Murakami + Parallel Worlds - Sloane

 Hi everyone,

As I've been getting through Norwegian Wood, certain aspects of the story have made me contemplate a lot about how Murakami tends to incorporate aspects of parallel worlds into his writing. Or maybe parallel existences is a better term?

I first got started thinking about this when I read about how Naoko and Toru spontaneously meet at the train station and go on their walk around Tokyo. Toru emphasizes that Naoko walks ahead and he trails behind in her wake. After they stop into the noodle shop, we really begin to feel a disconnect between the two of them. On page 21, the back-and-forth goes something like this:

N: "Does this make any sense to you?"

T: "Everybody feels like that to some extent. They're trying to express themselves and it bothers them when they can't get it right."

Naoko looked disappointed with my answer.

N: No, that's not it either.

Toru and Naoko are inhabiting the same space after having spent the whole afternoon together, but even after talking it seems they are not much closer than before. This is why I call their existences parallel: they are side by side without truly interacting on a level at which they can understand one another. Even when they sleep together (and are as physically "close" as you can possibly get), immediately afterward, Toru asks her why she never slept with Kizuki. This is the completely wrong thing to say, and Naoko begins to cry. Even after all the time they spent together, Toru doesn't understand Naoko's fears and thoughts. After this, we see Naoko go off to Ami Hostel, a physical manifestation of the diverging paths inside of them.

We've seen this pattern outside Norwegian Wood as well. In "Tony Takitani," Tony and his father consider themselves too different from one another to spend much time together, though their paths do still cross from time to time in Tony's childhood and after Tony's marriage. "Drive My Car's" Kafuku enjoys a happy marriage with his wife but realizes there are aspects of her life she won't share with him (her affairs). Even Murakami's own memoir about his father shares this theme -- Murakami details how he had many memories of his father, but they were mostly neutral. Over time they drifted apart as Murakami didn't prioritize studying as much as his father wanted him to, but in the end they came to an understanding of sorts, even if it was awkward. I wonder if the feeling associated with that memory of disconnect is what inspires this repeating theme in his work, if at least on a subconscious level.

To end on, I'm wondering if the well Naoko mentions at the beginning of the story could have something to do with this. She specifically warns against falling down the well, leading Toru to imagine his plight if he did -- slowly starving to death in the dark as he looked up at the brightness of the well opening, knowing nobody would come to rescue him. In this way, could getting trapped in the well be seen as something of a parallel existence itself? At the bottom, you can see a glimpse of the world above you, but can only access it if someone comes to help you back up into it. Yet nobody wants to stray off the beaten path for fear of falling in themselves. Maybe the well is a metaphor for the world of our private inner turmoil, which others oftentimes don't want to pry into too much for fear of getting in too deep (AKA falling into the well).