In short, the main character in this novel reminds me of a young college kid who has no idea where they’re going in life. He’s the kind of person who stays out until 3am only to find out they have to go to a dead-end job (a pointless thing created by man to pass time) at 8 am on a Saturday. The way he doesn’t tell the reader his name during his narrating of the story does imply he is possibly either too apathetic to bother with important details—or maybe names aren’t important. However, he does seem as though he has plenty relationship stories to tell. Through the divorce and now his ‘ear girl’, women have an effect on him, so much so that he talks about them for the first part of the book. Who knows. Either it’s all that’s going on in his life or that’s all he cares enough about to explain to people. The fact of the matter is if he is only focusing on love, it just reinforces his nonchalant ways of coasting through life in his un-planned state.
Then again maybe he is not just a waste of effort. Firstly, he did go to college, right? Yes, a lot of lazy people go to college too, but some of his rants do come out to be fairly philosophical. Secondly, why would a book be written about some guy with a crummy job who has a girlfriend with interesting ears? Maybe this whole sheep mystery will reveal his true meaning of life.
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Any hunches on what Murakami thinks is the true meaning of life? Is it doing something that alters the course of history (i.e. Napoleon or Caesar) or just loving somebody with all your heart (corny, I know, but it's a widespread belief shared by many people)?
ReplyDeleteI think that the fact that no one as names could be a way to make the book more relatable. That way he stresses the events and relationships more than personality. You also said that his life is unplanned, but since his life is so ordinary, wouldn't that be like a plan?
ReplyDeleteI basically agree with everything you said. At first I struggled to believe that his relationships were all that he had going on in his life, but as I keep reading I believe that more and more. 'Nonchalant' is a very good way of describing him. He really just doesn't care. I would be very disappointed if at some point the main character's 'true meaning of life' doesn't come out.
ReplyDeleteThe meaning of life is interesting to think about. So far in this novel, it is somewhat suggested that maybe there is no meaning of life (for ordinary people anyhow). I mean this guy has nothing going for him, like he's caught in some endless cycle of everyday life.
ReplyDeleteDid you guys happen to notice that there have been given no given names in this book? It makes me wonder, I mean, I spend the beginning of my books trying to decipher which character is which and what their names are and how I should spell them on my next reading quiz... but i think the absense of names calls us to really name the characters on our own with things other than their titles.
ReplyDeleteHave you guys ever heard of the saying "your love life may seem exciting to you but not to others" well I think that saying should go down the drain. This character's whole life basically revolves around his woman fetish. I thought he would get the hint and wait for a woman to be totally and completely in love with him, unlike the others, before he started taking notice (no normal guy should do this unless he will be writing about his girlfriends in his autobiography without telling people about himself).
ReplyDeleteI think it would be funny if his job was actually the head of the mafia or something.