In his wake, he would leave for the world a tragic chronicle of a man's desperate struggle against himself, a futile war that rages on until his inevitable defeat. Shortly after the end of this novel's serialisation, aged just thirty-eight, Osamu Dazai would take his own life. Hopelessness pervades the pages of this short, semi-autobiographical novel. In the end, Yozo's abject terror may only be an extreme rendition of the primal feeling all humans know deep in their hearts – the fear of each other. If so, where does the 'mask' end and the 'face' begin? After all, aren't we the generation that perfected the art of creating the idealised version of oneself on social media? To be loved, to be protected from the malice of others, we create caricatures of ourselves that stand out but also conform. No Longer Human is perhaps more relevant today than it has ever been. It is then that he says, 'God, I ask you, is trustfulness a sin?' He finds himself believing in the existence of hell but not that of heaven. He loses his trust in everything except evil. Yozo watches on silently as the last rays of his salvation are devoured by darkness. However, I understand the thought process behind such a position. Yozo, widely regarded as a stand-in for the author himself, contends that far from religious morals or humanistic values, it is the mundane, spontaneous, and continuous contentions between self-centred individuals that form the basis of all human interactions. It should come as no surprise that the philosophy and themes expressed in this book are often deeply cynical. Read more Five books by Muslim authors you should read He is loved dearly, that much is certain, but can love really save a man who doesn't love himself? Addiction and other hedonistic pleasures become the few things that impart a semblance of comfort to his otherwise miserable existence.Īnd through no intention of his own, his outward attractiveness affected good humour, and the implicit aura of secrecy he possesses become the bait, drawing women into the murky cesspool of his life. He is constantly ridden with guilt and shame, and the fear of being discovered as 'fake' only fuels the flames of the hell his mind has condemned him to. Yet, unable to cut himself off from the world, he is forced to put up a near-immaculate façade of cheerfulness to protect himself from that which he cannot be a part of. Bearing witness to the egoistic, double-faced, and even downright depraved behaviour humans can be capable of, he lives in terror of those around him and their society. The story follows Yozo, who, from his early boyhood, struggles to comprehend and connect with others.

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