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Irshad Zahidi

Professor Beadle

ENGL 115

02 November 2020

Project Text Final Essay

The theme of monstrosity is quite the relevant topic in today’s world. The most important

debate is deciding if it is society, or the self, that is truly the most monstrous figure. The short

stories “The Mirror” and “The Silence” are the focal points, as each story covers one side of the

spectrum. “The Mirror” is a story about a young security guard, or watchman, who works night

shifts at a local school. His nights usually consist of a perimeter check every few hours, but it is

just a routine as he rarely witnesses anything out of the ordinary. One night, though, he sees a

mirror in an unusual location. This ‘mirror’ ends up representing the guard’s self and the fear he

undergoes when thinking about his inner disconnection. The second story, “The Silence,” is

about a boy named Ozawa and his rival Aoki. Ozawa and Aoki were two students who disliked

each other to the point where Aoki blames Ozawa for bullying a student to the point of suicide,

simply to get revenge for a past scuffle. The rumor floods the entire school, and soon Ozawa is

shunned by every student, teacher, and administrator. Despite both stories involving very serious

instances of loneliness, “The Mirror,” by Haruki Murakami presents itself as the more monstrous

story due to the fears of both introspection and inner loneliness. Although “The Silence,” also by

Murakami, displays the effects society can have on an individual’s mental health, it is proven

that the greatest monstrosities are ultimately those of self-infliction.

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The first reason why “The Mirror” is the more monstrous story is because of the common

tendency for people to fear the process of introspection. In this story, the main character was a

security guard who was on the hunt to find what was disturbing him. What he found, however,

was his greatest fear of all; himself. He comes to the realization that the reflection he thought he

saw “looked exactly like [him] on the outside, but… definitely wasn't [him]” (Murakami 59).

What the author means by this is that when he looked within, he saw the worst possible version

of himself. This idea then connotes the bigger picture that people fail to recognize themselves

when they undergo thorough self-observation. This relates to the ongoing discussion regarding

the fear of the self, led by Dr. Frederick Aardema and others. In a journal entry titled “Fear of

Self and Obsessionality: Development and Validation of the Fear of Self Questionnaire,”

Aardema and his colleagues explain that an individual may be uncomfortable or afraid of their

inner self because they are “reflecting a fear [of] who the person might be – or might become”

(Aardema). The group’s hypothesis of self-fear supports the claim that the entirety of one’s true

self is unknown even to the individual, so the effects of the self are more monstrous than the

effects of society. When comparing the self to society, the major difference is predictability.

Society is predictable in the sense that it follows trends, but the actions of the self are

unforeseeable due to the perspective and situation always changing. Introspection can lead to

realizations of both physical and emotional loneliness.

On the topic of physical and emotional loneliness, the second reason why “The Mirror” is

the more monstrous story is due to the fact that self-inflicted loneliness can have various

negative effects on an individual. Although loneliness is also a prevalent theme in “The Silence,”

it is ultimately “The Mirror” that displays the concept in a more effective way. In the former,
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main character Ozawa had to deal with his entire school thinking he was guilty for something he

had no part in. Naturally, no one believed him, and he was shunned by students, teachers, and

administrators alike. Rather than focusing on the common use of the term ‘loneliness,’ which is

in regard to the way people treat (or do not treat) an individual, “The Mirror” is more centered

around loneliness within oneself. This, in fact, can be the most detrimental loneliness of all.

Unlike social loneliness, in which one feels disconnected from others, personal loneliness forces

someone to feel disconnected from themselves. Loneliness: A Social Problem, a book written by

author Keming Yang, explains how these feelings differ and why it is just as important (if not

more) to recognize and address personal loneliness. In chapter 4 of the book, Yang notes that

distance from society is not the direct contributor to internal loneliness, stating that the “decrease

in communities and the increase of [physical] aloneness” is actually a good sign and is unrelated

to feeling internally lonely (Yang 66). This quote from Yang is significant because it suggests

that one’s community or society does not have a great impact on loneliness. Therefore, it is more

up to the person themselves to feel lonely or not, revealing a sense of control over one’s

emotions. The point brought up not only supports “The Mirror” being more monstrous in

highlighting the importance of the self, but also refutes “The Silence” by claiming that society

does not have as great of a monstrous effect as thought before. Despite the accuracy and insight

provided by the reasons given thus far, there is still a counterargument in favor of suggesting that

society can have more monstrous effects on an individual.

The opposing side may argue that society can have more monstrous effects on an

individual because the deeds committed by society are out of the individual’s control. However,

the reality is that the self’s internal monstrosities are more extreme because they stick with them
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and can only be solved intrinsically. When society negatively singles out an individual, the

person being targeted often still has someone that will empathize with, or at the very least, care

enough to inquire about their situation. In “The Silence,” Ozawa mentions that his “folks got

worried and asked [him] what was wrong” (Murakami 302). Although Ozawa did not explain his

difficult situation to his parents, he still had the opportunity to do so. This supports the idea that

the society-inflicted loneliness of “The Silence” is not as monstrous because it does not

completely encompass a person. On the other hand, however, when an individual is dealing with

problems of the self, they are completely alone, as nobody understands their situation even in the

slightest. In “The Mirror,” the only significant character that the author mentioned was himself, a

young security guard working the night shift at a school. His fear of being alone, although not

stated explicitly, can be observed by the way he “walked faster than usual down the hallway…,

squeaking [his shoes] against the linoleum floor” (Murakami 58). This was a deliberate strategy

used by the author to emphasize that he was not only afraid of being physically alone in the

school, but also of being emotionally alone in his life.

Overall, even though “The Silence” displays the effects society can have on an

individual’s mental health, it is proven that the greatest monstrosities are ultimately those of self-

infliction. “The Mirror” presents itself as the more monstrous story due to the fears of both self-

introspection and loneliness. It displays the detrimental effects an individual can have on

themselves, especially when provoked by the unknown. Although monstrosity can reveal itself in

various ways, the leading effect of it is loneliness. While being lonely is never a favorable

situation, it can be concluded that self-inflicted, not society-inflicted loneliness, has a more

pernicious effect on an individual’s mental health.

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Works Cited

Aardema, F., Moulding, R., Radomsky, A. S., Doron, G., Allamby, J., & Souki, E.

(2013). “Fear of self and obsessionality: Development and validation of the Fear of Self

Questionnaire” [Abstract]. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 2(3), 306-

315.

“The Mirror” by Haruki Murakami. Copied from Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman,

published by Vintage Books in 2006.

“The Silence” by Haruki Murakami. Copied from The Elephant Vanishes, published by

Vintage Books in 1993.

Yang, K. (2020). Loneliness: A Social Problem. Routledge.