Naoko Tanaka: Grief, Time, and Survival in Ascension
Overview
Dr. Naoko Tanaka is one of the two survivors of the first expedition up the impossible mountain and the estranged wife of the narrator, Harold Tunmore. A brilliant field medic who worked for the Red Cross in Ethiopia, Naoko carries the trauma of her son Santi’s death and the collapse of her marriage. On the second expedition, she exhibits signs of severe paranoia and time distortion, yet her arc moves from hostility toward Harold to a fragile reconciliation before her violent death. Her presence forces the novel’s central questions about grief, memory, and the absurd struggle for meaning.
Plot Role
Naoko serves as both the emotional anchor and the living mystery of the story. Harold originally joins the expedition after learning she is the sole surviving member besides John McAllister. When he first sees her at Base Camp, she is locked in a cabin covered in chalk tally marks, and she screams at him until he leaves (chapter 4). Throughout the ascent, Naoko acts as a reluctant guide, occasionally revealing fragments of what happened on the first climb—but her distrust of Harold and the authorities makes her an unreliable informant. She is also a victim of the mountain’s time-dilation effects, experiencing moments out of sequence. Her death comes in chapter 20, when Jet stabs her during the leviathan attack, and Harold holds her as she dies.
Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions
Naoko’s primary motivation is survival—both physical and psychological. She carves wooden netsuke figurines, a ritual inherited from her mother and passed on to her adopted son Santi. This act symbolises her need to tether memories to physical objects, to keep grief from unravelling her. Her paranoia (“Are you working with them?”) reveals a deep mistrust born from the first expedition’s betrayals and the mountain’s mind-altering properties. Yet she also shows resilience: she walks toward the two figures on the ice in chapter 5, apparently recognising them, and when Bettan rescues her from the crevasse, she does not break down but continues the climb. Her silence and carving in the tent in chapter 7 demonstrate a coping mechanism that is both creative and isolating.
Chronological Arc
Naoko’s arc spans two timelines: the past with Harold and Santi, and the present on the mountain. In the past, she is a warm, loving mother and wife who teaches Harold empathy (chapter 3). After Santi drowns, Harold leaves her, and she throws herself into dangerous fieldwork. On the first expedition, she experiences the mountain’s time distortions and returns with John but deeply traumatised. When Harold finds her again, she is abrasive and accusatory. Over the course of the climb, her walls slowly lower: she allows Harold to hold her hand in chapter 16, and in chapter 18 they have a tearful reconciliation, sharing their grief over Santi. However, her trust is still fragile. In the same chapter, Neil manipulates both her and Harold into letting him take her outside to search for the Warden—a decision that leads directly to her death. In chapter 20, she is stabbed by Jet while Harold can only watch. Her final appearance is in Harold’s vision inside the tesseract, where he sees her crying after losing patients, a memory that underlines her capacity for compassion.
Relationships
- Harold Tunmore: Their marriage was built on mutual healing—Harold taught her science; she taught him empathy. After Santi’s death, Harold’s guilt drove him away. On the mountain, Naoko initially rejects him (“You left me,” she accuses in chapter 7), but they eventually reunite emotionally. Their last moments together are tender: she tells him, “I’ve always loved you, Harry.”
- Santi: Their adopted son, a selective mute from Chile, carved her a netsuke so she wouldn’t forget him. His death is the unspoken trauma that haunts both parents. Naoko’s grief is expressed through ritual carving, never through open conversation.
- Roger Bettan: He saves her life when she falls into the crevasse, but she shows little gratitude; they have a purely functional relationship. Bettan respects her as a survivor, but they do not bond.
- Neil: The alien anthropologist exploits Naoko’s trust. In chapter 18, he volunteers to accompany her outside, using persuasive language that makes the decision seem “sensible” to Harold. Neil does not protect her; her death happens while he is absent.
Key Decisions and Consequences
| Decision | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Walking toward the two figures on the ice (chapter 5) | She falls into the crevasse; Bettan rescues her, and the team’s pace is delayed. This also signals her ongoing susceptibility to time-based hallucinations. |
| Rejecting Harold’s initial attempt at reconciliation (chapter 7) | Harold resolves to treat the mountain as a scientific puzzle, suppressing his emotions. This delays their reunion until near the end. |
| Agreeing to go outside with Neil to search for the Warden (chapter 18) | Harold’s judgment is clouded by Neil’s influence. Naoko leaves the safety of the cave and is later killed by Jet during the leviathan attack. |
| Reuniting with Harold and sharing grief over Santi (chapter 18) | This brief reconciliation provides Harold with emotional closure before her death, and it reasserts the theme that love persists despite absurdity. |
Theme and Symbol Connections
- Absurdism and the Struggle for Meaning: Like Sisyphus, Naoko pushes her grief uphill each day by carving netsuke. Her repeated act of carving roots (the literal meaning of “netsuke”) mirrors the absurd hero’s defiance. The mountain tests whether she can find meaning in struggle after losing everything.
- Time, Memory, and Guilt: Naoko experiences time distortion more intensely than others. Her tally marks on the cabin walls (chapter 4) suggest she tried to keep track of time that no longer moved linearly. Her guilt over Santi’s death is a frozen moment she cannot escape—until the mountain’s tesseract shows Harold that all moments exist simultaneously, offering a kind of reunion beyond death.
- Alien Evolution and the Fate of Humanity: Naoko is one of the few who have a chance to witness the summit, but she dies before reaching it. Her death underscores that evolutionary transformation (the “seed” that creates Homo altior) comes at a tremendous cost, and not every worthy participant survives.
- Trust, Paranoia, and Deception: Naoko’s paranoia about “them” (Apollo Corporation, the Warden) is justified—information is withheld from the team. Yet her suspicion also isolates her from Harold, preventing collaboration. The novel suggests that paranoia is a rational response to an irrational mountain, but it carries a survival cost.
- Sacrifice and Redemption: Naoko sacrifices nothing climactically herself, but her death forces Harold to complete the journey. Her memory—the netsuke he carves after she dies (mentioned in the afterword)—becomes his own talisman of meaning.
Five Book-Specific Questions and Answers
1. Why does Naoko scream when Harold enters her cabin in chapter 4?
She has been locked in the cabin for reacclimatisation, isolated and paranoid. The sight of Harold, whom she associates with their abandonment and the trauma of Santi’s death, triggers a panic response. She accuses him later of being part of “them,” indicating she fears he is working with the authorities against her.
2. What are the two figures Naoko sees on the ice in chapter 5, and why does she walk toward them?
The figures are never explicitly identified. Based on Naoko’s reaction (“I … know them”), they are likely people from her past—perhaps Santi or her mother, who drowned. Her walk toward them represents her psychological pull toward unresolved grief and the mountain’s ability to project visions. Interpretation: The figures may be hallucinations caused by time distortion, tempting her to surrender to loss.
3. What does Naoko’s netsuke carving signify?
Carving netsuke (miniature sculptures attached to inro boxes) is a ritual she learned from her mother. The word “netsuke” means “root attached.” Each carving roots her to lost loved ones. She carves turtles for her mother, and Santi carves one for her. On the mountain, she uses carving to anchor herself when reality becomes untethered.
4. How does Naoko die?
In chapter 20, during the leviathan attack, Jet stabs her. The novel does not detail the moment of the stabbing; Harold finds her dying in the snow. The Warden is wounded, Palmer sacrifices herself with a grenade, and Harold holds Naoko as she dies.
5. How does Naoko’s character relate to the novel’s absurdist theme?
Her persistence in carving netsuke despite profound loss mirrors Sisyphus pushing the boulder. The epigraph from Camus argues that the struggle is enough to fill a heart. Naoko’s struggle—not reaching the summit, not saving her son, not mending her marriage—is the struggle itself that defines her. The afterword reveals Harold carved netsuke figures of Naoko and Santi after her death, continuing the absurd ritual.