Silence: Themes | SparkNotes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Testing of Faith

Faith is shown in the novel to be something much more complicated than a simple adherence to religious dogma or dictates. Faith is revealed to be a much more complex thing that involves much more than simply doing what one is told to do by the Bible. Rodrigues goes to Japan with a deep sense of faith in Christianity that he has fostered since childhood. He believes in his teacher Father Ferreira and can’t believe that he would have apostatized under any circumstances. Part of Rodrigues’s journey is testing his faith in his teacher. He wonders if Ferreira actually has renounced his faith, and if so, what does that say about his own faith in what Ferreira taught him about God, love, and Christianity? Rodrigues’s experiences in Japan do much more than test his faith in Ferreira, however; they test his faith in the Catholic religion itself and even his own heart. After watching several Christian peasants apostatize and still suffer at the hands of Japanese feudal lords and seeing that God remained silent through it all despite his protests for mercy, Rodrigues is left severely doubting his faith. The novel shows how faith comes easy when times are easy but is developed and cemented during times of trial and questioning.

Suffering

Suffering is shown in the novel to be something that can be a very mundane, human experience but also a supremely divine one as well. Many of the characters in the novel suffer, including the Christian peasants who are persecuted for practicing Christianity and the European priests who are responsible for bringing the religion to them. Even the peasants who don’t practice Christianity suffer under the Japanese feudal lord’s oppressive regime. Before Rodrigues steps foot on Japanese shores, he imagines suffering to be a glorious thing, something that earns humans a place in heaven and on earth as a martyr for ages to come. But when he witnesses Mikicho’s and Ichizo’s crucifixion, he finds suffering is a miserable, pitiful affair that is horrible to watch. Even worse, it seems like their martyrdom doesn’t even matter—life goes on, and God remains silent. Over and over, Rodrigues reflects on Christ’s suffering at the hands of Judas, as he himself is betrayed by Kichijiro many times. When Rodrigues stomps on the fumie, a symbol of Christianity meant to be stepped on, he finally understands that suffering is a divine act that Christ willingly endured on behalf of men. The face of Christ that appears on the fumie is worn from years of being trampled on, but it is the face of love.

East versus West

The clash of Eastern and Western cultures is explored in the novel as something that is deeply complex and potentially irreconcilable. For years, Christian missionaries flourished in Japan, and the Catholic faith seemingly took root. When Japan’s political climate changed and the Christians were persecuted and forced underground, the narrative emerged that Christianity never actually took root in Japan at all. Inoue and Father Ferreira become the mouthpiece for this idea, claiming that Christianity is ultimately incompatible with Japan since Buddhists can’t conceive of a transcendent mortal being like Christ but only worship things that exist in nature. This clash is played out over and over in religious debates between Rodrigues and Inoue and the Interpreter, who is tired of these discussions since they seem to lead nowhere. Furthermore, Endō shows in many scenes how the Japanese peasants misinterpret and misunderstand the meaning of some of the priests’ holy practices. Finally, however, when Rodrigues comes to understand the true nature of Christ by coming to Japan, the novel suggests that one might find truth in the other—in other words, by immersing himself in the East, Rodrigues has come to understand his Western beliefs even more.

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