Theme Of Depression In Norwegian Wood

Depression run through Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami as one of the main themes. It drives the character actions, thoughts, and behavior. The causes of depression vary and so does the characters response. For Naoko, her depression comes from both unfortunate events and gene. She responses negatively and isolates herself. Naoko does make some effort toward treating the disease, but it keeps clinching on her and eventually, she ends her life. For Toru and Midori, the factors that contributed toward depression are disastrous events that happen to their loved one. However, while Toru tortures himself with guilt and helplessness, Midori, while having some depressing moments of her own, stays strong and positive. Both Toru and Midori, however,

They also have the tendency to isolate themselves. These symptoms appears most vividly in Naoko. At the beginning, Naoko’s only friends are Kizuki and Toru. She doesn’t speak to anybody else. She finds it hard to actually love somebody because she’s afraid she might hurt them. Even her boyfriend Kizuki is no exception. Even though she loves Kizuki than anybody else, she “never opened to him” and “couldn’t get wet.” (112) The reason for such behavior is possibly due to the death of her sister. After such event, she “don’t want to interfere with anybody’s life” (146) as she’s afraid she might take them with her. People going through depression when they are young have “higher risk of poor outcomes during young adulthood,” (Liu) and it is true for Naoko. She tries to stay strong as she clinch to Toru and make him her boyfriend, even though she never love him. (10) She is very selective of her word and never relax herself. She believes if she does so, she would “fall apart” (8) When Naoko is on a date with Toru, she would walk “with no destination in mind.” (27) Her depression carries her all the way to college and reach its climax at her nineteenth birthday. After Toru accidently mentions Kizuki, Naoko breaks down and runaway. Up until that point, her view of life is pessimistic. She believes “whatever happened- or didn’t happen- the end result would have been the same.” (43) She let

Instead of accepting what life throw at her and separate herself, she stays positive, expecting a brighter future. She views life as “a box of cookie.” (251) She views unfortunate events as if they are bad cookies. When she eats one, she just need to “polish [them] off, and everything’ll be OK.” (251) When she was put into a middle school she doesn’t like, calling it a school for “rich girl,” (60) she describes her way to live as “miserable.” However, instead of giving up, she fought her way through it, unwilling to let it beat her. The fact that her passion for cooking was ignored by her parents and her father saying he would rather trade Midori and her sister for their mother also make her feeling less pity toward their death. She feels “kind of a relief” when her mother died. (69) She takes death somewhat lighter than Toru and Naoko, saying she is “used to funerals.” (196) However, Midori is not completely emotionless. When her father dies, she goes on a trip, wanting to be alone. When she was taking care of her sick father and none of his relatives come to help out, she says she can “feel so bad [she] want to cry, too.” (186) She is also vulnerable, but in the end, her toughness carries Midori through all unfortunate events and she begins a new life with