A Study on the Binary Confrontational Structure in Novel 「Railroad Man」 and its Signification

I analyzed the contents of binary confrontational structure in novel 「Railroad Man」 that was written by Asada Jiro had a huge popularity in Japan and Korea, and inferred signification of binary confrontational structure. First, imbalance in development between rural Horomai and urban Beyoro represented necessity of seeking balanced development of the regions. Second, inner conflict and external conflict of Automatsu and the gap between the old and new generations implied that we should promote harmony of personal value and community value for comfortable life of an individual and development of community. Third, contrasting lives of Automatsu and Senji meant that we should recognize and respect persons who contributed to the development of society, and we should think about seriously persons who lived unhappily or were considered the scum of the community. Then the research results indicated the contents of binary confrontational structure were social problems that the Japanese should discuss and mediate to resolve bubble economy and a long term recession. To resolve social problems the Japanese needed to get out of rigid or skewed thinking, figure out confrontational contents in balanced view, and seek coexistence of them.