/lit/ - Literature

>>21364850
My problem with that interpretation is that it simplifies the character's struggle and utter despair throughout his life, and it links it to an isolated traumatic experience. As most people that I read often said "It's what caused him to be that way". It feels like they toss Osamu and his writing out of the window as another traumatized rape victim, as if it was the only way a person could possess anthropophobia.
If I look at the bigger picture, of how the whole book was written, and all the events that transpired, I agree with what you wrote on your first reply; it's incredibly dramatic, the way he narrates even the most mundane things, as if it was a total hellish, unbearable pain. In that specific passage, he talks about being "taught" something about the true nature of people (not before or after the "crime", mind you). It's that knowledge that's so evil and cruel, that's enough to completely change a developing child's outlook on life. It's why, I believe, he chooses the word criminal to describe it. Then he begins reflecting on it, and how it shaped his fear, his distrust of people, having to bear whatever it's thrown at him and yada yada. Later in the book, in the mental hospital, pic related is his reasoning to why he's been accepting this awful things happening to him, not retaliating and what's he really afraid of. It's never about what they'll physically do to him, but about dropping his mask of deceit, of acting, and being ultimately cast aside.
Also, Osamu doesn't have any trouble later on when he narrates the sexual abuse his wife went through, or the crimes that he or other parties committed. Why, then, would he purposely avoid being direct about the matter in this instance?