The Sheep Man Cometh Not

    In Murakami’s writing and some of his influences, mirrors are essential to the story. Just before the Rat’s arrival, the mirror in the house at the end of A Wild Sheep Chase helps Boku realize that the Sheep Man may not physically exist in the last visit. Similar to our discussion about pulling away the cloth draped over a mirror, Boku’s cleaning of the mirror reveals something about the “mirror world” (322), or enables him to see that he is alone in the house. After the Sheep Man’s initial visit, Boku speculates: “The area was being swept clean and purified. Something was about to happen” (308). He cleans the entire house, and only after finishing, he finds the mirror, the only exceptionally dirty item out of the lot. Upon examining the mirror, Boku exchanges possession of free will between himself and his reflection. Here the mirror is set up as a window to an alternate reality which he later uses to discover that the Sheep Man does not cast a reflection. This confirms his suspicions of the shared mannerisms between the Sheep Man and the Rat, leading to his declaration that the Rat will arrive in the evening. Although Boku indicates that he knows the Rat will be there, it seems more likely that Boku was telling the Rat through the Sheep Man that they must meet before Boku leaves the mountain the following day. It is an interesting coincidence that the timing of the Rat’s appearance aligns with the Secretary’s arrival. “Sixth sense”, as the man in the black suit suggests (345). Out of all the otherworldly occurrences in this novel, the last Sheep Man appearance being part of Boku’s mind, along with the dreamlike conversation with the Rat, doesn’t seem so unlikely. Additionally, the Rat makes no entrance, and their conversation is held back to back—a parallel to Boku’s interaction with his mirror self face to face. With this interpretation, Boku’s time alone in the house is a process that allows him to accept the Rat’s disappearance, end his sheep chase, and leave the mountain. He is disinterested in the Secretary’s check and the chauffeur’s description of the Boss’s funeral as a result. I am reminded by this—and the mention of "fourty-two" 4 times in reference to the amount of time passed after the Sheep Professor was abandoned by the Sheep—of a line in the song “42” (released in 2008, definitely not an influence): “Those who are dead are not dead / They're just living in my head”. Perhaps just as the mirror was never there in “The Mirror”, nor was the Sheep Man in the end.

 River