Post #3

 While reading The 1963/1982 Girl from Ipanema, I was puzzled by Murakami’s reference to The Strawberry Statement. The Strawberry Statement by James Simon Kunen is a book detailing Kunen’s experience as a 19-year-old during protests and takeover of the dean’s office at Columbia University in 1968. Murakami writes that this girl he used to eat salads with was convinced that if everyone ate enough vegetables “the world would be a place of beauty and peace, filled to overflowing with love and good health. Kind of like The Strawberry Statement” (Murakami, 9). I found this especially interesting, because upon reading some of The Strawberry Statement, the world does not seem filled with love and good health. The students are ultimately arrested and subsequently released. Kunen describes how the students boost each other’s morale, even in jail, singing folk songs (Kunen, 57) and later greeting former cellmates with “handslaps” (Kunen, 57) in a show of continued solidarity. 

However, even with these seemingly positive outcomes, the book also seems to highlight the morally confusing and haphazard nature of the protests. As far as vegetables are concerned, the nearest thing I found was the direct reference to strawberries which stems from a quote made by Herbert Deane, the vice dean of graduate facilities at the time, who stated, "Whether students vote 'yes' or 'no' on a given issue means as much to me as if they were to tell me they like strawberries." This inflammatory remark helped fuel the protests at the time. After making his comparative statement, Murakami jumps immediately to a discussion of the metaphysical, immediately quoting a philosopher who may or may not exist. 

He does not return to themes of protest or a perfect place where lots of salads are eaten and everything is beautiful and peaceful. However, he does express a longing for a unity of self -- perhaps some world where our convictions are perfectly in line with our existence. “In that place, I am myself and myself is me. Subject is object and object is subject.  All gaps gone. A perfect union” (Murakami, 12). Perhaps this longing for the world to be more authentic and simple -- for values to be reflected in oneself, one’s actions, and one’s surroundings -- is what The Strawberry Statement refers to, as a journey toward a more authentic, moral existence in which individuals act to unite reality with their conception of how reality should be. 

Natalia Kelley