If cultures are considered unifiable by way of shared stories, it is not inconceivable that cultures may be connected through distinguishable but ultimately similar histories of shame. Whether or not these histories force upon cultures the role of...

Haruki Murakami, Japanese author of The Wind Up Bird Chronicles, has many characters who all have influential aspects on the protagonist Toru Okada. But one particular character, May Kasahara, is one minor character who has a critical effect on...

The people in one's life are often more important in shaping one's future than the choices of that individual themselves. In Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood, the protagonist, Toru Watanabe, encounters various women who influence him and alter his...

Thrusting into the world of Tokyo in the 1960’s, Norwegian Wood is a novel by Haruki Murakami, which was published in 1987. At first seeming very foreign and obscure, Norwegian Wood proves that even over a span of nearly five decades, not much...

Sexual desire is a word that brings confusion to the mind of Sumire in Haruki Murakami's Sputnik Sweetheart. This sexual desire takes a while for Sumire to comprehend but as the novel continues it is seen that she comprehends it when it comes to...

Sputnik Sweetheart is a novel that allows the reader to contemplate the complex personalities of human, and how they view themselves in reality. It is not only a tool to understand the character’s realities, but the reader may also use the...

Dreams and dreaming permeate Murakami’s works, and After the Quake is no exception, so much so that we can witness layers of dreams in his fiction. Such layering is reminiscent of the dream-within-a-dream-within-dreams dynamic of Christopher Nolan...