Farrell 1

Patrick Farrell
LIT 300 Professor Kane
11 May 2014
Final Paper
Dichotomy of Fact and Fiction in Beatrices Cat Box
When the Seagulls Cry (Umineko no Naku Koro Ni) by Rykishi07,1 is a Japanese sound
novela computer based novel that uses audio and visuals to accompany the storywhich tells
its story by twisting perception between multiple planes of existence by use of quantum
mechanics. The theory that the story makes the most use out of is Schrdingers cat box, a theory
proposing how someone or something can exist in two states simultaneously; the theory is
formed from Schrdingers previous research that is almost universally considered the
foundation of quantum mechanics (Ryan, M.L. 172). In the novel, When the Seagulls Cry, the
reader is pushed into a myriad of bizarre situations and confounding mysteries that raises the
constant question: is this fantasy? Or can this be rationalized? The repeating references through
the story to quantum theories such as Schrdingers cat box, Hempels Raven, the infinite
monkey theorem and probatio diabolica (devils proof), all serve both to distract the reader and
force them to think in unusual ways. If there are eighteen people locked away on an island with
no outside contact, and then no one was left alive, (Rykishi07 Ep. 1) how did they die? The
story suggests that any theory can be valid depending on perspective. And so, while common
sense may speak against the idea, it can be argued that truth and magic exist together in the story.
The very meaning of what is truth and what is magic in the novel can only be defined in
contrast to each other. By use of deconstruction, a theory concerned with the instability of

The author, Rykishi07, writes anonymously and is known only by his pen-name.

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knowledge - its non-absolute character, (Ryan M. 80) the aspects of both truth and magic in
When the Seagulls Cry can be analyzed as vague and fragile things that depend on each other in
order to exist as an idea.
The novel uses several realms of existence to tell its tale: two nights on an island
secluded by a storm in 1986 where the central Ushiromiya family is massacred, 1998 where
Angethe last relative of the deceased familysearches for the truth about the massacre, and a
meta-world where the protagonist and antagonist debate on the truth of the massacre as they
replay the supposed events eight times over the course of the novel. In well over two thousand
pages2 the novel raises impossible scenarios that seem to be unexplainable by any means but
magic, and then similarly offers outrageous truths to deny any potential existence of magic.
One of the lead characters of the novel, Ange Ushiromiya of 1998, finds herself trying to
makes sense of the events of the past as countless theories are made by crowds that look at the
massacre of her family as a conspiracy theory to be picked apart and toyed with. At the top of a
skyscraper, where Ange plans to end her life, she encounters a witch by the name of Bernkastel,
a moment which is either as stated or induced by stress that causes Ange to imagine people
around her, a moment that was either truth or magic.
I remembered talking about something like this with Bernkastel. Truth is unfixed and
changes its form every time it's witnessed.
By the way it is perceived, ...in other words, depending on the person who perceives it, a
single truth becomes different truths.
And truths of the past are painted over by truths of the future......
(Rykishi07 Ep. 4)

Due both to the excessive size of the novel and the difficulty in navigating through it in an organized manner,
substantial quotes may at times be scarce.

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This view that Ange takes, that the truths of events may change depending on the perception of
the observer, becomes the center theme of the story. Within these various truths exists what
might be seen as magic, and unless the events of the past, of her familys massacre, can be
directly observed, all truths can exist until they may be proven false. This idea is the same as
Schrdingers cat box theory.
Marie-Laure Ryan, a prominent literary scholar and critic from the University of
Colorado, defines Schrdingers cat box theory and its applications to literature in her article,
Narrative/Science Entanglements: On the Thousand and One Literary Lives of Schrdingers
Cat. Ryan describes the cat in theory as how nobody knows whether he is dead or alive, or
maybe even both at the same time, in the box where he has been locked up together with a
contraption that has a fifty percent chance of killing him (171). As stated, due to this uncertainty
the cat may be both dead and alive simultaneously. The metaphorical cat can be represented
with almost anything given equivalent circumstances, and the interpretations of Schrdingers
cat parable have been legion (Ryan M.L. 171). The box that holds an event, be it a living/dead
cat or a rational/magical massacre of a family, can be represented as an isolated island.
Rykishi07s island of Rokkenjima, like the cat box, is completely isolated from the
outside world. A violent storm makes any travel to or from the island impossible and as the
characters discover it seems that the telephones have broken down because of [the] lightning
(Rykishi07 Ep. 1). The Ushiromiya family that is contained in this island is found dead after the
massacre with their bodies mangled and destroyed by methods that are unable to be determined
by investigators such as something where the only thing that even resembled a human was the
shape of his lower jaw and rib cage (Rykishi07 Ep. 1). And so the events that occurred during
the two-day massacre themselves became that cat and the island of Rokkenjima is the cat box

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of the novel.
The entire story of When the Seagulls Cry is focused on the coexistence of both the truth
(rational) and magic (irrational) of events. By the end of the story this idea leads to a question.
Ange has read the story that she is a part of and has witnessed various interpretations using
both magic and rationality that have been used to theorize her familys death. By the end of the
novel, Ange is asked to make a choice. The supposed antagonist of the story, the witch Beatrice,
gives Ange a riddle: The witch showed that her left hand was empty. She made a fist and waved
her hand around. When she then opened her right fist, there was candy there. Well now, was this
magic? Or a trick? (Rykishi Ep. 8). Upon closer inspection, the riddle seems to be an obvious
trick. The witch reveals her right hand to reveal the candy instead of the original left hand she
started with. However the purpose of this event is to illustrate to Ange that while the truth of her
familys death may have a single answer, that answer may not necessarily matter. That truth
exists along with the magical truth that her family is still alive within her. The alive that the
novel looks at is that her family exists within her memories. Ange can still remember the good
memories of her family and the time she spent with them, and this very idea is magic. While
they are physically dead they are simultaneously alive within her mind.
The magic of the When the Seagulls Cry is dependent on the existence of a rational truth.
While in Anges world of 1998 she finds herself forced to reconcile with both version of truth in
order to move on with her life, the dependency between magic and truth is a long lasting theme
in the story as the meta-world characters argue the truth of the massacre using both magical
reasoning and rationality. The protagonist of this world is Anges older brother Battler, who
supposedly died before entering the meta-world he finds himself in. He argues with the
previously mentioned witch, Beatrice, to prove to her that magic is an impossibility and that

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every event that occurred on Rokkenjima can be explained rationally. This argument between the
two is at its strongest for the first 4 episodes3 of the novel and reveals the rules that make up the
storys world. One very important rule is that of the red truth:
There was no greater guarantee than a red truth given by a witch. Ange understood this
well enough. If one did start to doubt even this red truth, ......there would be nothing left
to trust in this entire world. If one began to suspect even this, ......then even the truth
would no longer be truth. (Rykishi Ep. 8)
The red truth is a certain agreement made between the characters of the book, and if ever a witch
is to speak in the red truth, it is undoubtedly fact. The creation of this absolute truth keeps the
story anchored to something, instead of floating off entirely to the realm of fantasy without
anything for the readers to grasp on to. However, this truth assists the witches as well as it assists
the characters such as Ange. The witches are able to deceive the characters, as they often do, by
stating that one thing is correct so the characters and the readers are distracted from what is
actually important, similar to the showy stage girls and flashing lights one might see at a magic
show.
The red truth makes something clear over the course of the book; the witches must allow
for a rational truth to exist. If this was not necessary then there would be no need for them to
speak in an absolute truth, and the very meaning of that truth would be questionable. If
deconstruction suggests an existence of irreconcilably contradictory meanings, rather than being
a unified, logical whole (Murfin 94), then this clause in the witches game is a prime example.
In order for a magical explanation to be suggested and argued, the arguer must already know that
there is a rational explanation. The arguer navigates through the rational, to form the irrational

The novel is split into sections called Episodes, eight in total. The first four focus on the mystery itself while the
second four focus on uncovering the truth/s.

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that cannot easily be broken down. Often even questionable logic is taken advantage of to make
a point, the novel illustrates this point on occasion as the characters will actually debate over
riddles. A riddle notorious to the story is known as the cheese riddle: You have one large piece
of cheese, a single slice with a knife can split it into two parts. So, what is the lowest number of
slices you can make to cut it into eight parts? (Rykishi Ep. 6). The answer the characters
eventually come to is one. Given the rules of the riddle, only the knife is given as an agent that
can cut the cheese, and the shape is not specified. The characters determine if a flat piece of
cheese is foldedwhich wont become broken because only the knife can do soand then cut
once, eight pieces will be made. This is the form of reasoning that is so often taken advantage of
in the story, a line of reasoning very in line with quantum theories such as the cat box that alter
how events may be perceived.
Michael Ryan, an author of literary criticism, states in his chapter on Scientific
Criticism that in regards to stories, it is an operation of the mind. A work of literature will
therefore reflect how the mind operates as it organizes experience (125). When the Seagulls Cry
takes full advantage of how the readers mind will function through the story. The arguments
between truth and magic force the reader to think both with and beyond what they already know
about the world. If a room with no escape through any of the walls or floor is at all possible, and
no one can enter to assist, how would you leave? Escape over the walls of course, there is no
ceiling. The story takes advantage of the presence and absence of its very own narration; if
something was not stated, then the holes left behind are fair game to be attacked, but if the red
truth was spoken then new walls are formed for the reader to navigate through as they attempt to
find an answer.
Ange herself becomes what the reader might aspire to be, she seeks to discover the truth.

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After all, to Ange, the truth itself was the goal (Rykishi Ep. 8). She wrestles not only with the
dilemma of finding the truth, but also discovering what truth really is to begin with, and if it is
nothing more than what she wants to believe. Her experiences with witches and meta-worlds
could be seen as a conceptual metaphor, which Michael Ryan explains as how human thoughts
[use] metaphorsto understand and describe the world (127). It may not be an exaggeration to
say that nearly every scene and every character of When the Seagulls Cry serves as a conceptual
metaphor. Bernkastelthe witch of miracles who appeared before Ange the moment before she
would have leapt to her deathserves as a pessimistic idea of what miracles are. Bernkastel is
fickle, she gives hope to the characters but only at the cost of impossible feats and then will
vanishes when she is needed. She is often referred to in the novel as the cruelest witch in the
world (Rykishi Ep. 1). The exact description that can be made of Bernkastel can be applied to
the idea of miracles themselves in the story. As the story progresses, Bernkastel is labeled as the
true villain of the tale. It is not just her as a person that is the antagonist though, it is the very idea
of miracles. The one in a billion chance that Ange seeks for, to find the impossible answer to her
question, an answer that she believes would settle everything for her, would be a miracle.
As mentioned previously, the story comes towards its conclusion with a choice given to
Ange. The reader is given the ability to act for Ange to make the decision that will determine
how the story truly ends and explains itself.4 The story provides the options of either trick or
magic, to explain the witch Beatrices final act. The answer itself is symbolic of how Ange has
chosen to accept the world around her, whether it was all truly magic or just a trick.
After choosing the option trick, Ange wakes-up and finds herself on a boat heading to

While the term visual novel connotes a gaming event of an eminently participatory nature (Cavallaro 1), a
sound novelwhich function as a subcategory of the visual noveltypically lacks any participation at all. So the
choice mentioned here at the end of the story stands out from the rest of the novel as a momentous and unique event.

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the island of Rokkenjima in 1998. This event occurs during episode 4 of the novel, but this time
Ange awakens having experienced everything that has occurred in the novel thus far. She accepts
it all as a fictitious journey in her mind, and decides that her companion traveling with her to the
island and the captain of the boat are both intent on leading her to her death to steal the
inheritance she holds from her family. The answer she arrives at, is that in order to attain the
truth she desires, she will just have to shoot the whole cat box to death (Rykishi Ep. 8), and
murders both companion and captain. By destroying the cat box itselfthe conceptual vessel
that holds her answershe forms the answer herself. This version of the story ends with one of
the witches she had met on her journey appearing before her. This signifies that Ange has again
locked herself within the cat box with no single truth to be found, and instead of finding an
answer to satisfy her she has leapt to her death again in an entirely different way. Certainly a bad
ending when compared to the magic end that the author seems to favor as he wrote the length
to be nearly ten times longer than the ending previously described.
Upon selecting the magic choice, Ange finds herself atop the skyscraper where she first
met Bernkastel, before she agreed to chase miracles to satisfy her need for the truth. She turns
around, and accepts her life as it is. She settles any issues with her familys inheritance that had
caused her great amounts of grief, and she eventually became a novelist who bases her stories on
her journey through Beatrices cat box. She decides that perhaps a single answer is not needed
when so many can be allowed.
In short, the tale must be put inside a cat box at the appropriate time.
......The cat box has been the subject of this long tale, so is it not better to refrain from
writing its demise, to instead put it in the cat box and leave it there...? (Rykishi07 Ep. 8)
While Ange never discovers the certain truth of that day long ago, she eventually discovers

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that her brother survived, though with his memories of both the events on the island and his prior
life all either forgotten or murky. Upon their meeting, several decades after the storys climax,
Ange leads her brother to an orphanage she had founded. She continued to tell her brother that
the children looked forward to finally meeting him again. As she opens the doors to the
orphanage, her brother is greeted with all his past family as well as all the servants that had died
on Rokkenjima so long ago. In a way very much akin to the ending of James Camerons Titanic,
Anges brother, and perhaps Ange herself though the story is not clear, come/s to the end of
his/their life after finally meeting their lost loved ones one more time. This ending denotes what
the story spends over two thousand pages defining as magic. A magic that depends on truth to
exist. Two contradictory ideas come together to form one final truth that is both rational and
irrational.
In Rykishi07s When the Seagulls Cry, truth and fiction are indeed fragile and vague
things that change simply by an alteration of perspective. Throughout the novel, a myriad of
conceptual metaphors and hidden meanings bundle together to allow something as contradictory
as truth and magic to support their existence with deconstruction theory. The quantum theory of
Schrdingers cat box creates an immense tale that makes the theory its own, turning it instead
into Beatrices cat box. With such theorieswith the allowance of fact and fiction to coexist
the sole surviving character of the novel, Ange, is able to reach a truth that fits her own needs.
Whether that be the more unfortunate need of an entirely rational truth or the need of peace of
mind and a fulfilling life. Even the reader is not excluded from the experience and is able to
decide for themselves what the true ending of the novel is. As in any book if you open one up,
youll find a whole world inside (Rykishi07 Ep. 8).

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Works Cited
Cavallaro, Dani. Anime and the visual novel: narrative structure, design and play at the
crossroads of animation and computer games. Jefferson: McFarland & Company,
Inc., Publishers, 2010. Print.
Murfin, Ross, and Supryia M. Ray. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. Print.
Ryan, Michael. "Post-Structuralism and Deconstruction." An Introduction to
Criticism: Literature, Film, Culture. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
75-86. Print.
--,--. "Scientific Criticism." An Introduction to Criticism: Literature, Film,
Culture. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. 124-137. Print.
Ryan, Marie-Laure. "Narrative/Science Entanglements: On The Thousand And
One Literary Lives Of Schrdinger's Cat." Narrative 19.2 (2011): 171-186. MLA
International Bibliography. Web. 11 May 2014.
Rykishi07, writ. Umineko no Naku Koro ni. 07th Expansion, 2011. Visual Novel. 11
May 2014.