Naoya Zenin analysis

Instead of revealing Naoya's whole story at once, the author sets the reader an extremely interesting task: to reconstruct the missing pieces on their own on the basis of the key moments provided.

In order to systematize the facts of the character's life and understand why Akutami-sensei chose them as the most important ones, I suggest turning to the monomyth, the basic structure of the character's development.

Little Naoya Zenin, floating in love and care, confident in his own uniqueness, is a hero in a familiar, well-known setting. He knows he is a genius, and is absolutely calm about his future because he has never yet met an obstacle. Raised on immense praise, he needs the constant feeding of the idea of his own grandiosity. It is no longer enough for him to hear that he is the best, he also wants to see it with his own eyes.

For the first time in his life, Naoya realizes that he is wrong. He is frightened because he has suddenly jumped from the known ("I'm a genius, I'm always in control") to the unknown (the realization that there is someone stronger than him in the world).

According to the monomyth, on the boundary between the hero's familiar world and the beginning of his transformation is the Threshold Guardian. The Threshold Guardian is opposed to the hero, the Threshold Guardian is a collection of his worst traits and fears, weaknesses and shortcomings.

Naoya is a child prodigy, a desirable child, the heir to the clan, while Toji is an outcast, unloved and persecuted by everyone. The "black sheep" doesn't even look at Naoya, so small and utterly defenseless next to his fears.

Naoya's entire journey between the first turning point and the "culmination" of his personality development is missed.

The "revolution," the fall into the abyss, is the loss of his title as head of the clan. What he was born for, what he had been preparing for all his conscious life, what he considered his vocation, is shattered in an instant. His entire identity and importance as a human being had been built by his entire family and Naoya himself on this position - and all in vain. Naoya was robbed and deprived of his basic trait.

His rage is not the product of greed and lust for power; it is the rage of a man who has been trampled into the mud. Naoya is eager to get rid of Megumi, not for the sake of position, but to restore murdered pride. For Naoya, becoming the head of the clan does not mean gaining power in the first place, but getting himself back.

On the way to his goal, he meets his Threshold Guardian again.

All the fears hidden deep inside - of being rejected, of not being recognized, of being considered a coward - once again overwhelm Naoya. But if in the previous encounter the Guardian inspired Naoya to become stronger and move on, this time he has blocked the path to his lifelong goal.

Toji is Naoya's authority, role model, and unattainable ideal, and Maki is a pathetic parody of the former. It is unbearably painful for Naoya to face such an insurmountable obstacle head-on again. He has spent years reconstructing the once-exactly known "I am the best," all only to fall again into the unknown.

Thus, at this point, Naoya is in the middle of his journey. In the monomyth, "death and rebirth" refers to the death of an old identity and the birth of a new one, but what prevents Gege from depicting death in the abstract through the literal? Nor should we forget that Naoya was not killed by Maki, his Guardian, the embodiment of his own weaknesses, nor by cursed energy. According to both the monomyth and the rules of the JJK universe, he has every chance of being reborn.

If the hero is only in the middle of his journey now, it's logical to assume that we can expect to see him develop further. Will Naoya be able to mend his ways? Will he realize and accept his mistakes? Does he have a chance to become just a little bit better before he finally leaves this world?

At first glance, the answer is no. Naoya can be mistaken for an incorrigible spoiled child, a congenitally malignant narcissist who has no compunction whatsoever - one can understand this point of view, but I would like to look at the situation from another angle as well.

As much as Naoya loves himself, he is just as insecure. He endlessly compares himself to others, both for the purpose of self-assertion (with women who "should walk three steps behind" him; with his brothers, who in his opinion are "weak" and "not good looking") and unconsciously humiliating himself before others (he constantly puts himself below Toji and Gojo, as if he has to prove to someone that he is worthy "to stand on the same line as them"; He also feels that Maki's appearance is an encroachment on some abstract "place among the best" that Maki did not claim at all.) One can safely assume that his self-esteem is not stable at all and is directly dependent on his surroundings. Naoya is narcissistic, but not self-sufficient.

In addition, we know that the Zenin clan is, to put it mildly, bad at raising children. Up to a certain age, a child needs unconditional parental love, the assurance that he has a firm foothold in the world. Did Naoya receive any love beyond endless rhapsodies of hereditary technique and innate sharp intelligence, which clearly do not fall into the category of "unconditional"? Judging by the way he measures his own worth by his position and power alone, I don't think so. Naoya, like the other Zenin children, was a victim of the destructive environment created by the older members of the clan, and later began to actively support its prosperity himself.

Every child must go through a stage of attachment to his parents. I doubt very much that a man who was ambivalent about his father's death and who did not put his mother in any way had an emotional connection with them. His own ingenious self is the only thing Naoya had and still has. He has nothing else to hold onto. Naoya Zenin is the head of the clan, and there is no one without the other. If the head is not Naoya Zenin, Naoya Zenin does not exist.

The conditions created in the clan for Naoya may well have contributed to the development of narcissism as a harmful defense mechanism, the only one available to his psyche at the time. He covered his weak, broken, unloved inner child with a thick blanket of contrived self-confidence, built himself up on an ephemeral uniqueness, the only trait for which he - in his own mind - could be loved and accepted.

Is it possible that even after his death the true individuality of Naoya Zenin will break through a thousand layers of resentment and hatred? Who knows...

P.S. I consider the above as possible reasons for Naoya's behavior and outlook, not as an excuse for them.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I'd like to say that Gege does a great job of maintaining the diversity of his characters. Just like with real people, you can have all kinds of feelings towards JJK's characters. Some think Naoya is a bastard, some adore him, some think he's neither fish nor fowl - and is any of them wrong? It's only a measure of the "vividness" of the characters that Gege creates.

Thank you for reading!