This is a short story by Haruki Murakami, which is part of his book of short stories entitled, “The

Elephant Vanishes”. This is a stylistics review I made for my literature class, and I hope will help
students or readers better understand the complexity of this short story. It offers a fresh
(hopefully) perspective on the interpretation because most online reviews emphasise the
romantic aspect of the story. I won’t give a long introduction about this because my review
(around 7 pages) is quite enough for readers to understand the story using stylistics.
On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning is part of Haruki Marukami’s
Elephant Vanishes, which is a collection of short stories he wrote between 1983 to 1990. They
were translated and then published in English in 1993. Murakami’s writing style is well
manifested in this collection; the stories combine normality with surrealism and involve themes
such as, destruction, loneliness, confusion, and loss. His short story On Seeing the 100% Perfect
Girl One Beautiful April Morning keeps faithful to this and through a very simple encounter in a
narrow side street in Japan, Murakami is able to tell a beautiful story of guy who longs to have
the courage to approach a girl.
On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning tells the story of a guy who met
his 100% perfect girl on a fine April morning in Japan’s fashionable Harujuku neighborhood.
Throughout the story the guy recounts the ideas that came up in his mind while walking
through the narrow side street. While walking, he thought of several scenarios on how to
approach the woman and engage her in a conversation.
Murakami’s decision to put half of the story in the first person point of view allows the reader
to understand the inner thoughts of the man and get inside his mind. Through his ideas we see
a guy whose main conflict or struggle throughout the story is how he will approach a girl.
However, at the surface the story may look like an ordinary occurrence for most guys, the story
of this guy has underlying meaning and shows a lot about his personality. The reader is given a
glimpse of a guy who is shallow, lonely, and lacks self-confidence. This is a guy, who at 32 years
old is still involved in the fantasy world and is too engrossed in his imagination. He does not
have the maturity and the confidence to approach the woman that he likes. At the same time,
his fantasy of love is very shallow since he has concluded from seeing the woman 50 yards away
that she is the 100% perfect girl for him. At the same time, his experience on seeing his 100%
perfect girl is not something unusual by reading the conversation he had in the story with
someone whom he retold the encounter. In order to better analyze the inner workings of this
man’s mind, it is significant to look at the story more closely and analyze it.
First of all, the title of the story is very catchy. It draws the reader in because it leaves us
hanging and wanting to know what happens to the guy when he saw the girl. Moreover, the
title is a dependent clause, which simply affirms the first observation. Upon reading the title,
the reader will try to figure out during the story what happened when he passed by the girl.
This is similar to the questions posed by the person whom the guy retold the story to. It is also
important to note the verb used in the title, “seeing”, which does not connote much as
compared to “meeting”. This already gives a clue to the reader that probably nothing deep
really happened.
Second, before going into a deeper analysis of the story, it is important to note that there were
no names mentioned in the story. The 100% perfect girl was not named in the story and was
simply referred to as that or the 100% girl. He also mentioned that she is not close to a girl
actually because she looks to be near thirty. It is worth looking at the noun he used because
instead of referring to the girl as a woman he stuck with the word “girl” even though he already
rejected the idea that she is close to a “girl” by saying “not even close to a girl”. A girl is
described in most dictionaries as someone who is a young female and is not mature yet. In this
case, the woman is almost thirty, which could show that is she not really young as compared to
teens or kids who reflect the “girl” definition. At the same time, this already could give a
glimpse to the personality of the guy because it probably reflects his maturity level. That he
does not want to refer to the “girl” as a “woman” because by then she would be mature.
Although Murakami wrote this in the 1980’s, it is still worth looking at it in the perspective of
today’s definition of the term. HBO currently has an award winning series entitled Girls and
viewers see the portrayal of girls such as, 26-year-old Lena Dunham and her friends on how
puerile or immature they could be. On the other hand, an article in Harvard’s Crimson (Pelet,
“In and Around Language: Girl vs. Woman”) described woman as,
‘Woman,’ then, serves as a contrast to this youthful depiction of females. Second-wave
feminists, especially, preferred the term: they emphasized the drawbacks of using a term like
‘girl’ when talking about females, for it implies a certain docility that they believed stripped
women of control. In any case, ‘woman’ is meant to indicate an acquired sense of maturity and
self-respect that ‘girls’ lack.
Therefore, by looking at the term used to describe the 100% perfect girl, it somehow reflects
the level of maturity of the guy because when one looks for a match it should definitely suit
their level.
Furthermore, it is not only the term “girl” that should be considered because it is also very
striking that the person whom the narrator talked to is referred to simply as “someone”. The
person was not even referred to as a “friend”, whom one would normally expect to have a
conversation such as this with. In this case, naming that person simply as “someone” supports
the probability that the narrator could not actually build up a normal relationship. At the same
time, the brief dismissal of this “someone” during the conversation simply shows that s/he is
not too concerned with what happened. If this had been a friend, there would have been more
concern involved or even a pretense that the person is interested in the encounter. Although it
is also good to note how the conversation took place to better understand the dismissal of
“someone” about the 100% perfect girl since it could show a deeper understanding of why that
person simply dismissed the story.
In the conversation, the guy told someone that he passed by the 100% girl. It is noticeable that
the conversation is cut up into phrases, which is typical in a conversation. However, there are
also plenty monosyllabic words used by the narrator during the exchange. By studying the verbs
and adjectives, one could be given more insight on why the conversation was very brief and
bored the person the guy was talking to.
Haruki Murakami uses literary devices to effectively deliver the theme of his work: true love
always finds its way; if it fails to do so, it's not true love. The narrator, whose name is not
revealed, meets a girl during his youth whom he believes to be his 100% perfect girl. Both
doubting the possibility of love at first sight, they say goodbye hoping that if they are meant for
each other love will bring them back together. Fourteen years later, suffering of memory loss,
they meet again on the street but unlike their first encounter, they walk past each other
without saying a word. Yes, destiny physically crossed their lives again, but emotionally they
remained forever strangers. The setting – geographical, historical, physical location, and
atmosphere – and symbolism – indirect representations – play a crucial role in helping to see
beyond words and understanding the theme by allowing the reader to feel present in the story.
The physical setting in which the boy and the girl meet for the first time helps the reader
visualize a casual encounter in a romantic atmosphere, filled with joy. They do not meet in any
random place, but specifically on "the corner of a street" (472). Corners result from
perpendicular lines, which by definition, always intersect in a perfect ninety degree angle. In
other words, the young boy and girl were destined to meet each other at the intersection,
trapped in an emotion that made the very moment seem perfect; love. As they confess what
their young hearts believe is true, that they are each other's true love, they move to an equally
romantic setting. They do not sit on a bench by a bus stop, for instance. They sit on a park
bench where they unite holding hands (472). A park is where many couples like to spend time
because it is a simple, yet relaxing interaction with nature and with each other. Sitting at a
coffee shop would not create the same romantic ambience that a park, a lake, or any other
natural setting would. A coffee shop would be a better place for two friends with solely
friendship intentions to meet and have a talk.
When the boy and the girl meet again fourteen years later as adults, geographical, historical,
and physical setting work together to evoke the reader's imagination into why the moment
seems ideal, but still fails to reunite their hearts. Setting is important because it is repeated
throughout the story. The three types of setting are expressed in the very first sentence, "One
beautiful April morning, on a narrow side street in Tokyo's fashionable Harajuku neighborhood,
I walk past the 100% perfect girl" (470). In order to understand the theme, the author finds it
vital that the reader is provided with this information as early as the first sentence and even the
title of the story. The time of the year and day could completely change the response a reader
has of the story. Specifically, the encounter takes place on an April morning; the heart of Spring.
This season brings warmer days that produce sprouts in previously dried plants and trees. It's
the season in which colorful flowers grow, the skies are clear, and birds sing louder creating a
sense of joy and happiness. The morning creates an image of a sunrise which shapes a feeling of
romance and new beginnings. The neighborhood in Japan is described as fashionable. One way
of picturing this is a street full of people wearing different, colorful, costumes that make it hard
for them to stand out from one another. The girl doesn't look especially different from them.
The moment when they pass each other again occurs "in front of a flower shop" (471). Why not
a coffee shop? Because the flowers represent their love. However, the flowers are no longer
growing; they are cut just like their fantasy love. Even though in their youth they felt the
strongest kind of love they had ever felt, fourteen years later they walk by each other without
saying a word. They are no longer each other's 100% perfect boy and girl.
In order to make the reader believe how strongly the boy felt that the girl was 100% perfect for
him, symbolism comes in play. What the symbols represent varies on the background and
personal experiences of each reader. For example, thorns of a rose might symbolize the
hardships and pain to some, but protection to others. The narrator of this story puts an
emphasis on how, despite his attraction to girls' noses, he cannot even recall if this 100%
perfect girl had one (471). The nose is one of the most noticeable features of a face. In a girl, it
contributes to her level of beauty; a big or small nose, relative to the face, makes her more or
less physically attractive. Usually first attraction of the opposite sex is that of physical
characteristics; however, the boy in the story makes it clear that his feelings for the girl were
not physical. The feeling of true love he felt without having talked to her before was incredibly
strong that he did not notice the one thing he likes the most on girls; her nose. When they find
each other again in adulthood, he notices that she carries a "white envelope lacking only a
stamp" and then assumes it contains a letter (471). A letter is generally longer than a note,
which in this case represents the long time that has passed and her story – the experiences that
shaped her life. It's in a white envelope because her life is unknown to the boy. He wishes to
know its content by talking to her, but afraid that his memories will be destroyed by reality, he
chooses not to. Even though he is ignorant of what her current feelings are, he believes that he
is the missing stamp to complete her letter; her life story. If he truly was, they both would have
stopped to talk about their true love.
Although the narrator mostly focuses on the romantic, almost unrealistic, side, the story
transitions to reality and the overall theme with the help of symbolism. Just like the setting,
there is an emphasis through repetition of the fact that she walks to the east and he walks to
the west (471). Even though they both believe they are each other's true love and eventually
will be brought together by destiny, both times (when they first say goodbye and when they
meet again on the street) they walk in opposite directions. This foreshadows that their lives are
not going, and will not end, on the same path. It is significant when they walk past each other
because, unlike their very first encounter, they walk on parallel lines in opposite direction. By
definition parallel lines never intersect; they were not meant to cross their lives a second time.
This could be a reason why even when he felt the strong need to talk to her, he remained quiet
and walked away. It was the work of destiny. After showing the cruel reality, he ends his story
by referring to it as a sad one (473). A first impression could be that he is regretful of letting the
love of his life go, after destiny did bring them together, for fear that he will be rejected.
However, he calls it a sad story because even though in their youth they truly believed in a love
fantasy, the reality of fourteen years later is that they are not each other's 100% perfect lovers,
and they know this. Yes, he blames their failure on the loss of memory they suffered, but in
reality this incident would not matter when it comes to true love. They did not know, or had
any memory of, each other when they first met to begin with. If it had been true love, they
would have felt the love at first sight again despite of unfamiliarity with each other.
In order to have a better understanding of the theme of a story, the reader must be able to
fully engage in the text as if being present in it. Writers use literary devices such as imagery,
simile, and personification to help the reader sense the emotions and feel the action, creating a
better reading experience. In the short story by Haruki Murakami, the two most important
literary devices that contribute to the central idea are setting and symbolism. He successfully
conveys the point that true love will find its way regardless of obstacles such as time and
memory loss. The boy and girl were then carried by infatuation, a strong attraction mistaken for
love, and that is a sad story.Haruki Murakami uses literary devices to effectively deliver the
theme of his work: true love always finds its way; if it fails to do so, it's not true love. The
narrator, whose name is not revealed, meets a girl during his youth whom he believes to be his
100% perfect girl. Both doubting the possibility of love at first sight, they say goodbye hoping
that if they are meant for each other love will bring them back together. Fourteen years later,
suffering of memory loss, they meet again on the street but unlike their first encounter, they
walk past each other without saying a word. Yes, destiny physically crossed their lives again, but
emotionally they remained forever strangers. The setting – geographical, historical, physical
location, and atmosphere – and symbolism – indirect representations – play a crucial role in
helping to see beyond words and understanding the theme by allowing the reader to feel
present in the story.
The physical setting in which the boy and the girl meet for the first time helps the reader
visualize a casual encounter in a romantic atmosphere, filled with joy. They do not meet in any
random place, but specifically on "the corner of a street" (472). Corners result from
perpendicular lines, which by definition, always intersect in a perfect ninety degree angle. In
other words, the young boy and girl were destined to meet each other at the intersection,
trapped in an emotion that made the very moment seem perfect; love. As they confess what
their young hearts believe is true, that they are each other's true love, they move to an equally
romantic setting. They do not sit on a bench by a bus stop, for instance. They sit on a park
bench where they unite holding hands (472). A park is where many couples like to spend time
because it is a simple, yet relaxing interaction with nature and with each other. Sitting at a
coffee shop would not create the same romantic ambience that a park, a lake, or any other
natural setting would. A coffee shop would be a better place for two friends with solely
friendship intentions to meet and have a talk.
When the boy and the girl meet again fourteen years later as adults, geographical, historical,
and physical setting work together to evoke the reader's imagination into why the moment
seems ideal, but still fails to reunite their hearts. Setting is important because it is repeated
throughout the story. The three types of setting are expressed in the very first sentence, "One
beautiful April morning, on a narrow side street in Tokyo's fashionable Harajuku neighborhood,
I walk past the 100% perfect girl" (470). In order to understand the theme, the author finds it
vital that the reader is provided with this information as early as the first sentence and even the
title of the story. The time of the year and day could completely change the response a reader
has of the story. Specifically, the encounter takes place on an April morning; the heart of Spring.
This season brings warmer days that produce sprouts in previously dried plants and trees. It's
the season in which colorful flowers grow, the skies are clear, and birds sing louder creating a
sense of joy and happiness. The morning creates an image of a sunrise which shapes a feeling of
romance and new beginnings. The neighborhood in Japan is described as fashionable. One way
of picturing this is a street full of people wearing different, colorful, costumes that make it hard
for them to stand out from one another. The girl doesn't look especially different from them.
The moment when they pass each other again occurs "in front of a flower shop" (471). Why not
a coffee shop? Because the flowers represent their love. However, the flowers are no longer
growing; they are cut just like their fantasy love. Even though in their youth they felt the
strongest kind of love they had ever felt, fourteen years later they walk by each other without
saying a word. They are no longer each other's 100% perfect boy and girl.
In order to make the reader believe how strongly the boy felt that the girl was 100% perfect for
him, symbolism comes in play. What the symbols represent varies on the background and
personal experiences of each reader. For example, thorns of a rose might symbolize the
hardships and pain to some, but protection to others. The narrator of this story puts an
emphasis on how, despite his attraction to girls' noses, he cannot even recall if this 100%
perfect girl had one (471). The nose is one of the most noticeable features of a face. In a girl, it
contributes to her level of beauty; a big or small nose, relative to the face, makes her more or
less physically attractive. Usually first attraction of the opposite sex is that of physical
characteristics; however, the boy in the story makes it clear that his feelings for the girl were
not physical. The feeling of true love he felt without having talked to her before was incredibly
strong that he did not notice the one thing he likes the most on girls; her nose. When they find
each other again in adulthood, he notices that she carries a "white envelope lacking only a
stamp" and then assumes it contains a letter (471). A letter is generally longer than a note,
which in this case represents the long time that has passed and her story – the experiences that
shaped her life. It's in a white envelope because her life is unknown to the boy. He wishes to
know its content by talking to her, but afraid that his memories will be destroyed by reality, he
chooses not to. Even though he is ignorant of what her current feelings are, he believes that he
is the missing stamp to complete her letter; her life story. If he truly was, they both would have
stopped to talk about their true love.
Although the narrator mostly focuses on the romantic, almost unrealistic, side, the story
transitions to reality and the overall theme with the help of symbolism. Just like the setting,
there is an emphasis through repetition of the fact that she walks to the east and he walks to
the west (471). Even though they both believe they are each other's true love and eventually
will be brought together by destiny, both times (when they first say goodbye and when they
meet again on the street) they walk in opposite directions. This foreshadows that their lives are
not going, and will not end, on the same path. It is significant when they walk past each other
because, unlike their very first encounter, they walk on parallel lines in opposite direction. By
definition parallel lines never intersect; they were not meant to cross their lives a second time.
This could be a reason why even when he felt the strong need to talk to her, he remained quiet
and walked away. It was the work of destiny. After showing the cruel reality, he ends his story
by referring to it as a sad one (473). A first impression could be that he is regretful of letting the
love of his life go, after destiny did bring them together, for fear that he will be rejected.
However, he calls it a sad story because even though in their youth they truly believed in a love
fantasy, the reality of fourteen years later is that they are not each other's 100% perfect lovers,
and they know this. Yes, he blames their failure on the loss of memory they suffered, but in
reality this incident would not matter when it comes to true love. They did not know, or had
any memory of, each other when they first met to begin with. If it had been true love, they
would have felt the love at first sight again despite of unfamiliarity with each other.
In order to have a better understanding of the theme of a story, the reader must be able to fully
engage in the text as if being present in it. Writers use literary devices such as imagery, simile,
and personification to help the reader sense the emotions and feel the action, creating a better
reading experience. In the short story by Haruki Murakami, the two most important literary
devices that contribute to the central idea are setting and symbolism. He successfully conveys
the point that true love will find its way regardless of obstacles such as time and memory loss.
The boy and girl were then carried by infatuation, a strong attraction mistaken for love, and
that is a sad story.
This story is about the strangeness of the idea of true love. What are the odds we will ever
meet ‘the one’ if there is only one. How would we know if we did meet them? In the second
part of the story, the words ‘believe’ and ’miracle’ are repeated many times in quick succession.
Love is, ‘a miracle, a cosmic miracle’. The repetition emphasises the sheer scale of perfect love,
‘cosmic’ suggesting both the divine and scientific bases of love. Yet it's also a very 'ordinary',
even 'boring' day to day event. Ordinariness is juxtaposed with fairytale and cosmic miracle, to
show how we construct love in imagination, and in reality.
In the first section, Murakami asks whether if we met the 100% person, how could we have the
guts to make something of it, let alone speak to them, and if we did, what if we weren’t ‘the
one’ for them? He lingers in the one moment of passing her on the street as if time stops and
fate is hanging in the balance. He imagines her dialogue in crisp detail: ‘Sorry, she could say, I
might be the 100% perfect girl for you, but you’re not the 100% perfect boy for me.’ The
balanced construction sets his feeling she is ‘100% perfect’ against its antithesis - ‘you’re not
the 100%… for me’. This shows how unlikely love is, that it is so easily cancelled out, even
though he has achieved the unlikely figure of 100% perfection. The narrator’s fears are
exaggerated by how perfect he thinks she is. ’100%’ is too much, as is the following metaphor:
‘This was something sure to be crammed full of warm secrets, like an antique clock built when
peace filled the world’. This is an impossible image, and may suggest the dangers of needing
perfection: you’re sure to be disappointed, or paralysed in the face of it. His vision is attractive
though, and in a way, we want to believe with him, that this is possible.
The story is dominated by a wistful longing, which we see in the words ‘perfect’ and ‘beautiful’
in the title and also the word ‘dream’. He describes himself in third person in the second section
as an 'ordinary lonely boy', as if he can only see himself clearly with distance, longing to be
completed by the 'ordinary lonely girl' who makes up the other half of the sentence. He says
they were 'like all the others' as if the entire human condition is of loneliness longing for love.
Interestingly, most of the actual ‘events’ happen in the fairytale, making a sharp point about
the extent to which dreams can ruin reality, how ideas are fine, but at some point, they need to
be translated into action. One reason this story can feel frustrating is that nothing actually
happens. Like the ‘someone’ who the narrator tells his story to, we feel annoyed at the
narrator. Doesn’t he see for it to be a story, for love to exist, someone has to do something? It’s
ironic that it’s only in the fairytale section that anything ‘actually happened’. In the first section,
the narrator’s fears surface that she ‘wouldn’t believe’ and ‘might not want to talk to me’, with
heavy use of the subjunctive (could/would/should) to show that he’s lost in fearful possibilities.
He details his imaginary nervous breakdown - ‘I’d probably go to pieces. I’d never recover from
the shock’ - with almost as much vivid care as he details the girl. Murakami may be showing the
dangers of love in general, but also in this specific case, the man seems to live overly in his
imagination.
This isn’t a story of ‘meeting’, it is only a story of ‘seeing’. The narrator insists it is important,
though nothing happens and he can give no suitable reasons why she is ‘perfect’. When asked if
she’s good-looking, he ‘can’t remember’, ‘can’t recall’ and is ‘no great beauty’. The depth of his
analysis is ‘it’s weird’ or ‘strange’. Even before he’s finished telling his story to ‘someone’, they
are ‘already bored’. His listener needs reasons, or action, listing verbs the man might have
done: ‘do’, ‘talk’, or ‘follow’. The man says casually ‘nah’. Even he makes it seem unimportant
when he says ‘just passed her.’ This echoes the first sentence. ‘I walk past the 100% perfect
girl’. The first sentence contains the only event in the entire story. Even in the present tense
(walk), it’s already ‘past’. The notion that a man and woman in their thirties can be ‘boy’ and
‘girl’ adds to the detached, child-like feel. Perhaps he isn’t ready, emotionally to engage with
the adult world: he’s trapped in a helpless immature state, telling fairy stories rather than
actually doing something about it.
The woman does feel real though. He details her cleanly, and critically: as ‘not that good
looking’, ‘doesn’t stand out’ and ‘her hair is still bent out of shape’. This immediately
establishes that the woman isn’t objectively ‘100% perfect’, but she is ‘100%’ for him: which
means she is 100% perfect, because from his point of view, that’s all that matters. The
narrator’s language is chatty and he appeals directly to the reader where he says ‘tell you the
truth’, as if he’s inviting us to share in the question of love. The whole story deals with the
philosophical questions around finding true love. Murakami also deals with the question of
whether love is rational. Though the ‘girl’ isn’t ‘even close to a ‘girl’’, his reaction is physical and
instant: ‘The moment I see her, there’s a rumbling in my chest.’ It’s a gut reaction. That’s all we
need to know. He says - sheepishly - that he has no evidence, and asks us simply to believe that
she is perfect. Through this, Murakami invites us to share in the experience of love: it’s blind
faith, without logic, happens instantly and doubt always lingers. Also, one person cannot write
it alone, hence the ‘someone’s frustration: someone has to act. Love is a relationship, and
cannot be generated in one person’s imagination alone. It has to get out into the real world,
and stand real tests, not the dysfunctional fairytale test devised in the second section.