Reminiscence: remnants of the past
The Norwegian Wood, a 1987 novel written by
Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, is a nostalgic and retrospective story of the
main character. The story starts with the scene where a B747 plane lands on
Hamburg airport and the cover version of Beatle’s “Norwegian wood” resounds in
the cabin. Toru Watanabe, the main character, then starts to cast back to his
past when he was in a close relationship with Naoko.
The
Irish author Edna O’brien once said “Recollection is not something that I can
summon up. It simply comes and I am the servant of it.” Indeed our memories and
reminiscence of the past is so strong and sometimes even inevitable that you
cannot simple reject it from getting mingled in our mind. Actually any thoughts
and memories of the things that happened in the past are all recollections;
they are what constitute who we are mentally and connect the present with the
past-or actual occurrence of certain events-which is technically “gone” and
therefore not existing in the current world.
In
this sense the novel “The Norwegian Wood” is similar with the previous ones we
read, “On Seeing the 100 Percent Perfect Girl”, in that they both deals with reminiscence
of the things that happened in the past. Also these two both deals with
emotions and down-to-earth matters: daily and personal experiences. I have not
read any other books written by Haruki Murakami, but I might say that he
actually likes writing about something very pertinent to our daily lives.
One
thing that stuck my mind was that Kizuki, Toru’s best friend in high school who
previously had relationship with Naoko, suddenly died and that his death is how
Toru and Naoko started to get closer. Maybe Naoko did not actually loved Toru
but became a girlfriend of him just because she desperately needed someone to
be with. It is also possible to say that she needed somewhere to lean on
because she would have been completely shocked by the death of her loved one;
and the “target” was Toru whom she had known beforehand.
Until
the Chapter 3 it seems that the relationship between Toru and Naoko is not firm
yet but still in the progress of getting developed. Also Naoko is still having
some lingering feelings left on Kizuki because she burst into tears whenever
she starts to think about him. Maybe she is unstably dwindling between her reminiscence
on past relationship with Kizuki and her current situation. Whatever the reason
is, Naoko is definitely not emotionally secured yet, a state which quite well
matches with the April rain of the day when she and Toru slept together.
Good work. Nice structure and flow. Who loves who, in what way and why? We should have actually discussed that a bit in class, and will do so in the future. Clearly, Toru feels he is in love with Naoko, as was illustrated during the walk through Tokyo. But does Naoko love him? In what way? They have a complicated connection and that is the core of the novel. Love is very complex, and very often selfish. Personally, I would avoid a girl like Naoko. You? You can think about that when we meet Midori.
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