Heart of a Samurai Foreignness and the Other Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

When he finally reached one of them, he raised his head and looked up. He could not lift his arm to reach out. His blood turned to ice, and dizzy again, he felt himself sinking. For when he had looked into his rescuer's face, he had gazed into a pair of eyes as blue as the sea. (1.2.98)

Barbarian alert. What's interesting here is Manjiro's reaction. Seeing a white guy's face makes him lose his bodily senses: his "blood turn[s] to ice" and he gets "dizzy." He feels detached from himself enough that he "[feels] himself sinking." His rescuer's face makes him lose himself.

Quote #5

Manjiro wondered why the foreigners didn't just carry their small things in separate pouches, the way it was done in Japan. But once his hands discovered his pockets, he couldn't keep them out. His hands wanted to explore those spaces just like, when he'd lost teeth as a boy, his tongue wanted to explore the empty holes where his teeth had been. (2.3.67)

So maybe the foreign isn't so bad. Another way to think of the way Manjiro explores his new pockets is as a way for him to safely "discover" a new culture.

Quote #6

The strange men were all different colors! Their skins were the colors of weathered wood, or clay, white sand, or dried grasses. One was as black as soot! And all different kinds and colors of hair—like the leaves in fall: yellow, red, brown. The black man's head was crowded with tight knots. The head of one man seemed to be covered all over with bright golden coins! All the men were burned and weather-beaten, their faces creased and stained with grime. And they were big. Very big. (2.3.24)

One thing that's already beating Manjiro's expectations: skin and hair color. Also notice how Manjiro turns human coloring into something both naturally beautiful ("leaves in fall: yellow, red, brown") and completely unusual ("The head of one man seemed to be covered all over with bright golden coins!"). The men are maybe more intriguing to Manjiro's visual senses than they are threatening.