Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood

Many avid readers, even non-Japanese ones, are probably familiar with (or have, at the very least, heard of) Japan's most renowned contemporary fiction writer, Haruki Murakami 村上春樹(1949-).  I had heard the name myself only a handful of times, especially in connection with surrealism and dystopian societies.  But this semester, my Japanese literature professor assigned one of Murakami's older works entitled Norwegian Wood ノルウェイの森.  Published in 1987, this novel catapulted Murakami to international fame.  But what struck me as peculiar was how the book itself was not one of these surreal re-imaginings that I knew Murakami to be so fond of.  Rather, it was a simple, autobiographical-sounding tale of a young man, Toru, a young woman, Naoko, and their connection to a friend and boyfriend, respectively, named Kizuki--who, at the beginning of the novel, suddenly, and for no apparent reason, commits suicide.

My research on the sociological aspects of suicide in Japan has revealed some startling facts about suicide's moral implications and social utility.  But this modern novel in particular offers a unique and complex take on the age-old topic.  Instead of using suicide to establish a seamless conclusion to a narrative, such as author Matsumoto Seichou does in his 1960 novel Nami no Tou (see previous post), or to reiterate traditional  values of self-sacrifice and honor, Murakami illustrates the disastrous snowball effect suicide can have on others.  His novel is a realistic depiction of suicide; it does not laud the act but condemn it, primarily by highlighting the severe aftereffects such an event can have on the people involved.  For Toru and Naoko, Kizuki's suicide does nothing to maintain the group harmony.  Toru and Naoko sustain a peculiar friendship following Kizuki's death, but it is almost unnatural for the pair; Kizuki's presence, it seems, was the fundamental nexus in the trio of friends.

Murakami paints a picture of suicide different from the traditional Japanese values of honor, duty, and self-sacrifice.  In Norwegian Wood, we are never given a direct motivation for Kizuki's suicide.  Wendy Jones Nakanishi, author of "The Dying Game: Suicide in Modern Japanese Literature," asks, "Was Kazuki's suicide in Norwegian Wood attributable to school pressures?"  Perhaps had Murakami clarified this, there would have been a sense of closure for the friends.  But not all suicides have clear motivations behind them, and the ones that don't are often the ones that leave others feeling most dissatisfied.  In other words, Murakami focuses on the effects of suicide rather than the cause.  No longer is suicide simply an effortless slip out of the harsh reality of life; it has consequences on the living and likewise holds the capacity to damage, rather than rectify, lives and/or situations.  The entire novel details Toru's and Naoko's different reactions to Kizuki's suicide--how they try to move on, try to understand what happened, and eventually come to terms with it.  But for Naoko, her boyfriend's suicide can never be rationalized or accepted.  SPOILER: Eventually, she too ends up killing herself.

In his version of literary suicide, Murakami channels the more Western ideas that suicide is not a solution but a problem.  We don't exactly know what Kizuki's problems were, but we do know that his decision to commit suicide becomes a (particularly long-term) problem for both Toru and Naoko.

What I want to know is why certain authors, such as Murakami, want to portray this specific side of suicide.  Instead of reverting back to more traditional depictions of aesthetic or honorable suicide, Murakami suggests suicide is a crisis to be avoided.  Is Murakami simply trying to view suicide from a more realistic lens to appeal to a modern audience?  Are Japanese values of self-sacrifice changing to say that suicide is no longer practical or responsible?