It's noteworthy that Yozo’s sense of alienation and despair comes
before he’s sexually abused by his family’s waitstaff. Of course, this traumatic experience undoubtedly exacerbates his feelings of isolation and fear, but it’s not the
cause of these feelings—an important detail, as the novel presents Yozo’s sorrow and loneliness as things that are seemingly inherent to who he is as a person; that is, his depression and sense of isolation don’t come from a single experience—they’re more ambiguous and thus harder to address.