Sleep and The Little Green Monster are one of the very few of Murakami’s works where the protagonist is a woman. Coincidentally, non-human creatures appear in front of these characters. In Sleep, there is an old man pouring water on the protagonist’s feet during her sleep paralysis, and in The Little Green Monster, a green monster digs up from underground to tell the woman he loves her. After reading both stories as well as Murakami’s other novels, it seemed to me that Murakami’s female characters are closely related to desire, especially those that are forbidden or repressed.
In both stories, the old man and the monster are not actual creatures, but are a visualization of the protagonist’s unconscious mind. They are part of the characters that they shut off for a long time. In the case of Sleep, the old man is actually a symbol of her hatred towards her husband and her son. Despite loving them both, a part of her hates them a little, knowing she should not feel that way. In The Little Green Monster, the monster represents some sort of desire for love or maybe her sadistic nature. Whichever one it is, these creatures are hidden behind the logical, conscious mind. Their appearance only during sleepless nights or through digging upwards into the garden show that they are the result of unconscious thoughts.
Even in Norwegian Wood, Midori talks about her forbidden sexual fantasies very often, and Reiko represses her sexual attraction towards her student. All that led me to think: in Murakami’s world, women and desire seem to be closely connected.
No comments:
Post a Comment