Boku and its uncertain walls

 In City and its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami, Boku’s journey into and out of the city and the consequences of his journey highlights Murakami’s views on the human psyche. Upon entering the city, Boku loses his shadow. The shadow, described as a profound part of a person, contains their memory, desire, and emotional depth. Boku eventually leaves the city and recombines with his shadow. Yet Boku still does not feel complete and he changes his life in an attempt to fix this emptiness. Boku’s lingering dissonance aligns closely with the concept of the integration of the shadow in Jungian psychology. For Carl Jung, the shadow represents the repressed, unacknowledged parts of the psyche that the conscious self refuses to confront or take responsibility for. Crucially, Jung argued that merely encountering the shadow does not constitute integrating it. Truly integrating your repressed desires with your conscious self requires an ongoing, often uncomfortable process of recognition and acceptance. Boku, though physically reunited with his shadow, has not fully assimilated it within his conscience. The result is a persistent sense of estrangement, where the pieces of Boku’s identity no longer fit together without being detrimental to his way of life. Murakami suggests that wholeness is not achieved in a single moment of reunion. Rather, it remains fragile and uncertain, much like the city and its lack of description. Boku’s unease upon his reunion reflects the deeper belief that confronting one’s inner darkness does not restore simplicity, but rather complicates the self in irreversible ways.

-Bradley