Consider the complex character Tajima Shume in “Tajima.” How do Tajima’s actions and interactions advance the plot and develop a theme in the story? In your response, describe a theme of the story and explain how the author uses characterization to develop the theme and advance the plot. Use evidence from the text to support your response. Your response should be at least three complete paragraphs.

Tajima was a samurai without a master (ronin) who loved traveling and on one of his travels, he met with a wandering priest and discovered they were going the same place and they began to discuss to make their journey smoother and before long they were talking about more intimate affairs.  

The priest tells the ronin Tajima about his desire to erect a monument for Buddha and how much he has gotten so far which was two hundred ounces of silver. Tajima immediately has it in his heart that he must have possession of that money.

During a boat ride, Tajima tripped the priest and he fell over and drowned.

Taking the priest's money, he took on a new name Tokubei and began trading with the money and soon amassed great wealth

Three years after, he began to be haunted by the ghost of the priest until he was thought to be mad.

It appeared that the priest did not die but survived and eventually raised the money for the bronze statue for Buddha. He forgave Tajima (now Tokubei) and was persuaded to take back the money Tokubei stole from him, with interest.

The theme of the story is Poverty influences a man's decisions and No man is beyond redemption

The author made use of indirect characterization

in the short story the slip-over sweater by jesse stuart, the main character and narrator shan is friends with grace, an intelligent girl he has known since childhood and with whom he used to be in love.

at the beginning of the story, shan believes he’s no longer in love with grace, but loves jo-anne instead. in order to buy a slip-over sweater and have jo-anne wear it so that the other students would know she loved him too, shan takes a loan at the bank.

while jo-anne is wearing shan’s sweater, his friend grace starts to wear another popular boy’s one, roy’s sweater. because of that, the other students begin to pay attention to grace and compliment her perseverance and effort. they admire her for walking 5 miles to school every day, despite the weather, and still getting the best grades. shan, who knows all of that for a fact, says, as the narrator, ‘and i knew she had the durability and the toughness of a storm-battered mountain oak.’ he compares his friend’s strength – not only physical, but also of character – to an oak tree, whose wood is known for being sturdy.

as the story goes on, shan changes his behavior out of concern for the debt he has to pay at the bank. his new girlfriend jo-anne never asks him what is wrong nor offers any sort of . instead, she breaks up with shan for not being as fun as she thought he was supposed to be. grace, however, not only asks about shan’s problem, but him make the money he needs. shan can’t but notice how different the girls are and what a wonderful person grace is.   even though he used to find jo-anne prettier at the beginning of the story, he now says, ‘grace was as beautiful as our mountain was in april, prettier than a blossom of wild phlox or a mountain daisy.’ his comparing grace to a mountain or something that exists on a mountain (such as a mountain oak or daisy) certainly has important meaning since shan loves the mountain and everything about it and he knows the mountain thoroughly. shan also loves and knows grace as completely as he does the mountain.