The Negative Effects Of Suicide In Norwegian Wood By Haruki Murakami

In Japanese culture suicide is looked upon as honorable. In the novel Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, Murakami looks at the negative effects of suicide. The novel does not give clear indications of why Kizuki commits suicide, but it shows the effects that suicide had on his friends Toru and Naoko. Naoko also takes her own life and Toru is left behind to mourn her death. The effects of suicide on his friends are isolation, emotional instability, and not being able to let go of the past. The cause of these effects are suicide. Kizuki decided to commit suicide. “Kizuki had left no suicide note, and had no motive that anyone could think of”(24). Many people did not understand why he decided to kill himself. Naoko also decided to kill herself

Toru sleeps with multiple women. “Not especially. It’s just something you do. Sleeping with girls that way is not that much fun.” (207). Toru sleeps with multiple women as a way of dealing with his loneliness. Naoko has a hard time writing to Toru. “I try my best to set aside a time in the week for writing to you, but once I actually sit down in front of the blank piece of letter paper, I begin to feel depressed” (234). Naoko feels depressed writing to Toru because he reminds her of her past. She has so much trouble writing to him that she eventually asks Reiko, her roommate at the mental hospital, to write to Toru on her behalf. When Naoko dies Toru withdraws and runs away. “Where I went in my travels, it’s impossible for me to recall … Exhausted from walking, I would crawl into my sleeping bag, gulp down some cheap whiskey, and go right to sleep” (271). Toru became depressed and had to leave until he could control and define his

Toru only thinks of the past. “My memory remained fixed on the dead rather than the living” (276). Although Naoko was dead, all Toru could think of was her and the memories he had made with her. Toru could not accept that he had Midori. “Naoko was dead, and Midori was still here. Naoko was a pile of white ash, and Midori was a living, breathing human being” (276). He loved Midori but could not accept her because he thought he would betraying Naoko by moving on with his life. The world was moving on while Toru was grieving for the loss of Naoko. “The people around me had gone on ahead long before, while my time and I hung back, struggling through the mud. The world around me was on the verge of great transformations” (236). Toru was struggling to let go of Naoko and move on. Twenty years later Toru still holds on to the memory of his friends. “I straightened up and looked up and looked out the plane window at the dark clouds hanging over the North Sea, thinking of what i had lost in the course of my life: times gone forever friends who had died or disappeared, feelings I would never know again” (3). He promised Naoko he would never forget her, so part of him will always live in the past. Everytime he hears Norwegian Wood he reminisces about his past. The novel revolves around the effects of suicide. While many people in Japan admired and glorified suicide, Murakami tried to show the negative effects of suicide.