For one, both Boku in A Wild Sheep Chase and Toru in Norwegian Wood heavily suffer from this problem. Boku's obsession with tracking down the Rat ends up costing him the love of his girlfriend and the stability of his own life. He uses the existence of the Rat and the sheep as an excuse to shy away from the present reality. Toru suffers this problem of "passivity" more clearly, as Toru plays a sidelined role throughout the majority of the novel. This is primarily shown in his relationship with Midori. Near the end of the novel, when Midori cuts her hair to get Toru to pay closer attention to her, Toru stays oblivious to the matter at hand. Toru's lack of conviction infuriates Midori to the degree of her writing an angry letter to him telling him to leave her alone. In the letter, she writes about Toru's various shortcomings in his relationship with her, saying at one point, “All you had to say was “Cute hair,” and I would have been able to forgive you.” (Norwegian Wood, 252) Toru's inability to even compliment Midori sends her into a frenzy, justifiably so. How could one claim feelings of "love" if said love is never reciprocated?
This illness of "passivity" appears throughout the rest of Murakami's literary canon in various ways. Kafuku, the protagonist of Drive My Car, never decides to pursue why his life ended up being unfaithful to him, sleeping with Takakutski. We later on find out that Kafuku ended up being proactive in his "investigation", but not towards his wife, But Takakutski, after his wife's death. Kafuku's self-loathing for not being "good-enough" for his wife causes him to actively seek out why his wife ended up cheating on him, leading him to form a "friendship" with Takakutski. Although with impure intentions at first, Kafuku slowly builds a bond with Takakutski. Near the end of their meetings, Takakutski attempts to be sympathetic towards Kafuku's feelings of loss, with Kafuku shouting back and being befuddled at how Takaktuski could understand despite not even being her husband. In return, Takakutski gives an impassioned speech to Kafuku, in which he essentially tells Kafuku that his obsession with uncovering his wife's secrets stems from cowardice to face himself, stating that in order to move on from his wife, Kafuku would have to "look inside your own heart as perceptively and seriously as you can, and to make peace with what you find there. If we hope to truly see another person, we have to start by looking within ourselves." (Drive My Car, 34) Kafuku's lack of trust in his wife stemmed from his lack of trust in himself, which is what led to Kafuku never confronting his wife about her infidelity.
All in all, passivity is the killer of the spirit. Lack of assertion in one's own life prevents a person from truly living. Boku, Toru, and Kafuku end up as "incomplete humans" due to the lack of conviction in their words and actions. Thus, Murakami urges his readers to live in truth, lest the curse of Passivity lead one to their own grave.
-DK
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