Peaches by Abe Akira

Memory is something that can sometimes deceive an individual. What one remembers might not necessarily be the truth. In the short story "Peaches", the author, Abe Akira, shows how his distorted memory was a method his mind used to protect his innocence. The doubts he had about his memory, the relationship with his mother and the symbolism associated with peaches are indicators of his inner conflict and how he might have repressed a bad memory in order to keep his innocence and be protected from a horrible truth.

In the beginning of the story, the author remembers a childhood memory which he begins to doubt. The memory is of him and his mother during a winter night pushing a carriage filled with peaches. According to his memory, they went to get the biggest peaches in another town, but as he analyzes the situation he begins to doubt himself and the memory. Akira writes, "doubts began to overtake me" (123 B). He began to become more suspicious about the situation and tried to change his memory and suppress the unreasonable detail in the situation as if it had never happened. Akira writes, "...change the cold winter evening to a summer night" (124 A). The narrator begins to assume different scenarios with very little information. He would convince himself of an idea and believe that it happened, by replaying the possible situations several times in his mind. "Did I create it for myself, as one often hears it done" (___). There was no strong evidence, that what happened that night was true or not. It was a vague memory and he tried to put the information together. Perhaps the falseness and ambiguity of his memory is a method his mind used to protect him from the truth.

In the story, it is shown that the narrator and his mother have a close relationship. The author writes, "...pressing close and sharing whispers..." (123 B) which suggests the strong relationship between them and that they were protecting each other. In his memory, the mother covers his eyes with the scarf so he would not see the foxes. She does this because as a child she believed that they cast spells. Spells might be considered as evil and therefore the foxes might be associated as evil. By covering his eyes, he believes that his mother is protecting him from something that might harm him. In this case, his eyes being covered by the scarf causes him not to see the dangers around him, which might suggest that not being able to see the foxes is an indicator of how he also did not see his mothers' inappropriate relationship with the landlord because of his need to protect his innocence.

Through out the story, there is the presence of peaches. It is stated that peaches get easily bruised, just like the skin of a newborn baby. Newborns are considered to be innocent and very delicate creatures. It is suggested that the peaches in the carriage are a representation of him. Akira writes, "I had been the baby..." (123 A). While pushing the carriage filled with peaches, the narrator remembers how he had to be very careful not to move it too fast or the peaches would get bruised. If the peaches represent him, it is possible that he is trying to protect his innocence from a hidden truth. In addition, keeping in mind that peaches represent the narrator, the landlord convinces the mother to plant a peach tree. In my opinion the seed that the landlord plants might represent him as the real father to the young boy. The quote, "...every year he would come with fertilizer" (125 A) might suggest that by bringing fertilizer is a form of helping the narrator grow and help raise him. When the man was no longer there anymore, the mother started to take care of the peach tree which might represent how she nurtured and raised her son.

"Peaches" is a story that portrays the author's inner conflict on how he wishes to keep his innocence and be unaware of the truth. Repressing his memory kept him in the dark about the true meaning of his memory, but like a newborn baby that grows up and loses its innocence, so has the author. No matter how desperately he tries to retain it, he can never go back.