Death (blog post 2)

One of the central themes in Norwegian Wood is death, as Toru comments "In the midst of life, everything revolved around death" (25). Kizuki's suicide made Toru realize "Death exists, not as the opposite but as a part of life" (25). Although the statement puts things in perspective and encourages people to live, Toru seems to take it the other direction: ""When it took the seventeen-year-old Kizuki that night in May, death took me as well" (25). I'm not sure what he means by "death took me as well." In the Chinese translation by Shaohua Lin, "took" is translated into "capture," along the lines of "taken something into possession" or "take someone as a prisoner" (Cambridge dictionary). Does Toru submit in the face of death? Is it because of Kizuki's death, which he comments that "In the midst of life, everything revolved around death," that Toru develops a passive attitude (25)? 

The reason I'm looking into Toru's attitude towards death is because of his visit to Mirdori's father. While visiting Midori's dying father, Toru asks Midori to get some fresh air and offers to take care of her father for a couple hours. He helps the sick man with water and food and realizes that he "had developed a kind of liking for this little man on the verge of death" (192). Why does Toru like Midori's dying father, if this man has no relationship whatsoever with Toru? Midori, being his daughter, sometimes cannot bear taking care of his father all the time. Does that have anything to do with Kizuki's suicide and Toru's attitude towards death? 

Chapter 11 brings the death of Naoko. Toru goes on a purposeless trip where he repeats "Death is not the opposite of life but an innate part of life" (273). But he admits that learning of this fact does "no help in facing the next sorrow that comes to us without warning" (274). Toru lives at the end. And I believe one of the important messages that Murakami wants to tell readers is to live, after witnessing deaths, whether it's suicide or brain cancer, happened to our closest friends and family members.

 

Xiaoya