Hi!! I just want to say I love your blog so much!!! Thank you for all your insightful posts and quotes from the real life authors- they make my day! If you don't mind, I had a quick question! I've been trying to figure out Oda's quote "People exist to save themselves," but I'm having some trouble! Do you perhaps have any insight? Would you mind sharing your interpretation of the quote and why it's so significant to BSD?! Thank you so much 💕💕💕
I am so glad you enjoy the quotes! Thank you so much for the support!
The quote Oda read in Bungou Stray Dogs and quotes right before he dies is actually a pretty common idea. I’ve even found a very similar quote from one of Dazai’s short stories:
The concept behind it is that everything we do in life, even the good things, are ultimately selfish acts. People don’t do things that won’t give them some kind of benefit.
Before the Dark Era, Oda found a place in the mafia and killed in order to survive, but then he met Natsume Souseki who influenced him to change. In the beginning of the Dark Era, Oda refused to kill because of his own desire to become an author. Then after Gide killed the children Oda didn’t want to live anymore because death would be better than a life where he knew he couldn’t save them, so he fought Gide knowing he would die. Even his dying words to Dazai were an attempt to make him feel better about dying and leaving his friend behind. Ultimately, that quote means that everything that Oda did in the series was motivated by Oda’s desires to “save himself” from whatever suffering or future he didn’t want to experience.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Even though people are motivated by what is in their own best interest, it is usually in their best interest to “become a good person,” like Oda told Dazai to do. Because of Oda’s desire to become an author he preserving a lot of lives because he, as a member of the Mafia, refused to kill. Even though Dazai left the Mafia and joined the Agency in order to find a reason for himself to keep living and to honor the request of a died friend (Oda was dead, so Dazai couldn’t have made Oda happier but by honoring his request he himself felt that he was doing the right thing so he was still motivated by what he wanted), because Dazai did that countless lives have been saved by him helping to save Yokohama (not to mention the lives that were spared because he wasn’t in the Mafia anymore). One of those lives was Atsushi. And even though Dazai initially took Atsushi in to become part of Shin Soukoku for his own reasons, Atsushi’s life along with all the lives around him were influenced for the good because of it (even Akutagawa… though he’ll never admit that their conversation before fighting Fitzgerald benefited both himself and Atsushi).
So while we “exist to save ourselves” and do what benefits us, that doesn’t mean that we can’t be good people and do good for everyone around us. Yes, doing good has benefits for the person doing good, but it also has benefits for everyone around them. It’s a win-win situation.
But that’s just my interpretation. I hope all my rambling makes sense.




















