Temple and the Golden Pavilion Chapter 2

At Mizoguchi's father's funeral it becomes apparent that Mizoguchi lacks the ability to show emotion. His father is dead and all that remains is a physical substance which he feels he should not mourn over. Mizoguchi starts to believe his childhood, if you could call it that, was coming to an end as he begins to learn more at school and the temple. It seems that the more endangered the Golden temple becomes of an air raid, the more beautiful it becomes to Mizoguchi. At first it seems like he is starting to really appreciate and admire the temple, but then he starts to look forward to it being burnt to the ground by an air raid. Perhaps at this point he is not trying to be evil but perhaps he feels that the Golden temple and its everlasting beauty and power will finally be released, no longer stationary, into a world where it wont be subjected to the glares of onlookers day in and day out. Mizoguchi relates to this feeling of always being looked at because that is all people do to him when they cant understand his stutter. The end of the chapter was odd. Im not sure what the significance of the soldier and the woman that the two boy's saw. The fact that Mizoguchi mentions Uiko makes me think that perhaps Uiko is still alive, and the soldier as well. Although Mizoguchi could have been imagining that it was her.