Extreme Isolation within Murakami's "The Ice Man" - Angus

Loneliness is a common theme found among many Murakami works, but none come as close as the loneliness experienced by the protagonist in "The Ice Man". As an "Ice Man", Watashi's husband is emotionally unavailable and can only hold onto the past, as the past is the only part of time that has already happened. He never even talks about himself, which leaves Watashi with zero idea of who he is, where he comes from, and who his parents are besides the fact that he is just "The Ice Man". This isolation and loneliness continues to develop throughout the short story: her mother and sister have cut off communication with her, and her husband slowly starts to become a different type of Ice Man, one that she did not marry. Upon taking their vacation to the South Pole, she doesn't understand the complex grammar of the its inhabitants, while her husband is easily able to pick it up. Even with her child, she has that same dreadful feeling that he will be born as an "Ice Man". All this repetition is Murakami's way of making the readers well aware of how isolated Watashi has become, geographically, physically, and mentally. Even though her husband comforts her while she cries and tells her that he does in fact love her, he does nothing to help prevent Watashi's descend into complete isolation. All he does is turn her tears to ice, and once they've frozen over he eats them, as if he is sucking out the very essence that makes Watashi herself. Similarly, he could have at least helped her learn the language of the South Pole's inhabitants so that she could feel more at home, and yet he never even offers. 

After reading "The Ice Man", it seemed to me that Watashi in "The Ice Man" is the complete opposite of Watashi in "Sleep". On Wednesday, someone in class was discussing how women are often forced to suppress their emotions and sever their body in mind to conform to society's idealized standards. This idea came to mind immediately after realizing the devastating situation that the Ice Man's Watashi was forced into. In regards to her situation, she tells the reader that, "My heart is just about gone now. The warmth I used to have has retreated somewhere far away. Sometimes I even forget that warmth ever existed. I'm still able to cry, though. I'm completely alone, in the coldest, loneliest place in the world." She has lost all the warmth that she once had within her life, the warmth that made the Ice Man's Watashi her own individual. In contrast, Sleep's Watashi is able to experience a completely new awakening, causing her to start taking the time she has in her life to her advantage and doing things she wants to do. She drinks Brandy and eats chocolate, two things she rarely did after she got married, and even sat down to read a book, something she also stopped doing when she got married. While she is able to completely redefine her life in her own terms, The Ice Man's Watashi is forced to sever her connection to the warmth she once felt in order to survive within the South Pole, one of the most far off and coldest places on earth.