At the end of the novel, we can see that Toru’s character grew more complex through Murakami’s surrealistic descriptions, which convey a Toru with more than one personality. As soon as he meets Nutmeg, it’s a turning point for him as we can remark when he goes for the first time in her office and observes his worn out shoes, “ I felt with new intensity just how alone I was, just how far the world had left me behind. It was time for me to buy a new pair of shoes, I told myself. “ (365) The shoes are a symbol of Toru’s old life and how a change is needed for him in order to move forward.
Murakami also compares him to a vacant house, “I struggled to superimpose my own image upon that of a vacant house. I thought of myself as a pillar, a wall, a ceiling, a floor, a window, a door, a stone.” (368) The imagery reflects Toru’s character in the way that he has been abandoned and has this emptiness within him that Murakami wants to emphasize.
There is a constant detachment too from normal people that is exhibited, as if Toru could simply not enter society and go back to the peaceful and quiet life he had before. He is so unaccustomed to the real world, that even newspapers appear to him as strange and empty. It seems that he only feels comfortable in an unreal setting like the fitting room for instance.
This detachment is also reflected in the confusion between the reality and his “dream”, as if he was torn apart between two different selves trying to separate. I think his dreams reflect what he wants to do in the real world, for example beating up Noboru Wataya with a baseball bat, “ Perhaps, up there, in the real world, I had actually struck him with the bat and injured him severely, and I was the only one who didn’t know about it.” (571) One part of him is trying to repress what his real emotions are and another part is a confusion of negative emotions of hatred and violence that cannot be suppressed. I also noticed that the actions he had in this other world had an impact on the real world, as after beating up Noboru, it was later told to us that he had a stroke in his way to a conference.
There is an obvious change of character in Toru, as he now takes action and has this fearless determination to have Kumiko back and is willing to risk his life because he knew it was his last chance. Even though, Toru struggles most of the book and fights for a cause that we thought of as hopeless, I think Kumiko leaving the house has taught him to never give up through all his unusual experiences, since the ending proves to be a revelation in reconnecting with her and saving her from Noboru’s abusive world.
Mrs. M, your comments on the various symbolisms in the third book of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle gave me a deeper understanding of what Murakami was trying to convey in Toru's character change. I am also just realizing that Murakami's choice to compare Toru to a vacant house could have been to follow up on the abandoned Miyawaki house. Similarly to the latter, it is as though there has been a spell cast upon him: NW the cat runs away, Kumiko leaves him, and soon after it is as though Toru's whole world has abandoned him. This is why the abandoned house analogy is so intelligent: he is a body without a soul, numbed for a long while before he finally decides to rebuild a new life; a home, when abandoned, becomes only a house- it has all of its functions, but it is lonely and has no real essence or character until there is (human) life in it.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering whether the symbolism of the sneakers could have another deeper meaning to it as well- perhaps Murakami chose tennis shoes to symbolize Toru's new and old lives because, in Toru's new life, he cannot stop himself from "running away" from normal society..?
Correction: comment was directed to Siham!
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