2. Dazai often uses a first person narrator and a confessional style of writing. How do author, narrator, and hero relate to each other in such works?

3. How much distance does Dazai put between himself and his fictional world?

4. What happened to Dazai when he finally got married and settled down?

5. Did Dazai join the armed forces during the war? Did he write about the war? Why?

6. Why were the war years relatively safe for Dazai?

7. In Dazai's postwar novel The Setting Sun, what does the setting sun represent?

8. Describe Dazai's concept of the victim.

9. How does Dazai tend to depict men? Women?