Silence Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

Chapter 7 Summary: Chapter 7

Rodrigues meets again with Inoue. This time, Inoue uses an analogy to explain Japan’s predicament with Christianity. He compares the four European countries trying to proselytize in Japan—England, Holland, Spain, and Portugal—to four women vying for Japan’s attention. Rodrigues answers that Japan should have only one wife—Christianity. Exasperated, Inoue says Japan simply doesn’t have any use for Christianity, which he compares to an ugly and sterile woman. Several days later, the guards take Rodrigues to an overlook above the beach where he is joined by the Interpreter from earlier. The Interpreter tells Rodrigues that they’ve arranged for him to meet someone important. Rodrigues assumes he means Ferreira, but it turns out to be Garrpe, who he sees being led by guards down at the water’s edge, along with Monica and the other prisoners.

Rodrigues watches as the guards wrap the prisoners in straw mats and place them on a boat. The Interpreter explains that these prisoners had apostatized the day before, but they won’t be let free until Garrpe apostatizes. Garrpe, distraught, plunges into the sea after the boat and quickly drowns. The guards laugh and then toss the prisoners into the sea along with him. The Interpreter, turning to Rodrigues, remarks that this is all a horrible business but that the peasants’ blood is on their hands, not Japan’s. The Interpreter calls Rodrigues weak in comparison to Garrpe, who at least showed bravery. For several days, Rodrigues turns over the horrifying events in his mind. He tries to console himself by reasoning that the peasants died for their faith, but this idea no longer soothes him. Furthermore, he realizes with pain that the peasants are suffering for him and Garrpe, not the other way around.

The Interpreter returns. This time he brings Rodrigues to Nagasaki, and Rodrigues realizes the Interpreter is taking him to meet Ferreira. The two men are sat together inside a large building, where a Buddhist monk guards them. For a long while, they remain quiet, unable to speak. Rodrigues wants to tell Ferreira he doesn’t judge him, but he can’t. Ferreira is wearing a Japanese kimono. Finally, Ferreira begins to speak. He says he’s been told to convince Rodrigues to apostatize. He points to a small scar on his ear, saying he endured torture in the pit and did apostatize, but he now spends his time writing books on astronomy for the Japanese. He says his life is now more useful to them and argues that Christianity can never take root in Japan because the Japanese have no concept of a transcendent mortal being and can only worship what exists in the world. The monk interrupts, saying Ferreira’s new name is Sawano Chuan and he is writing a book refuting Christianity. Ferreira appears embarrassed. Rodrigues returns to his cell overwhelmed, wondering if Ferreira is only trying to delude himself. Rodrigues finds solace in the idea that at least he can’t be as lonely as Ferreira, who is now completely divorced from his faith.

Analysis: Chapter 7

Inoue’s character comes more into focus in Chapter 7. Despite his apparent kindness and decency, the fact that he has arranged for Rodrigues to watch the cruel drama unfold between Garrpe and the prisoners at the shore is an indication that Inoue does have some evil in him. In some ways, the rumors Rodrigues heard about Inoue from Valignano earlier in the novel, about Inoue being “cunning as a serpent,” are proving true. Inoue wants to lull Rodrigues into submission, by providing him two meals a day and clean quarters and keeping him from the torture chambers. Inoue also wants Rodrigues to witness how it is the priests who are bringing harm upon his people, not the government. The novel presents Inoue as not a one-dimensional devil but a more complex, developed character, capable of both compassion and cruelty.

Garrpe’s tragic death raises further questions about Rodrigues’s character, which is also complex. The novel contrasts Garrpe’s and Rodrigues’s characters from the beginning. Garrpe is optimistic and cheerful, going out of his way to keep spirits up and hope alive while they’re trapped in Tomogi, while Rodrigues is somber and gloomy. Garrpe also seems to worry more about the peasants’ well-being. When Rodrigues is impatient and wants to travel to the other towns to let them know a priest has arrived, Garrpe prudently advises against it, saying such actions will put the peasants’ lives at risk. Overall, Garrpe is shown to be more altruistic than Rodrigues, who worries more about being noble and how he is living up to the glorious visions of martyrdom he’s read about. When Garrpe dies trying to save the peasants, this final act weighs heavily on Rodrigues. The Interpreter doesn’t help, either—later he calls Rodrigues weak in comparison to Garrpe’s show of bravery, which adds salt to Rodrigues’s wounded pride. Throughout the novel, Garrpe has provided a contrast to Rodrigues’s character, exemplifying how one can carry out the Jesuit mission more humbly than another.

When Rodrigues meets with Ferreira, his faith is dealt another blow. Ferreira arrives dressed in a kimono, his head hanging low. His clothing, new Japanese name, and downcast expression all show how he has been utterly defeated by Inoue. Rodrigues faces a moral quandary—should he tell Ferreira he forgives him for betraying the Church? Rodrigues is not given a chance to ponder this for long before Ferreira begins speaking. Ferreira tells Rodrigues that it is a fruitless endeavor to try to bring Christianity to Japan. It simply cannot grow in the swamps of Japan. This analogy, later used by the samurai, suggests that Ferreira is mimicking what he’s heard and no longer has the will to argue; he’s been physically, psychologically, and ideologically conquered by Inoue.

As much as Ferreira seems convinced of what he is saying, there are several indications that he resists his defeat and doesn’t entirely believe his own words. First, it is the monk present with them who tells Rodrigues about Ferreira’s new name, not Ferreira, and Ferreira only tries to convince Rodrigues to abandon his mission at the monk’s prompting. While he is visibly defeated, Ferreira still holds some shame and reservations about what he’s saying.

Still, Ferreira makes a convincing argument, for both Rodrigues and the reader, that there is common ground between Christianity and Buddhism and a way for them to coexist. Ferreira protests that his new life, sharing Jesuit knowledge about astronomy and other disciplines, is helping Japan. He argues that his life is now a life of service, something that Christ preaches everyone should do. The idea of self-denial and self-sacrifice is something shared by both Christianity and Buddhism. Rodrigues, still stubborn, comments to himself that old habits are hard to break, and Ferreira may simply be trying to apply his former ways of a life of Christian service in a new context to justify his apostasy.