In Kobo Abe's Wife in the Dunes, protagonist Niki Jumpei abandons her job and family in search of a new kind of beetle. During his search, Niki finds himself stuck in a hole among the sand dunes and initially attempts to escape. He believes that the villagers living above the sand dunes are his captors and sees fleeing the dunes as a competition against them. However, after inventing a water trap, Niki no longer views the villagers as her rivals and shows no urgency to leave. Through the motifs of competition and illusion, Abe shows that people should not seek recognition but personal accomplishment, leading modern readers to question the appreciation-based society in which they live. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The competitive motive shines through when Niki, striving for success, competes with her colleagues and ends up feeling less accomplished. When Niki ventures into the dunes, he believes that his colleagues will be “instinctively jealous of the lucky one who was freed from this hole” (80). His desire to stir up conflict among his colleagues shows how much he wants to be recognized by others. Indeed, his initial goal is to find a new species of beetle, hoping that his “efforts [are] crowned with success” (10). Niki thinks that discovering something new will make him feel like he's been enthroned into royalty and his colleagues subjugated into the rank of lesser citizens. Continuing this analogy, Niki's supremacy would be recognized by the entire nation, and as their ruler, he would control their actions. However, despite his efforts to appear more impressive, Niki is actually faced with "an unbearable self-loathing [at the idea that] people other than him had colors other than gray" (97). The more Niki tries to create color in his life, like embarking on a mysterious journey, the more he hates himself by comparing himself to others. He can only “on the gray canvas of reality [sketch] with enthusiasm… the simple form of this illusory celebration” (98). Niki tries to make his life seem full of joy, but he can only sketch the outline of a more vibrant picture of life. He cannot make sense of his existence, just as he cannot fill in the lines of the illusion he creates. Furthermore, Niki's constant desire for his colleagues to recognize his "illusory festival" of achievements shows how much he is controlled by them. Instead of acting autonomously, Niki chooses to act considering what others might think of him. This contrasts with his desire to be successful and dominate others, because he is the one who is actually being ruled. Rather than pushing him toward success, his competitive spirit only reinforces his feelings of lack of accomplishment. Niki's competitive spirit also extends to her interactions with the villagers and, through the motifs of struggle and illusion, reveals that winning is futile. Niki views the villagers as if they were his enemies, wanting to “make them really regret” trapping him in the hole (78). After repeatedly trying to escape the hole, Niki realizes that he is like "an animal that finally sees that the crack in the fence through which he was trying to escape is actually just the hole." 'entrance to his cage' (123). The image of coming across another cage while trying to escape emphasizes the villagers' control over Niki. His competitiveness led him to view the escape as a competition against the villagers. It is thereforeironic that the more Niki seeks to free himself from his captors, the less autonomy he has. It shows the desperation of achieving a goal while focusing on the triumph of others. In the novel's imagery, his escape from a crack in the fence only to stumble upon another entrance to a cage also demonstrates the futility of becoming the ultimate victor. This is similar to how Niki escaped from her job and family to gain recognition for finding a species of beetle, but now he is in another cage trying to escape and gain against the villagers. As Niki runs away from the hole, he realizes that “the harder he tries, the more he seems to run in vain, dreamily, in the same place” (198). He constantly ran from one problem to another, but he was never done with conflicts. There is no true final destination or victory. There will always be one more conflict awaiting him and one more thing to accomplish. Niki recognizes that his efforts to beat the villagers are in vain since he no longer even asks them to escape, but for water. When he is finally defeated, he abandons himself to the woman “as if he were a smooth, flat stone in the bed of a river” (232). This is a parallel to one of his earlier thoughts, that he is like a “rock buried deep in the bottom of the stream” (80). In this climactic moment, when Niki fails to get something as simple as water from his captors, he realizes his utter defeat. His hope of escape crumbles as he finds himself buried deep in a hole he may never be able to leave. Originally, Niki was trying to win against his colleagues by trying to find a new species of beetle in order to escape his feeling of being stuck in a river bed, but now he has returned to his original position; this situation only reinforces the fact that fame is an illusion. Instead of seeking recognition, people should work toward personal success to gain freedom, as the competition motif shows. After Niki fails to obtain water from the villagers and therefore decides not to seek recognition, he realizes that if "one abandoned a fixed position and surrendered to movement sands, competition would soon cease” (15). He no longer stubbornly opposes the villagers and, instead of trying to control his situation, he now allows them to happen as they may. Niki builds a trap originally intended to capture crows and discovers that it collects water. He thinks that “there would be no better listeners than the villagers” (239) to tell of his discovery. This marks a change in Niki; He originally considered the villagers his enemies, but now he is ready to share his innovation with them. Niki realizes that before, "the village was supposed to be on the side of the executioner" (223), but now "[its] military map, on which enemy and friendly forces were supposed to be clearly defined, was blurred." (224). The emphasis is no longer on comparison with others, but on the satisfaction he himself derives from achieving a goal. If he were just focused on winning against the villagers, he wouldn't want to share the innovation with them. Before, getting water was a competition against the villagers, but this time he found his own way to get it. Even though Niki “was still at the bottom of the hole… he felt as if he had climbed to the top of a tall tower” (235). Niki has found a different kind of recognition – and while others may not yet be aware of her discovery, just knowing of her accomplishment has given her the..