Murakami Harukis Norwegian Wood

Murakami Harukis Norse WoodSex and Existence A Third Choice of adult male Existence in Murakami Harukis Norwegian WoodIn Norwegian Wood, Murakami Haruki experiments to ch allenge the mainstream conceptions of provoke, love and tender creative activity, that he be fabricationves these three elements do non always ordain with each other and part of the reason why this novel is so celebrated even today is because it breaks what the media, the society, and the human instinct of being normal. Death exists, non as the opposite but as a part of disembodied spirit (25) is a famous quote from Norwegian Wood, and it provides a third perception of disposition life and final stage similarly, a significant part of the novel discusses the relationship between love and energise, which Murakami sets different characters to perform a third way of human existence with different perspectives.To begin with, the best way to understand Norwegian Wood, is to not consider it as a quixotic or te en novel, which unremarkably conveys the idea that love conquers all (Hall Mar.16th) instead, treat it as an analytical novel which discusses the relationship among love, sex and human existence. The biggest reason that Murakami sets the main characters at young ages, such as sets Kizuki at his s grammatical caseeen (and forever remains seventeen), Naoko at her twenty (and forever remains twenty), and Toru together with Midori at their twenties, is because that for post-pubertal young people, their bodies are mature abundant to explore internal world, but their minds are still not fully corrupted by the harshness outside school life, so that they have the qualification to learn how to love by their bodies, yet appreciate love by their pure hearts.Naoko and Midori are two intriguing female characters in Norwegian Wood. some(prenominal) characters are somehow abnormal, such as Naokos psychological anxiety towards sex, and Midoris unusual behaviour of standing naked in front of h er fathers portrait. These behaviours are certainly not seen as standard code of conduct. In order to understand Naoko and Midoris abnormalities, it is important to analyze these two girls contrary views towards sex, life and human existence. In traditional romantic literature, the common plot is that the hero and heroine together all overcome many obstacles, and live happily ever later on. Since after so many difficulties they have been through, the ending commonly ends with them having a blessed life to death for sure, and it is assumed that their sex life will be harmonious as well. However, it is not the case in Norwegian Wood. Naoko has difficulties to have a penetrative sex with her lover Kizuki, but she succeeds in doing it with Toru, though it is the origin and the only clock time she gets knowledgeablely aroused. Moreover, the reason for Naokos suicide alike needs to be noticed, although the reason is made implicit in the novel. However, it is certain that Naoko does not die for love. During the twenty years of Naokos life, she encounters two deaths of her love angiotensin converting enzymes. The first angiotensin-converting enzyme is her sisters death. Naokos sister commits suicide at the age of seventeen, and Naoko as an eleven years old child witnesses her sisters murdered consistency. Then six years later, Naokos beloved Kizuki ends his life in the same way, by committing suicide. These two deaths strike Naoko drastically, but not fatally. She manages to get into the college, although avoiding talking about the past when she meets Toru a year after Kizukis death, it is in like manner assertive to conclude Naokos suicide as to either follow her true love, or merely disappointed with the world. There are not many evidences of which event triggers Naoko to commit suicide, but it is for sure that her only climax gives her both the hope to carry on life, yet in the same time destructs this hope to live. The biggest veneration of Naoko is h er unfitness to perform sex with her lover as normal people do. Naoko constantly talks about that night on her twentieth birthday, and keeps question her inability to sex. This once in life sexual experience to Naoko is not only a natural physiological behaviour, but also contains the meaning of life, and this meaning is not merely limited to physiological needs, but being elevated to the meaning of continuing life. The first time Toru visits Naoko at the sanatorium, she speaks of her version of viewing the sexual dialogue with ToruI Naoko was wet from the minute you Toru walked into my apartment the night of my twentieth birthday. I wanted you to hold me. I wanted you to take my clothes off and pair me all over and to get inside me. I had never felt like that before. Why is that? Why do things happen that way? I mean, I really loved him Kizuki. (112)It contributes Naoko so confused that why she and Kizuki never succeed in having a penetrative sex, but why she can have one with Toru if she loves Kizuki, why her body does not let him in or is that if she loves Toru, why is she unavailing to let Toru in for a second time? Naoko keeps pondering over these questions, and the second time Toru visits her, she was less talkative than she had been in the fall (237). When Toru tries to have sex with her again, he dis get throughs that Naoko is still unable to get aroused, and she once again questions her inability to have sexWhy dont I get wet? Naoko murmured. That one time was the only time it ever happened. The day of my twentieth birthday, that April. The night you Toru held me in your arms. What is wrong with me? What if I never get better? What if I can never have sex for the rest of my life? Can you keep attractive me just the same? (239)By shaping a character like Naoko, Murakami raises a hypothesis that what if sexual impulse does not occur coincidentally with love, does it produce that on that point is a third choice of performing sexless affection or affectionless sex? Whether or not this hypothesis works, Murakami offers a possibility that there could be a third kind of human existence in life, other than having impulsive sex, romantic sex, or no sex life at all.Midori is in the contrary of Naoko. She is described both by herself and by Toru as a real, live girl with blood in her veins (267), and she always seems to be beaming and relaxed however, she is not born to be this optimistic, but rather she chooses to be this way. Similar to Naoko, Midori has a tragic life of losing her loved ones her grandfather, grandmother, mother and father. Midoris mother dies of cancer, and before her death, she lives in the hospital for almost two years while Midori takes care of her everyday therefore has to delay school. Midoris father loves his wife so deeply, that he says to Midori and her sister, I Midoris father would a great deal rather have lost the two of you Midori and her sister than her Midoris mother (71). Then two years later, her father dies of the same cancer as her mother. Unlike Naoko, Midori is not defeated by so many deaths, instead, she manages to live her life bravely. Every time Midori appears in the story, her activities are not limited to talking she and Toru often eat together, drink together, she cooks, smokes, and does all kinds of things whereas for Naoko and Toru, what they mostly do is writing letters and walking. These vigorous activities save Toru from drowning himself with Naokos pain, and Midoris strong spiritedness symblizes the only oasis in this novel of boundless depressed desert. Midoris vitality puts her in a somewhat awkward position in society, considering the novels setting is in the 1960s Japan she does not cry at her fathers funeral, she unreservedly discusses sexual fantasies with Toru asking him to think of her while masturbating, she invites Toru to watch pornography at an adult theatre, and she is never shy of telling Toru her true feelings, of how much she desires him . Midoris self-sustaining, modernized characteristics and her value of existence of careless to the normalcy contradicts to Naokos belief of perfect union of sex and love. To conclude these two girls, Naoko stands for the possibility of a third way of existence between sex and love, and Midori exhibits the possibility of a third existence of living without confinements.Naoko and Midori are like the two opposites of a scale, and Toru is the one to decide which side weighs more. In the first chapter, Toru already makes it clear that what happens in the book are all memories I Toru was thirty-seven then, strapped in my seat as the huge 747 plunged through dense cloud cover on approach to the Hamburg airport (3), and this chapter ends with the monologue of Naoko never loved me (10). By reading this monologue, it is obvious that even twenty years pass by, Toru is still stuck in the memory of Naokos suicide. Toru tries to save Naoko, by having sex with her, by loving her, but both the ef forts of love and sex can not solve Naokos psychological problems, and Toru never gets to understand the world of Naokos. On the other hand, Toru is drawn to Midoris vitality, and Midori always saves him, even at the end of the novel, Toru still seeks help from Midori again and again, I Toru called out for Midori from the dead center of this place that was no place (293).There are four stages of Torus sexual development to desire sex, to understand sex, to control sex, and to enjoy sex. The first stage of desiring sex, is reflected by the first half of the novel, when Toru starts to have sexual relationships with his first girlfriend in high school, with Naoko, and with other unlike girls. Toru starts this relationship without envisaging it because of Kizukis death, since he was unable to find a place for myself Toru in the world around me (24), and immediately after graduation, he is devoted to leave Kobe without considering this girls feeling. The desiring of sex happens after To ru having sex with Naoko. As Toru recalls in his letter to Naoko, he honestly writes that the warmth and closeness I Toru felt for you Naoko at the moment was something I had never experienced before (41). To Toru, this is an terrific experience, because the other girls he has sex with are not the ones he has feelings with. Previously, when Toru has sex with strange girls, he always feels empty the next morning after however, after his sexual intercourse with Naoko, he gets to taste the glamour of reaching climax both physically and mentally, he thereby feels hunger for women bodies My Toru body was hungering for women. All the time I was sleeping with those girls, I though about Naoko, about the white shape of her naked body in the darkness, her sighs, the sound of the rain. The more I prospect about these things, the hungrier my body grew (43). The first time when Toru goes to visit Naoko at the sanatorium, Naoko shows him her naked body at night, and it triggers Toru to recall their first nightA sense of imperfectness had been what Naokos body had give me Toru that night as I tenderly undressed her Naoko while she cried I Toru am having intercourse with you Naoko now. I am inside you. nevertheless really this is nothing. It doesnt matter. It is nothing but the joining of two bodies. All we are doing is telling each other things that can only be told by the rubbing together of two imperfect lumps of flesh. By doing this, we are sharing our imperfection. (131)This whole passage of imperfection that Toru speaks forms a contrast to Naokos perfection theory, Naoko insists that if she is going to see Toru again, she wants her body to be clean of all this when I Naoko meet him Toru (246), and this hints Torus incomprehension of Naokos world.The second stage of Torus sexual development is to understand sex. Since Toru experiences several sexual activities with strange girls, he tastes the loneliness and emptiness that come after climax at the same time, he know s that Naoko is getting further away from him after them having sex. Toru gets hurt by sex, and therefore, he chooses to not to have sex with Midori, because he realizes that youre Midori the best friend Ive Toru got now I dont want to lose you (250).The third stage of Torus sexual development is to control sex. Toru passes the first two stages, he becomes more familiar with sex, just like tobacco, and he does not want to be controlled by it. As he says to Midori, I Toru dont like having something smoke control me that way (70), and same for sex, he does not wish to let sexual impulses to overtake his love towards both Naoko and Midori instead, he wants to remember that momentary experience he has with Naoko, and his commitment to Midori, so he does not let him have sex with other girls. The second time Toru and Midori lie down in the same bed, he still suppresses his thought of having sex with Midori, because he finds out that he falls in love with MidoriI Toru loved Midori, and I was happy that she had come back to me. The two of us could make it having sex, that was certain It had been all I could do to suppress the intense desire I had to strip her Midori naked, throw open her body, and sink myself in her warmth I loved Midori. And I had probably known as much for a while. I had just been avoiding the conclusion for a very long time. (267)The fourth stage of Torus sexual development is to enjoy sex. In the last chapter of Norwegian Wood, Toru has sex with Reiko. This time, their sex is relaxed, enjoyable, and meaningful. As Murakamis hypothesis of sex could be based on love, and it could also be independent without love, the sex between Toru and Reiko is the best proof to make this hypothesis established.To conclude Torus character as a whole, he represents Murakamis perception that sex is the basic element that exists in life, and it can be independent without love. Only with this view implanted to Torus character, he can love Naoko and Midori without the disturbance of sexual desire, and gives both Reiko and himself a new start with sex.The traditional manipulation of sex in literature is to either blur or eliminate its description, in order to weaken its influence on love whereas in Murakami Harukis Norwegian Wood, his descriptions of sex is simple but explicit, which declares his perception to sex as modernized and positive. Norwegian Wood starts with an end, and ends with a start, this paradoxical beginning and ending fits the life death opposite theory proposed in the book perfectly. By offering these paradoxes, Murakami offers a third choice of human existence, that his ideal lifestyle is never a two-point and one-line alive(p) instead, by examining and combining the extreme commonness and abnormality, a third choice of living is formed. No matter what this third existence is, it is a lifestyle that is unique, as Reiko says What makes us most normal, is knowing that were not normal (148).Word count 2599Works CitedHall, Ni ck. ASIA 364 Modern Japanese Literature 1868 the Present. University of British Columbia. 16 March 2017. screen notes.Murakami, Haruki. Norwegian Wood. Trans. Jay Rubin. New York Vintage International, 2000. Print.