Bewitched
September 19, 2010 by Isaac Setton
When I read this story the first thing that came to my mind is the famous quote of “don’t judge a book by its cover”. Toyo-o thought he had met the girl of his dreams when “in stepped a beautiful woman less than twenty years of age. Her features, the way she wore her hair, her colorful robe, the perfume she exuded-all this, Toyo-o noted, made her bewitchingly voluptuous” (pg. 633). Based on her looks he thought she was the girl for him but little did he know that she was out to trick him and get him to love her for someone she wasn’t. To me this was just another typical story in which someone falls for another person just because of his or her looks and not because of who the person is.
If Toyo-o was more careful and he didn’t let his instincts take over, than he might have seen that she was evil and was only out to hurt him, not love him. What Toyo-o should have realized was that everything seemed too good to be true, and it had been. A woman who he had met the previous day was already professing her love for him. Is it possible to know if you love someone after such a short first acquaintance? Many people don’t believe so but Toyo-o could have been thinking desperately and that could be a reason for his decision.
When I read this story it reminded me in a way of Monkey’s character from the first story we read. Monkey’s case is the same as Toyo-o’s however the only difference is that Monkey did not trust people when he should have. Monkey was given help along the way from the Bodhisattva and thought they were evil from the way they looked even though they were sent as an aid. Toyo-o and Monkey both judged the people they met by the way that they looked and because of that they got themselves into more trouble than they already had.