What is Darkness?

Darkness generally represents a state of flux and ambiguity. Natsuko often observes the darkness around her when going to sleep or before drifting into dreams or alternate states of consciousness. As opposed to the sense of timelessness she observes in the evening light, in darkness she loses a precise sense of time, experiencing a mixture of different periods that she has lived through. Midoriko also mentions a fear of darkness in her journal entries, saying, “Everything gets dark, and that darkness fills my eyes more and more” (51). Midoriko fears the transitive state of puberty she is entering and the changes it will bring.