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)
