Making references his own

 I am so impressed by Haruki Murakami’s ability to use literary and real world references in his work but make them completely unique and his own. I know he has been doing this for many of the short stories we have been reading—most recently the zoo attack, the bakery attack, the ferris wheel, etc—but those references were not as well known to me. When I saw that we are reading Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Haruki Murakami’s Samsa in Love for this Wednesday, I was honestly skeptical that Murakami’s short story could use such a classic, well-known, and well-written piece of fiction, and turn it into a short story that adds something and feels unique in its own right. But he did it! Just the (seemingly) simple idea of reversing the metamorphosis—having the insect George Samsa turned into in the original, instead turn into George Samsa—really added a unique perspective and insight into the themes of the original story. I think my favorite part of the short story is when the woman says to Samsa, “It’s strange, isn’t it? Everything is blowing up around us, but there are still those who care about a broken lock, and others who are dutiful enough to try and fix it…But maybe that’s the way it should be. Maybe working on the little things as dutifully and honestly as we can is how we stay sane when the world is falling apart” (11). I thought that his short story was a little more hopeful than Kafka’s. Whereas Kafka’s Samsa is alone in his kindness/thoughtfulness, the Samsa in this story is met with the woman’s own thoughtfulness.

-Hallie Baker