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'Norwegian Wood' by Haruki Murakami: Dealing with Death

 Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami: Dealing with Death

= Mansi Dixit

Death is inevitable and no matter how hard we try we cannot bring back the ones we love. Sometimes some people get affected more than others and grief is just not enough. No matter how hard they try, they cling to the hope of being with them together and bring back those happy memories. But life is unexpected and what’s worse is the questions lingering in mind, like why did they have to go?

When Kizuki commits suicide without even leaving a note, he shatters not only his girlfriend Naoka but also Toru, his best friend, who is the main character of the story. We humans fail to recognise the impact of loss in our lives because of the ignorance of death existing in our culture, leading us to trap the natural processes of grief within that cannot then be unfolded and heal the psyche. Even after years, we see that Toru Watanabe remains horrifyingly ignorant of the deaths and suicides that have left him suffering in a state of half-life. Horrifying, because there are so many people suffering in exactly this state of suspended grief in our world, and this makes the book even more spectacular.

Other than that Naoko’s suicide should also be noticed as during the twenty years of her life, she encountered two deaths. The first one was when her sister committed suicide at the age of seventeen, and Naoko witnesses her dead body at eleven years of age. And Kizuki dies in the same way, six years later. These tragic deaths change her life drastically, even though she tries to cope up with it by managing to go to college, she eventually loses her hope from the world. She later ends her life after three years, struggling to deal with the pain and indicating to the readers that she suffered from prolonged grief disorder. 

Furthermore, the book includes winter, which is a natural metaphor for death. It reminds us that death is natural and excruciating. But like the characters in Murakami's novel, we are born into a culture that hides and denies death. Still later we find Toru Watanabe is given the option of finding real love and a happy life with the vivacious Midori Kobayashi, but at the end we do not know whether he accepts love she can give to him or he carries on in grief.

People suffering through the same pain not only relate to it but can also use it as a guide book. The toughest battle does not lie outside rather inside our hearts. People may look normal and happy and the struggles in our mind cannot be seen. It not only messes with our thoughts but also causes much physical pain and trauma. The more we try to hide and supress it the harder it gets to live with it. Then the question arises: 'Is it all worth it?' To live in the world devoid of values and feelings?  Everything around us revolves with death. All we can do is wait. Wait for it to consume us and finally end all our sufferings as Murakami writes, “from the dead center of this place that was no place.”

In conclusion, we learn that the only way to end the suffering and grief is to let go. Not to cling to the hopes and memories. We cannot leave them behind but we can choose to proceed further in life and remember them on our good and bad days.  What we learn from the book is not only the rollercoaster of emotions and the happenings of life but also the sense of wisdom, maturity and warmth.

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