Mamet 1

Amin Mamet

Professor Jon Beadle

English 115

1 November 2020

Project Text: Monstrous Self vs. Society

In our world, psychological problems should not be taken lightly as they can have

traumatic effects on the individual self and on society. When it comes to this commentary, the

short stories “The Silence” and “The Mirror” by Haruki Murakami present psychological trauma

as the idea of the monstrous. The story “The Mirror” is about a man that suffers a horrible fright

when he sees himself in a mirror, and this story presents the idea of the monstrous as coming

from the self which is similar to self-hatred/self-fear. The other story, “The Silence,” is about a

man that goes through severe social isolation in highschool, and it presents the idea of the

monstrous as coming from society which is similar to social isolation. In its presentation of the

monstrous as coming from society, the essay “The Silence” by Haruki Murakami is the most

monstrous due to its portrayal of severe psychological trauma that is not really seen in “The

Mirror.”

Although having major differences, the monstrous as coming from self and the monstrous

as coming from society do have a key similarity in which they both cause some form of

ever-lasting psychological trauma on a person. For example, in “The Mirror” the protagonist

truly believes that “the most frightening thing in the world is our own self” (Murakami 60),

while in “The Silence” the protagonist states that the people who experience being socially

isolated/outcasted are “changed men, like it or not...they change for the better and they change
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for the worse” (Murakami 305). By looking at the quotes, it is clear that the monstrous as coming

from self and as coming from society have a clear similarity in causing people to undergo life

changing events. In “The Mirror” the protagonist is terrified to come in contact with his

reflection, while in “The Silence” the protagonist completely loses his sense of trust for people,

he suffers from anxiety, and he has a form of PTSD. Although the effects are clearly different,

the similarity is found in the fact that these psychological effects exist. On top of that, when

looking at the real world we can see that the monstrous coming from self, also known as

self-hatred, and the monstrous coming from society, also known as social isolation, have another

similarity in which they can actually be catalysts in each other's formation. Self-hatred can lead

to a person distancing themselves from others leading to social isolation and further negative

effects. The combination of self-hatred and social isolation can cause people to commit self-harm

and suicide at a higher rate than only having one. Overall, the main similarities between the

monstrous self and monstrous society come from the trauma they cause to a person.

When it comes to looking at the differences between the monstrous self and monstrous

society in the two stories, it is absolutely clear that the monstrous as coming from society is the

most monstrous. The major difference comes from how the protagonists were overall

psychologically affected by either self-hatred or social isolation. In “The Mirror,” the protagonist

states that “the most frightening thing in the world is our own self. What do you think? You may

have noticed that I don’t have a single mirror here in the house” (Murakami 60). The quote

shows that the deepest psychological impact the protagonist had while encountering his inner

hatred was that he no longer had any mirrors in his house. Although, the removal of all mirrors

does signify that there is at least some form of deep psychological trauma that the protagonist is
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too afraid of encountering again. However, compared to the psychological impacts on the

protagonist in “The Silence,” the loss of mirrors is just a tiny nuisance. In “The Silence,” the

protagonist undergoes being completely socially isolated, and he describes it as a life-changing

event, one which he could never come back from. While talking about these changes he states

that

“It's impossible, in my own mind, to believe in people...we're living a good life right now,

but if something were to happen, if something really were to come along and yank up

everything by the roots...I don't know what I'd do... Last time, it was only six months, but

the next time?...When I think of these things, I really get shaken up. I'll dream about it

and wake up in the middle of the night. It happens a little too often, in fact. And when it

happens, I wake my wife up and I hold on to her and cry. Sometimes for a whole hour,

I'm so scared" (Murakami 305).

The quote shows that the monstrous as coming from society can leave horrifyingly negative

effects on a person’s mind. The protagonist lost a fundamental sense of trust for other people and

for himself. He no longer knows what he would possibly do if he had to encounter being isolated

the way he was ever again. The thought simply keeps him up at night and even causes him to

break down and cry due to the fear. On top of that, studies show that the effects of social

isolation “​decreased inflammatory control, immunity, sleep salubrity which all together

contribute to higher rates of morbidity and mortality in older adults” (Cacioppo 17). It is very

likely that if the protagonist was to ever experience social isolation again it would ultimately lead

to his death. In these two stories, the monstrous as coming from society is clearly much more
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monstrous than the monstrous as coming from the self as losing mirrors and being somewhat

afraid of yourself doesn’t compare to PTSD level psychological trauma.

It can be argued that living in constant fear of your own self is actually much more

monstrous than the effects of isolation. As stated in the book Philosophy of Fear, “fear can also

become dysfunctional. It does so when a disparity arises between fear and its object, or when it

causes us to ‘lose our heads’” (Svendsen 21). In “The Silence,” the fear of himself has caused the

protagonist to become somewhat dysfunctional and lose his mind. By removing every single

mirror and no longer coming in contact with one shows that the protagonist has some form of

insanity and mental instability because of the great amount of fear he felt. To some, insanity is

seen as more monstrous compared to trauma from isolation. However, the argument is

completely invalid when looking at the individual effects of the monstrous in the stories. The

protagonist of “The Mirror” is not actually living a life of daily fear. By removing all mirrors

from his house it symbolizes his subconscious fear of himself not one that he dwells on on a

daily basis. The protagonist of “The Silence,” on the other hand, lives a life with constant trauma

and worries that he will end up alone again. It affects him to the point where he cannot sleep

peacefully which clearly shows it is not a subconscious thought like the other protagonist.

The story “The Mirror” could never portray a more monstrous idea than “The Silence”

because most, if not all, human beings would rather lose looking at mirrors than spend every

night waking up in traumatic cold sweats. In conclusion, when it comes to looking at the

monstrous self versus society in the two short stories “The Mirror” and “The Silence,” it is clear

that the monstrous as coming from society is much more monstrous when it comes to the

psychological trauma it inflicts on a person.

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Works Cited

“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.

Cacioppo, John T., et al. “Social Isolation.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol.

1231, no. 1, 2011, pp. 17–22., doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06028.x.

Svendsen, Lars. A Philosophy of Fear, Reaktion Books, Limited, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central,

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csun/detail.action?docID=618775.