THE PILLOW BOOK

1) Author Character Sketch

-Cares about her reputation and how she is viewed by others [248]

-Conceited

-Obsequious

-Critical

-Principled > obsessed with propriety

-Competitive > wants her poems to always be on people's lips

-witty > comes up with poems on the spot

2) IB Profiles

-Inquirer > Not an inquirer, since she is only curious about other people

-Knowledgeable > Links between Japanese and Chinese Culture/lists authors, poems.../etiquette/love

-Thinker > To author, keeping her reputation was of chiefly importance which she faced all throughout the book.

-Communicator > Knows Chinese/through her poems, sliding doors and her book

-Principled > critical tone when describing lower classes/superficial/On the other hand feels that women are not always treated fairly---> women who are cheated on/Also takes responsibility for her actions ---> tells man they cannot be intimate because then it wouldn't feel right to praise him in front of Empress.

-Open-Minded > N/A

-Caring > Towards women who are cheated on/towards the Empress/Towards the man she loves

-Risk-Taker > Firmly holds on to her belief that the snow mound would melt even when she experienced doubts

-Balanced > Sedentary Civilization focused only on Literature

-Reflective > Can be seen through her lists of beautiful/delightful/disturbing/etc.. things and through her essays

3) Writing Style

-Anecdotes [6][131]

-Lists [10][25]

-Character Sketches [30][46][77][129]

-Diary Entries [5]

-Essays

-Description of Nature/Clothes/etc... [1][2]

-Visual Imagery [1]

-Disapproving/Critical Tone [103][25]

-Repetitive Diction

Key Feature of Writing Style:

No Chronological Order - Randomness

4) Japanese Culture [243][261][257]

-Nature-Clothes are closely related to Nature as each season's passing means different colored Chinese kimono

-Love-Practiced a kind of open relationship where a man could leave his 'wife' at anytime for another woman/Love letters were mostly written in poem form (i.e. if a person likes another, he/she writes a poem to their lover and if the feeling is reciprocal, the poem is completed by the recipient) (25)

-Language-Japanese is the official language although most men knew Chinese. Author, although being a woman, also knew Chinese

-Literature-Closely related to handwriting and poems/plays a Big part in everyday life as poems are always cited to teach/answer a loved one/relay messages/describe and appreciate the beauty of nature (25) [94]