Korb has a master's degree in English literature and creative writing and has written for a wide variety of educational publishers. In the following essay, she discusses Akio's efforts to prove his self-control.

Yukio Mishima became a rising star in the Japanese literary field when he was only in his mid-twenties, and he remains today one of that country's most internationally renowned contemporary writers. Susan J. Napier writes in the Dictionary of Literary Biography that Mishima is a "writer who has helped mold the Western imagination of Japan at the same time as one who continues to haunt the contemporary Japanese mind." Aside from his numerous writings, Mishima achieved notoriety for his ritual suicide, performed while still at the pinnacle of his career.

Stories like "Patriotrism" glorify traditional aspects of Japanese society, such as imperialism and the nobility of the samurai. In contrast to such works dealing...