene parallels Ryuji’s behavior later in the novel when speaking to Noboru as a father and not as a sailor. However, Ryuji’s motivations for finally acting like a father figure towards Noboru contradict the Chief’s purposes for “bonding” with him. While Ryuji’s fatherly attitude is used to actually become more of a father for him, the Chief’s father-like demeanor is used to encourage Noboru to join in on the controversial activities he has in store for him.
Following the cats dissection, Noboru looks back on his murder and thinks, “I killed it all by myself…I can do anything no matter how awful. ”(61) Noboru, believing he can do any awful deed, exposes the massive amount of control the Chief has over him. His power does not hover over Noboru only though. Being the leader of the group, the Chief’s power is expanded over the whole group of boys. It is made exceedingly clear that the one thing the Chief hates more than anything in the world are fathers. He gives a whole speech to the group of boys in part two about how, “there is no such thing as a good father.
”(136) Prior to this speech, it was suggested that the other boys, excluding Noboru, did display a fair amount of contempt towards their fathers. However their aggression was simply over trivial manners. After the Chief concludes is speech about the evil of fathers, the group of boys realize just how heinous their fathers are, displaying that his words unlocked thoughts that the boys may never have thought about until he spoke. A few of them reveal the abuse they take from their fathers, how they would mistreat their mothers, and how they would have an unwanted and strangely hypnotic control over the household.
After they finish venting their anger, the Chief tells them that all their fatherly problems do not come close to measuring up to some other problems. He disregards this statement at first, but Noboru eventually comprehends what the chief was saying when Ryuji refused to punish him for spying on him and Fusako in bed. When Noboru sees that Ryuji is no longer the robust hero he used to be, “he was thinking that the Chief had been right: there are worse things than getting beaten. ”(158) This scene and the previous scene reveal the incredible influence the Chief has over the group of boys and Noboru.
With such a large amount of power over them, the Chief could get them to do anything he desires them to with little to no effort no matter how terrible the deed may be. As the novel comes to its conclusion, the Chief makes the fatal decision of restoring Ryuji’s forgotten glory. In the Chief’s viewpoint, the only way to reestablish his glory is by ending his life. When he first proposes the idea, the other boys are reluctant to murder another human being. The thought alone made most of them cringe.
The Chief quickly notices this due to the frightened looks on their faces. He grows angry and calls them “great talkers, but when the chips are down [they] haven’t got one thimbleful of nerve. ”(165) He appeals to their sense of pride here by basically calling them cowards, showing that he is attempting to awaken their hidden desire to be brave. He proceeded in convincing the boys that killing Ryuji was the just thing to do in order to retrieve his dignity. He read a Penal Code from a Japanese law book which states that juveniles under the age of fourteen
cannot be punished by federal law. After reading it, he exclaims, “three of us will be fourteen next month […] and the other three will be fourteen in March. Just think about it for a minute. This is our last chance! ”(166) With this final cry for action, the boys were thoroughly convinced that killing Ryuji was simply the only way to fully restore the fallen sailor’s glory. Out of all the scenes with the Chief and the boys, this one shows the full extent of his control over the group of misfits.
While getting them to hate their fathers is disgraceful and convincing them to kill and dissect a stray cat is considered taboo, persuading them to take the life of another human is by far the most extreme action he had got them to do. The power the Chief has over Noboru and the others is hugely frightening. Although he may have been the leader of the group, he would exploit his control over them to practice terrible things such as killing a cat which then quickly escalated to a full grown man. No matter how minor of a character he is in the novel, he has an enormous impact on the central characters and the other minor characters.
His father-like influences warped Noboru’s sense of justice, ultimately causing him to assist in restoring Ryuji’s glory. For a character with such a small role, he has quite a bit of emphasis placed upon him. If the novel had kept going after Ryuji had sipped the poisonous tea, to what extent could the Chief have abused his control? How far would he have gone to seize even more control over other boys with father troubles? Yukio Mishima’s audience may never know. One can only imagine how far he would have taken his power over the group of misguided teenagers.
