The Story Of Honor

            
             After reading The Samurai's Garden I realized how different cultures are aside from America. We live very differently here compared to a country like Japan or Hong Kong. Here we live in a world where money is the most important thing to everyone, where as honor and how you carry the family name are important to the characters in the book. Honor is a way of life to Kenzo, Sachi, and Matsu but there are a lot of differences between the three of them.
             Becoming ill or even death can be a very hard thing not just for the person sick or dead, but also for the family. Serious illness has an effect well beyond just the appearance. It is a great burden to the family and people around them. It takes a toll on everyone involved; it is like when the person sick is not doing so well, that everyone else around them is feeling the same. So for the culture that Sachi, Kenzo, and Matsu live in, it easier to move on and let people forget. But even though they live in the same culture they do three totally different things.
             When Sachi got sick with leprosy she was considered somewhat of an outcast to her family, therefore deserting her. Because honor was such an important thing, she left and lived by herself instead of "dishonoring- her family. She felt as if it were the best thing to do for her and her family. It was very hard for Sachi to deal with this. She banished her self not only from her family but also from her fiancé at the time, Kenzo. She loved her family so much that she left, she loved them so much that instead of making the family have to live with her and dishonoring them. When the disease hit the town of Tarumi, it was devastating to the little town. Because the town was a holiday resort when it hit, it was twice as bad for people to have it. The villagers were thought of as dishonoring their families when contracting the disease.
             "The disease chose randomly, infecting our young and old Some of those who suffering from the disease quickly left the village, while others ended their lives, hoping not to dishonor their families.