Cultural views on the navel Early Japanese poems feature many references to the female navel. In some, the word "navel" actually refers to an indentation or hole instead of the belly button. The shape of the umbilicus of a newborn baby would be discussed at length. If a baby's navel points downward, the parents would brace themselves for a weakling child who will bring them woe. The thunder god Raijin, with his terrifying drums, great horns, and long tusks, was said to have an insatiable appetite for young navels, and mothers had to nag their youngsters constantly to keep themselves well covered up. Due to
Valiant Is the Word for Carrie severely beaten by his father, and witnessing him being chased and cruelly teased and hazed by a gang of other boys, Carrie realises that for Paul's sake she must leave the town, let her beloved garden deteriorate, and never come back. The original story ends poignantly with Carrie going into a self-imposed exile, with the clear implication that she would never see Paul again. Barry Benefield later took up the story and made a revised version of it the first chapter of what became the 1936 novel "Valiant Is the Word for Carrie". Bar minor differences, the film's plot, as