He-y, Come On Ou-t! – Shinichi Hoshi
Background
Information
Shinichi Hoshi was born on September 6, 1926, in Tokyo, Japan. The
story was published in the year 1989. The story has social criticism with an
ecological message.
Point of View: The story is narrated in the Third Person Omniscient
point of view
Setting: The story takes place in a Japanese Village in the 20th
Century.
Protagonist: No obvious protagonist
Antagonist: All the characters in the story who irresponsibly pollute the environment
Character
Analysis
Concessionaire –
Flat and static
Traits: Money minded, cunning
Traits: Stubborn, proud, and egoistic
Traits: Ignorant and innocent
Traits: Simple-minded and ignorant
Traits: curious, careless, and nosy
Traits: Curious, irresponsible, and carefree
Traits: superstitious but wise
Plot
Exposition
The typhoon ends and villagers find a mysterious hole right below where the
shrine once was.
Rising Action
Different people start to investigate the hole. When nothing was known
about the hole mayor and villagers gave the hole to the concessionaire.
Village and city start developing. The construction worker while taking
his break hears someone shout and later fails to notice a pebble skim past him.
The story ends abruptly leaving the reader to guess and figure out
the ending.
·
The landslide in a typhoon sweeps away a shrine creating a mysterious
hole.
·
The villagers discuss over to repair and start rebuilding the
shrine. While villagers exchanged their views, one of them noticed the hole.
·
A young man leans and shouts “He-y, come on Ou-t!” into the hole
thinking it might be a foxhole.
·
When no one answers, he throws in a pebble, despite the warning
of the old man.
·
The story of the bottomless hole spreads and attracts the attention of
different stakeholders: scientists, media, concessionaires, etc.
·
These people try different methods to measure the depth of the
hole and understand the phenomenon of the hole itself but fail.
·
Scientist cannot comprehend the hole and the depth and simply
says to fill it up.
·
A man (concessionaire) then comes forward and puts forward a
proposal. He would fill the hole for them and build a new shrine attached to a meeting hall closer to their village. Villagers agree and the mayor gives his
permission.
·
The concessionaire gains control of the hole and asks his cohorts
to conduct a campaign in the city about a hole-tilling company.
·
The campaign is successful and then the dumping of dangerous nuclear
waste and all unwanted waste begins inclusive of old classified documents,
corpses, weapons, etc.
·
The hole shows no sign of filling up. The area grows and
develops. The city becomes clean with all waste disappearing into the hole.
·
People find an easy solution for unwanted waste and they keep
expanding their city.
·
One day, a worker taking a break atop the high steel frame of a
new building under construction hears a voice, “He-y, come on Ou-t!” followed
by a pebble that he fails to notice.
The
story ends there, leaving the reader to imagine the chaos and destruction that
will follow as the other contents of the hole make their way back to the
people.
Literary Devices
- Typhoon: Early warning of environmental destruction
- Shrine: Declining faith in tradition and morality
- Pebble: Small actions triggering bigger problems
- Old Man: Superstitious yet wise
- Young People: Careless, curious, irresponsible
- Reporters: Opportunistic and careless
- Echo / Voice: Unseen danger or warning
- Concessionaire: Greed-driven opportunists
- Classified documents / waste: Bureaucracy, corruption, irresponsibility
- Worker atop building: Younger generations facing consequences of predecessors’ actions
The story satirizes the concept of human being destroying the environment without realizing the eventual consequences.
The
people think they have found an easy solution for the dangerous waste. They
keep discarding the waste into the hole without realizing the eventual
consequences.
Statement from text to
support the Irony
i.
The government
stated: “There would be absolutely no above-ground contamination for several
thousand years”
ii. “The hole gave peace of mind to the dwellers of the city.”
Dramatic Irony
City dwellers and villagers fail to notice the pebble skim past from the sky. They fail to notice what goes around comes around.
The young
man shouts and throws a pebble into the hole, at which the old man says, that
might bring a curse upon them. This foreshadows the impending danger that falls
upon them at the end.
External: Man Vs Nature
- Characters in the story try to figure out the depth
and the hole itself
- In the end, characters will have to deal with the garbage they threw into the hole.
We should
never try to get rid of our problems in the easiest way because they come right
back. We should face the problem and try to solve it instead of running away
from it. The best proverb to describe the theme would be “What goes around comes
around”
Practice Questions
- Where does the story take place?
- What happens to create the mysterious hole in the village?
- Who gains control of the hole, and what do they do with it?
- How does the story end, and why is it significant?
- Discuss how symbolism is used to convey the ecological message.
- Explain the situational and dramatic irony in the story.
- What role does the old man play in the narrative?
- How does Shinichi Hoshi use satire to critique society?
- What does the story suggest about human behavior toward environmental problems?
- How could the story have ended differently if the villagers had acted responsibly?
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