Commentary on Gender Norms in Murakami's story "Sleep"

By Angelina Not (Lina)

I wanted to write this blog post dedicated to analyzing Murakami’s story “Sleep”. I know the abrupt and vague ending is something that is common to stories that Murakami writes, but the final scene in this story left me especially curious. My personal understanding of why she had insomnia in the first place was because she had went through sexual assault. This is only hinted towards the end of the story where the topic is brought up through the policeman cautioning her about a case of assault and murder around the neighborhood. In the final scene she also recalls an uncomfortable situation in the car with one of her boyfriends, which I felt like was a repressed memory related to sexual assault. I feel like her not being able to sleep with her husband and fall asleep in general may all be just another connection to how she does not feel safe around men anymore after the experience. 

Notably, this is one of the few stories where I felt like Murakami was making a statement on how little we have advanced in terms of not putting women into restricted boxes of their roles as mothers or wives. If we think of the story as a whole, a possible understanding of it would be that it is an allusion to women being stripped of their individuality by being mainly defined through their roles. In this story the character is finally able to focus on herself by indulging in the things she loves doing such as swimming, reading, and eating chocolate with brandy. But as a result of focusing on herself she is in turn cut off from the rest of the society, in her case she gets cut off from her friends, her husband and her child. 

Further, throughout the story she starts to feel amazed at how much freedom and satisfaction she gains by choosing to reject the more traditional roles that women often define themselves with. In her insomniac state she starts seeing all her housewife or motherly duties as nothing more than routine. With the realization that she is confined in her role she starts feeling more beautiful and empowered when her mind is focused on things that she enjoyed doing before her married life. The insomniac state therefore was a liberating and eye-opening experience where she was able to enjoy life without the societal expectations that are often still pushed on women today. I think that the final scene of the car being rocked by the men from the outside is supposed to be reminiscent of rocking a crib almost like trying to make her go to sleep. This would symbolize a societal response, specifically from men, to trying to make her go sleep or in other words not allowing her to liberate herself from the constraints of the gender norms.