Jamaeca Joyce P. Roque Mrs. Cynthia M.

Ronquillo
BSME - 2A SOC SCI 119 Instructor
March 6, 2017

Literary Analysis of In a Grove

By Ryunosuke Akutagawa

The plot of the story is all about the testimonies of seven different people who
have witnessed the crime. It is not about finding out who tells the truth, who killed
and who isn’t. It is just different statements from the same event or crime. If you’ll
also look at the story, you’ll notice some missing statements. The setting of the
story definitely happened in a police station or office of a police. Without the
exact time and date, it is not stated. After all the places discussed by the
characters, it still happened in a police station. We’re just hearing their
testimonies about the crime in a police office. The author didn’t give the exact
time and date when the characters give their testimonies. The characters in the
story are: a) Takehiro, he is the dead man found in the grove. According to him,
he killed himself and her wife ran away. Talking to him using a medium is a
chance for him to tell the police officer who killed him but he chose not to b)
Tajomaru, a criminal arrested by the policeman. In his testimony, he also said that
he killed Takehiro in a sword duel that he gather all of its possessions. In his
case, doing bad things and such but why did he represent himself as the killer c)
Masago, she is the wife of Takehiro. She was raped by Tajomaru. She also
claimed that she is the one who killed Takehiro. She thought of having a suicide
for so many times but she didn’t succeed committing one. Just like his husband
and Tajomaru, she also claimed that she is the killer instead of helping her
husband d) Old woman, she presented herself as the mother of Masago. She
appeals to the police to find her daughter e) the Buddhist priest, he confessed
that he saw a couple, a boy accompanied by a girl riding in a horse. He also
stated that the boy is having bow and arrows, and a sword f) the Woodcutter, he
saw the dead man under the cedar tree. He stated that he found a rope and a
comb, no weapons around. He saw dried blood and scattered leaves around the
corpse. In the story, he was asked by the police if he found any sword or weapon
in the crime scene but he answered no. The question now is where’s the sword
strucked in Takehiro’s chest g) the Policeman, he is the police officer who
arrested Tajomaru.. He stated that he saw the criminal having the victim’s
weapons. He also said that Tajomaru got injured because he fell from the horse.
The policeman’s statements about the victims’s weapons are not the same with
the Buddhist priest. In the story, no arrows were used before the crime happened
h) the High Police Commissioner, he is the one who investigated the case and
the one who questioned the seven witnesses. He didn’t give any clue on who is
killer. Upon stating the testimonies, it is in a first person point of view. It shows
seven different statements from seven different people but in the same case or
crime. And if you’ll notice, the title heads above the testimonies are in third
person point of view.