Norwegian Wood 2nd Reading Journal

           Although the story starts with Naoko and ends with Midori, Toru seems to be lost from the beginning to the end. Toru’s personality seems to develop as he faces with different occasions and people. However, most of the times, he seems to be passive. At the same time, he feels responsibility for his actions. This kind of attitude made him suffer from dragged relationship between Naoko.

           From the beginning, he had to endure his closest friend Kizuki’s suicide. Kizuki is also an abnormal character who seems to be isolated from other people. He really liked Toru because he could provide the secure feeling which he would probably craved for. For the same reason, Naoko wanted Toru to be close to her. After facing death of close people, she would have felt much more detached and wanted to Toru to relieve her partly. Then Toru ended up having sex with Naoko. This incident added more weight on Toru’s responsibility to take care of her. Just like Toru likes being alone, he does not want to make himself a burden for anyone. Leaving her in that situation would totally go against his thoughts. He even went to the asylum in the middle of a mountain because he cannot forget her. But that feeling was not just pure love but mixed with guilt. That suicide of her freed him from her in the end.

           Compared to Naoko, Midori is much more secure and stronger. In a sense, she loves Toru but she does not desperately need him for her own good. Although Midori and Naoko both lost her family members and other close people, the way they react to those incidents are significantly different. Whereas Naoko lost track of her life, Midori tries to hang on to it tenaciously. Although they both want Toru, their reasons are definitely different. I would say that Midori’s feeling is much closer to love.

           Unfortunately, Toru seems to be always lost. “Where was I now” was the question he asked himself at the very last part of the book. From Nagasawa to Reiko, Most of the characters that are close to Toru seem to be imperfect in some parts. This shows Toru’s role in their relationships. However, none of the relationship was started only with his effort or will. Although he is good at fitting into a system, he does not know how to live for his own. So in the end, he ends up in the “place that was no place.”

Norwegian Wood (~p.50)

     It seems to me that Koreans love Murakami. When you go to any bookstore in Seoul, it is not very hard to find one of his books located on the "bestseller" sections. This is the second time reading his writing and first time realizing that it is much better than I thought. Watanabe, the main character, has different relationships with people around him. However, every relationship is fragile and insecure that he can get comfort from no one. We also face this kind of issues. With friends, families, and others, what does it mean when you say you are "close" with someone? Of course, you can be frank to your best friends. But most of the times, it is very hard to become truly oneself with other people.
     For Watanabe, he does not have any friends. There are a lot of people that he can hang out with. Although he used his roommates for his own purposes, he was never close with him. Nagasawa was with him a lot of times, but as he mentioned, he never fully trusted or relied on him. He seems to have interest on Midori but just seems to only have interest. He seems to be reacting to people who have interest on him, he never acts first to get close to someone Rather, he stay still until someone approaches him. That attitude might have prevented people to come closer to him.
     Other characters also appear to be very isolated. Those three characters, Storm Troopers, Nagasawa, Midori, are all by themselves in their each status. The story is filled with a bunch of loners. Watanabe is special in such a way that he can relate to each of them. They like him because he knows how to listen and adjust himself for that person. Just like Kizuki and Naoko agreed on, he is a great tool to connect those isolated people to the society.
     Characters seem to look for each other for their own motives. Unlike "friendship", they do not sacrifice benefits to satisfy others. The relationship is based on 'give and take' which seems to be very realistic. In other words, those relationship will break easily; when someone cannot provide something or when someone does not need anything. Most characters seem to longer for other person's attention for their loneliness. They want to look strong on their outside due to their backgrounds but they are not that strong in their inside. For that disparity, they look for Watanabe.
     At the Ami Hostel where Naoko is staying, Watanabe seems to defend his positions. He tries to justify why he had slept with many girls whom he did not know. He raised Naoko and Nagasawa both at the same time, but inside those words, he was mainly defending himself as if he had no choice but to commit those actions. Although Watanabe seems to be very flexible and can suit other persons, he is also very selfish that he never let anything to happen that could turn into a flaw. (504 words)