Lindsey Arnold

ENG3500
2-3-2021
Man vs. Self
Haruki Murakami introduces the reader to an intricate world of various students and

complicated people in his novel Norwegian Wood. The characters all go through many struggles

and have difficulties overcoming them. In fact, many of them do not end up overcoming them at

all but rather giving into them in the worst way. They are unable or unwilling to move past their

personal demons because they are not putting any conscious effort into doing so. They all focus

their energy outside of themselves, when the real way in which to help heal others is to first help

heal oneself. Others cannot heal with your help if you, yourself, are withering.

The first character in this novel to fail in overcoming dark thoughts is Kizuki. He sets the

scene for a novel of hardship and struggle in the main characters of Toru and Naoko. Naoko,

however, is the first character whom the reader is really able to gain insight into. Her relationship

with Toru should be something that allows for her own healing, but instead it seems to hinder her

because it takes away from her need to rely on herself. She focuses too much of her attention on

him, expecting that he will be able to heal her. In the end, it only hurts both of them though. She

asks him to always remember her, setting herself up for the end of her life from the start. She

plans the world after her death, giving herself closure before she is even gone, making sure that

she can separate herself from the world while still being a pat of his. At one point, while she is in

the facility, Toru remembers her twentieth birthday, saying, “That had happened only six months

earlier, but it felt like something from a much remoter past. Maybe it felt that way because I had

thought about it so often – too often, to the point where it had distorted my sense of time” (107).

The reader can see here how Toru is also suffering from his placement of healing in Naoko’s
hands. He has put so much into helping her, that he has forgotten that he must help himself. She

gains nothing from him while he is also weak, and he gains nothing from holding onto something

that drains him. He is unable to move on with his life after Kizuki’s death because he keeps

reliving it through Naoko. Similarly, he cannot help her get past it unless he first works on

moving past it himself.

We can see a similar relationship when Toru meets Reiko. Reiko has been in the facility

that Naoko is in for eight years now and is terrified to leave. She has placed so much of her life

into her relationship with Naoko and immediately seems to latch onto Toru when he meets her as

well. She pours out her entire life story to him, seeming to be searching for some solution from

him. In a similar sense, he is the first person she goes to when she finally leaves the facility. She

immediately starts relying on him just as she did with Naoko, and uncoincidentally, never seems

to truly heal. An interesting passage comes during Toru’s visit to see Naoko. He begins a walk

with Reiko and she comments that it smells like it is going to rain. Apparently, after you have

been in the facility for a while, you can tell by the smell of the air. They have a long talk and

then Toru comments on their way back that, “Now, I realized, like Reiko I could smell the rain”

(161). This is a very subtle comment on Murakami’s part that Toru is being pulled down by his

relationships with others who are healing before he has healed himself. The ability to smell the

rain is attributed as being one with the facility of unhealed souls, suggesting that both Reiko and

Toru are now part of that picture. Neither of them are healed by focusing on each other instead of

taking the time to first focus on themselves.

Another example of this type of relationship is Toru and his friendship with Nagasawa.

They seem to have the start of a decent friendship towards the beginning of the novel when they

begin to bond over literature, but their relationship turns to something darker as they spend more
time together. They turn to a lifestyle of partying that Toru has not heretofore really experienced,

and it is a way of living that hinders his healing as a person. He finds himself living this life

because of his friendship with Nagasawa even though it is not who he is. Nagasawa is

perpetuated in his behavior by the fact that it is acceptable by both Toru and his supposed

girlfriend, Hatsumi. However, once Toru starts to really look within himself towards the end of

the novel, he is able to suggest to Hatsumi that she remove herself from the situation and from

the toxic relationship she has with Nagasawa. Toru hinders himself up until this point, though, by

allowing himself to perpetuate that situation. He is asked to accompany them to a celebration

dinner, thinking “Oh no, it was Kizuki, Naoko, and me all over again” (202). He finds himself in

the exact same situation of the third wheel being brought down by a toxic relationship all over

again. Through trying to help them fix their problems before he has fixed the memory of his

own, he puts himself in the exact situation that disallows healing. He is a part of their toxic trio

once again sporting different names but exact circumstances.

The only relationship that we can see in the novel in which Toru finds himself acting in a

manner to allow his own healing is with Midori’s father, a relationship which surprises the reader

in its honesty and healing. It is helpful to both Toru and to Midori’s father even though they are

only just meeting and never get to meet again. This is a relationship that Toru does not expect

and does not get to venture more deeply into, but it is still one of the arguably most important

ones for him in the novel. The scene is set with Midori bringing Toru to the hospital without

warning to see her dying father. He takes it in stride and goes in. Midori’s sister has gotten the

wrong food for their father and so she finds cucumbers in the grocery bag. They are not offered

to him because they are thought improper. However, when she leaves, Toru starts eating the

cucumbers himself. He seems to be the first person caring for himself in the midst of these dying
people because everyone else is so focused on others. Surprisingly, however, by channeling his

energy on taking care of himself, Toru inspires Midori’s father to do the same. He sees the

enjoyment Toru takes from the cucumbers and wants to be part of that. This has to be my

favorite scene of the novel because the reader can clearly see how by allowing time to care for

himself, Toru is finally able to help someone else. He is finally strong enough to show others that

it is better to choose life than death. Not only does this experience help her father though; it also

helps Toru. He thinks later on, near the end of his story, “When my teeth crunched down on my

cucumber slices, I thought of Midori’s father, which reminded me how flat and tasteless my life

had become without Midori” (257). Remembering this feeling of contentment that he had

inspired within himself and her father allows him to continue recognizing the right decisions to

make and the ones to choose in order to help himself heal.

The characters in Norwegian Wood are struggling people who try and fix their problems

by involving others. This can be helpful to healing, but by putting all of their cards into each

other’s piles, they fail to put some into their own. Instead of relying on themselves to do the

healing, they pass that effort off onto others. The difference can be seen only near the end when

Toru begins to look within himself and chooses to be alive. He speaks mentally to Kizuki, saying

“Unlike you, I’ve chosen to live… I always used to think I’d like to stay seventeen or eighteen if

I could. But not anymore… I have to pay the price to go on living” (248-249). Toru looks within

himself and finds the strength to rely on his own effort to keep him going. He chooses life by

choosing himself before anyone else. Like he says, he chooses to live.

 Works Cited

Murakami, Haruki. Norwegian Wood. New York, Random House, September 2000.