Heaven: A Novel

The narrator’s eyes play a significant symbolic role in Heaven. They represent his maturing perspective of the world and his identity, and they also serve as a reminder of his birth mother, who also had a lazy eye.

The narrator introduces his lazy eye in the first chapter of the novel, shortly before the novel presents the initial correspondence between him and Kojima. The narrator describes having to lean in closely to read Kojima’s letters because his lazy eye causes him to see half of the world as blurry. This gives him frequent headaches and interferes with his depth perception, making him prone to accidents. In this way, the narrator’s inability to see the world with perfect clarity represents the complications of his perspective of the world. He confronts the reality of being bullied at school but often wonders about what his bullies’ cruelty implies about the world. At the end of the novel, when he has his eyes treated through corrective surgery, he takes off his bandage and sees the world with perfect clarity for the very first time, weeping at his solitude in the beauty of the world. This corresponds with his epiphany in which he reconciles the conflicting philosophies he struggles with throughout the novel, ultimately coming to adopt and espouse self-determination.

At the same time, the narrator’s eyes are symbolic of his identity. This is an idea that Kojima frequently drives through her interactions with the narrator, affirming that his eyes are her favorite thing about him. The narrator struggles to accept the idea that his lazy eye is a likable feature since he sees it as a flaw. The fact that his bullies nickname him “Eyes” causes him to believe that they dislike him for the way his lazy eye affects his appearance. When presented with the opportunity to undergo corrective surgery, he excitedly considers it. This disappoints Kojima as she suggests that doing away with his lazy eye will make him no different from those who follow Ninomiya out of fear of being ostracized. Likewise, his stepmother stresses the importance of his choice, hinting that the decision should rely less on peer pressure and more on self-determined motivations. The narrator finally does decide to undergo surgery, though he questions his motivations in the moments leading up to his treatment.

Finally, the narrator’s eyes represent a connection to his birth mother, whom he lost at an early age. The narrator explains to his stepmother that his birth mother had a lazy eye as well. Barring any knowledge about treatment, the fact that he has held on to his lazy eye as part of his identity effectively connects him to his dead mother, which is a bond that he values in light of his father’s constant absence. Treating his eyes suggests the possibility of severing that bond, which alienates him from his birth family as an origin point in the world. This resonates with Kojima’s decision to emulate her father’s dirtiness as a way of connecting with him and understanding his experience.