How Do You Live?

Copper's father has died and it is his beloved uncle who has been asked by his father to guide Copper through adolescence and into adulthood. To do this, Copper's uncle keeps a journal of his thoughts about important things and Copper and his uncle have long conversations together.

Copper experiences lots of trials. After a particularly difficult trial, Copper finds that “...he had become keenly aware that a person's conduct was made up of actions that, once done, could not be undone, and that was a truly scary thing. Even if nobody else knew what you'd done, you yourself knew, and what's more, even if you could somehow forget completely, once you'd done a thing, there was no changing that fact.”

Copper's mother, too, helps him work through difficulties. As Copper is trying to figure out what to do after an especially hard situation, Copper's mother tells him:

“...if your regrets help you to really learn an essential thing about being human, that experience won't have been wasted on you. Your life afterward, thanks to that, will be better and stronger than it was before. Jun'ichi, that's the only way for a person to become great.”

Later his uncle writes in his journal to Copper: “As we move through our lives as human beings, all of us, young and old, encounter sadness, hardship, and pain, each in our own way. Of course these are not things anyone wishes for. But it is thanks to sadness, hardship, and pain that we come to know what a true human being is.”

This is a story of a thoughtful young man who is guided by his equally thoughtful uncle and mother, who is not without mistakes, but who uses his difficult experiences to become a better person.

And the ending: “And now I think I want to ask all of you a question. How will you live?”