In A Grove

When a character is narrating a story—or when multiple characters take turns narrating—the author will often use a framing device for context. “In a Grove” primarily tells the story of the interaction between the bandit, the samurai, and the samurai’s wife within the bamboo grove. However, this story is framed within the police commissioner’s investigation of the murder (with a brief journey over to the Kiyomizu temple to hear Masago’s confession). Although this isn’t Akutagawa’s true focus, using a framing story binds the multiple accounts together in a cohesive manner.

Framing devices often take the form of explicit narration surrounding the embedded narrative(s). Famous examples of such frame stories include Scheherazade in One Thousand and One Nights, who tells the sultan a different story each night, and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, in which pilgrims traveling to Canterbury each tell a story. Bram Stoker’s Dracula uses a framing device like that of “In a Grove,” taking the form of a collection of notes and journals. In this way, framing stories can be considered the predecessor of the “found footage” genre of film.

Each of Akutagawa’s seven characters has a unique “sound,” or voice; their speech patterns reveal their distinct personality traits. The traveling priest begins spouting poetry in his testimony, which none of the other six characters do. He also gives vague descriptions of the samurai’s possessions: “A good-sized sword” and “he was equipped with a bow and arrows” (12). As a priest, he is likely unfamiliar with weaponry, and he doesn’t seem particularly interested in it. By contrast, the police officer whose testimony immediately follows gives highly detailed descriptions of the items recovered from Tajomaru: “A leather-wrapped bow, a quiver in black lacquer, seventeen hawk-feather arrows” (12). This reflects his occupation, which requires him to notice details, especially as they relate to violence. The effect of using voice is to make the characters in a story seem more realistic—reflective of the diverse backgrounds and personalities of real-world humans.