In this novel, literary elements are quite eminent. It makes sense really. If one is to make a commentary on life (such as this book is doing), it’s almost imperative that there be literary elements to depict it adequately. For instance, to show the general feeling of bland emotion: “The rain kept falling at the same rate. From my hotel window, through the neon signs of the building next door, a hundred thousand strands of rain sped earthward through a green glow. If I looked down, the rain seemed to pour straight into one fixed point on the ground,” (119). First off, this quote describes the rain very well. I know the exact position of the main character looking out the window when the author writes how the rain fell “straight into one fixed point on the ground”. Secondly, the sheer simplicity of describing the rain fall captures our characters somewhat melancholy emotional state. The description of rain has a pretty consistent pattern of popping up whenever the main character is deep in thought, or if something serious happened.
Since scenes like these are used so often in this novel, that not only the physical state of the scene is portrayed, but the emotional connotation also allows the reader to find a duel meaning. This way the author only has to write one sentence (or paragraph) to get the message across.
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I don't understand how that quote has any connection whatsoever to the protagonist's "melancholy" attitude. He's merely describing what the rain looks like when it falls... Sure, there's some pretty powerful imagery going on, but just because it's raining doesn't mean the main character is depressed.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the need for the elements in this kind of book otherwise I think it would be much more of a PR learning book rather than a novel. I did not notice that there were rain descriptions when he was depressed or deep in thought.
ReplyDeleteI think that rain itself usually describes something depressing, so that might be why we think that the character is sad. However, while some authors may use things like rain to symbolise the charcter's mood, I don't think that Murakami is trying to do that. If anything he is showing how separate they can be.
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