While I am also unsure of Norwegian Wood’s ending, I would like to think that Midori becomes a support anchor for Toru just as he was for her and that the final moments of the novel are reflections of the ambivalent state as he navigates grief and love. As Reiko pointed out to Toru in one of her last letters, Toru must come to terms with the inability to please or save everyone and understand that pursuing one’s own desires does not negate one’s love or role in someone else’s life. I enjoyed seeing the Toru’s values and outlook transition from passivity to having more direction; he tells himself that he’s now an adult and must control his own agency.
I felt a lot of sadness while reading the growing pains and losses of various characters. Perhaps my feeling can be more so described as nostalgic even though my life experiences are not comparable to those of Toru, Naoko, Reiko, or Midori, and I think that exemplifies the ability Murakami holds in creating these emotional experiences. While there are many many moments in this novel that made me upset, specifically Toru/Nagasawa’s views of women, I appreciated Murakami’s attempt to navigate and also critique the complexities of these dynamics through Toru in how he begins to define his own values.
Shi Shi
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