This research paper offers a study of the popular Japanese writer Haruki Murakami’s novel After Dark (2004) and retraces the inherent human instincts through the exploration of the psyche. A psychological explanation is given to the violence of human beings by associating it with the psychological devices, mirror, and mask. These devices reflect the inner psyche, the primitive animal self of an individual. Jung’s tripartite division of human psyche- anima/animus, shadow, and persona is also discussed in the paper by drawing parallels with the novel. The stressed and pressured psyche is the reason for the outburst of human violence, and this is proved through the paper. The darkness assists the man and therefore the inner consciousness takes …show more content…
He always thought of a world outside Japan which he witnessed through the jazz music and Hollywood movies. His writings always deal with the aspects of philosophy and existentialism. According to his friend Kazuo Ishiguro, his works have "the bizarre, anarchic style" and "the very controlled, melancholy approach” (In Dreams 1). His works stand as an example of blurring of genres; it is an amalgamation of science fiction, fable, realism etc. They exist as a chain of allegorical symbols; every piece brings an insight into the …show more content…
He had once compared the human psyche to that of a two-storeyed building which has two basements. On the first floor, every one remains together. Then comes the basement, a room that is not used every day, but one uses it to store necessary things. The second basement consists of a special door that leads one to darkness. This darkness signifies inner psyche or the unconscious of an individual. Murakami’s reference to the psyche is very similar to Jung’s dream of the unconscious, which he mentions in his Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962). Jung interpreted this dream to be the unconscious or the inner psyche of an individual. He dreams of himself inside a house which is finely furnished. He went and explored the house; every room, and even the cellar. The walls seemed to represent the Roman times. “Thick dust lay on the floor, and in the dust were scattered bones and broken pottery, like remains of a primitive culture” (Jung 197). Jung interpreted this dream to be the unconscious or the inner psyche of an
Fear is a part of everyone’s life, but it is how it is handled that makes all the difference. In the story “The Seventh Man” by Haruki Murakami, a tragedy consumes a young boy and stays with him for many years. As the story continues, the narrator eventually realizes that he has to face his fear in order to lead a normal life. In “The Seventh Man”, Murakami develops the theme that one should face his or her fear with the use of similes, imagery, and symbolism.
...Jung, whose assertions not only help in the clinical aspect, but in the search for the common message in all of human literary (this includes oral) tradition. Hawthorne’s Gothic shows, whether conscious or not, the underlying conflict that lies within the people of his time as well as the time in which each of his stories take place. It is with this that the key to understanding the self lies within the commonly untapped recesses of the unconscious, an uncomfortable and unnerving concept for everyone, particularly those that have many things to hide.
In the favela of São Paulo, Brazil, 1958, Carolina Maria de Jesus rewrote the words of a famous poet, “In this era it is necessary to say: ‘Cry, child. Life is bitter,’” (de Jesus 27). Her sentiments reflected the cruel truth of the favelas, the location where the city’s impoverished inhabited small shacks. Because of housing developments, poor families were pushed to the outskirts of the city into shanty towns. Within the favelas, the infant mortality rate was high, there was no indoor plumbing or electricity, drug lords were governing forces, drug addiction was rampant, and people were starving to death. Child of the Dark, a diary written by Carolina Maria de Jesus from 1955 to 1960, provides a unique view from inside Brazil’s favelas, discussing the perceptions of good
Although the book has many stories to tell, all with something in common but yet with a different feature, the point of the book was to not only educate the world about these situations but to also give us real scenarios that we all can relate to in some sort of fashion. This book is about the human mind and the abstractness of our visions and memories. Everything affects us physically and mentally. We all share a common feature; we are all simply human with simple human minds.
...plains what Jung meant by the collective unconscious it makes sense. It is our ancestors, culture, and previous experiences that make up our schemas, and if one of the “important” values is suppressed the unconscious tries to bring it out through our dreams.
The human experience is a special one; The conscious human ability to observe and perceive the world in ways beyond simple or primary observation was brought upon by the rapid evolution of humans, and has helped us grow into the modern beings we are: complex; layered; empathetic, and thoughtful. With these uncommon and advanced qualities comes the realization that there are many ways of viewing our world (man’s world), for all humans develop consciousness; and each individual is shaped by the experiences, knowledge and wisdom of both themselves and others. This quarter we analyzed the theme: a different view of man’s world, through various forms of literature including: Lord of the Flies by William Golding, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka,
The novel Night demonstrates that the human spirit can be affected by the power of false hope, by religion, and that one will do whatever it will take to survive for oneself and family.
In Night, he informs his reader of many examples on how a myriad of good people turn into brutes. They see horrific actions, therefore, they cannot help by becoming a brute. They experience their innocent family members being burned alive, innocent people dieing from starvation due to a minuscule proportion of food, and innocent people going to take a shower and not coming out because truly, it is a gas chamber and all f...
Carl Jung was a Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist who developed many theories concerning the unconscious mind. Jung’s theories state that the unconscious part of a human’s psyche has two different layers, the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The personal unconscious is unique to every individual; however, the collective unconscious “is inborn.” (Carl Jung, Four Archetypes, 3) The collective unconscious is present in everyone’s psyche, and it contains archetypes which are “those psychic contents which have not yet been submitted to conscious elaboration” (Jung, Archetypes, 5); they are templates of thought that have been inherited through the collective unconscious. Jung has defined many different archetypes such as the archetype of the mother, the archetype of the hero, the archetype of the shadow, etc. These Jungian archetypes are often projected by the collective unconscious onto others. If the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving is examined through a Jungian archetypal lens it is possible to discern different archetypes projected by the protagonist’s unconscious self to illustrate the effects of the collective unconscious on character and plot analysis.
For the most part, these images of violence, promiscuity and human degradation are explained away by psychologists, mythologists, sociologists, philosophers, and non-fundamentalist theologians as symbolic manifestations of the human psyche. This is an assertion that could be supported, in no small part, by the manifestations of the human psyche we see in our own violent, erotic and chaotic dreams.
Over the course of history, violence amongst men has shaped the world in which we live through wars, political protests, or social conflicts. Sadly, enough, this is a factor of human nature which resides in all individuals and cannot be controlled or avoided. Not only have these events of man’s inhumanity been documented, but they have also become the underlying theme for many well known works of literature. Both Golding and Wiesel shed light on the immorality of mankind’s actions by putting it under close scrutiny, leaving the reader left to wonder how human beings are capable of so callously hurting and killing one another.
When this story is viewed through Sigmund Freud’s “psychoanalytic lens” the novel reveals itself as much more than just another gory war novel. According to Sigmund Freud psychology there are three parts of the mind that control a person’s actions which are the id, ego, and superego. Psychoanalysis states that there are three parts of the human mind, both conscious and subconscious, that control a person’s actions. The Id, ego, and
Violence appears in many different shapes and forms and in some cases; it is hard to escape violence. As unfortunate as it sounds, everywhere we turn, all around the world, there is a footprint of violence in our society, in our workplace and in our home. There are many homes where parents beat each other and beat their children. There are many places where people are verbally and physically abused by others. There are also many places where racism reigns and people are hurt and violated because of their skin color, religion or gender. In The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the author does not only talk about violence, she also shows us how a person confuses love with violence.
In the Story Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami, Toru Watanabe is a lonely middle aged Japanese man who finds himself engulfed in nostalgia upon hearing a cover of the popular Beatles song “Norwegian Wood”. The powerful memories of his experiences seem to be connected to the song as he relates to the song in many aspects as a youth but triggers dark memories in him as an adult. The novel is autobiographical and the narrator, Toru, gives an account of his past life and experiences in college with nostalgic emotions especially for his young loves. He remembers himself as a peaceful, independent Japanese undergraduate student in the 1960s, who begins to fall in love with Naoko after Kizuki (Naoko 's sweetheart and Toru 's closest companion) commits suicide. Unfortunately, Naoko is overpowered with her life 's weights and her grief for Kizuki and hence rejects Toru 's friendship for the isolation she finds inside of her own contracting and separated world inside a sanatorium. The rejected Toru reluctantly contacts Midori, a candid and sexually confident young lady who is everything that Naoko can 't be. Throughout the story, Toru recalls each of the other significant people in his life at the time, each of them grappling with loneliness in their own ways. The novel is a deep
A. Michael. Matin. Introduction to Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2008. Print.