Murakami and the Great Gatsby

Strecher's article was very interesting as it really helped paint a picture of the overarching themes of identity in Murakmi novels. Even though it talked a lot about novels we have not read in class,  I felt that he covered them effectively enough that I could see the link between the different works. I felt that it was very helpful information in one place for our creative writing pieces. One line that stood out to me was when he talked about the early protagonists of Murakami before "South of the Border, West of the Sun". He talks about how they are all "so absorbed in themselves and their own problems that critics are united in dubbing them jiheiteki, a medical term meaning "autistic" but in this case perhaps better expressed with the idiom "self-centered"  and how his "characters are too out of touch with their society, though this is generally understood to be a symptom of the times." This reminded me a lot of the writing in The Great Gatsby where there is extensive descriptions of people suffering and poverty and more but the main characters pay no attention to any of these things. Both the old and newly rich are absorbed in their own goals and status as a symptom of the roaring twenties. Similarly in Murakami, the early main characters ignore things like the Zenkyoto movement and the suicide of Mishima which act only as background for the stories. This really emphasized another point of similarity between Murakami's writings and his favorite work of literature. I really like how I keep noticing different things about his sources every time we read something new it is truly fascinating. 

Celine