A Gesture Life

“It’s no secret that the past proves a most unstable mirror, typically too severe and flattering all at once, and never as truth-reflecting as people would like to believe.”

From the start of the story, Hata understands that attempting to view the past through one’s own eyes will always be biased and never trustworthy. Despite the belief that the past can reflect the truth, trying to understand oneself by means of analyzing the past will prove too harsh and too flattering. 

“For I should say that I know from experience that the bearing of those in extreme circumstances can sometimes by untoward and even shocking, and we must try our best to understand what is actual and essential to a person, and what is by any indication anomalous, a momentary lapse that is better forgotten than considered time and time again, to little avail.” 

Mr. Hickey acts malevolently towards Hata, as he believes he sold them a business while knowing it would go under. However, he foreshadows the telling of past experiences where he himself, or others close to him, have acted shockingly in extreme circumstances. He most probably has spent time considering such actions to no avail and has learned it is better to forget such anomalous acts.  

“I was more than grateful. And I knew even then as a boy of twelve how I should always give myself over to its vigilance, entrusting to its care everything I could know or ever hope for. My Sunny, I thought, would do the same. Not be so thankful or beholden to me, necessarily, but at least she’d be somewhat appreciative of the providence of institutions that brought her from the squalor of the orphanage—the best of which can be only so happy—to an orderly, welcoming suburban home in America, with a hopeful father of life-enough race and sufficient means.

The core of Hata’s life of gestures is a deeply embedded sense of gratitude for not just his adoptive parents but for the opportunities he has had throughout life. He seems to mistake an orderly and welcoming life for love and acceptance. Because of this, he expects Sunny to be as grateful as he was for being adopted into better circumstances.