Another
important theme that appears a few times in Haruki Murakami’s novel is the one
of emotions. Toru mentions that he is able to put a, “freeze on my emotions.”
(78) After being introduced several different characters, it is interesting to
tell how each person controls his/her emotions. For example, Toru is able to
control his emotions, putting them on freeze. On the other hand, Kumiko’s
mother seems to have no emotions. Noburu doesn’t seem to understand what
emotions are due to the fact that he was so absorbed in his work and studies
all the time (for example, he didn’t have “time” for girlfriends). Finally, the
father appears to be heartless, and the only thing he does care about is to be
the best and beat the rest.
The portrayal of Kumiko's family is certainly far from complimentary. They almost seem like hollow people - entirely self-absorbed and completely obsessed with power, money and social status. I wonder whether Murakami is also satirising a certain class of Japanese society here? The family has links to politics, to the shameful Japanese past and - with NW's influential position in the media - they are actually a dangerous influence in the current society.
ReplyDeleteHmmmmm, interesting..... in my opinion though I think that NW does have emotions and he does know what they are. The thing is though that he doesn't show them. For two reasons, either because he is so absorbed in debating in politics that he has gotten used to not showing emotions because he thinks they will make him vulnerable. The second I think is that he is insecure about his emotions, as we already read in the book at one part when they were young Kumiko caught him masturbating to his sister's.... I can't remember what it was, but the point being that he has some problems. As Kumiko already told Toru, his problems are larger than most of the family's. So yeah, I think that he has emotions but that he just doesn't like showing them.
ReplyDeleteFair comment!
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