After his first student works set in his own university milieu, in the late 1950s he produced works such as Shiiku (飼育), about a black GI set upon by Japanese youth (made into a film, "The Catch" by Nagisa Oshima in 1961) and "Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids", focusing on young children living in Arcadian transformations of Ōe's own rural Shikoku childhood. He later identified these child figures as belonging to the 'child god' archetype of Jung and Kerényi, which is characterised by abandonment, hermaphrodism, invincibility, and association with beginning and end. The first two characteristics are present in these early stories, while the latter two features come to the fore in the 'idiot boy' stories which appeared after the birth of Hikari.