Haruki Murakami is a writer who has stories that consists of many hidden epiphanies. The main characters come to a realization because of an event and it changes their life dramatically. The experience from the epiphany in each story varies which is why I will just be focusing on one story. The short story "Lederhosen" by Haruki Murakami focuses on a main character who changes her life because of one trip she takes to Germany. The narrator's mother goes on a trip to Germany to visit her sister. She actually stayed there longer than she was supposed to. "Her mother extended the ten days in Germany to nearly a month and a half, with hardly a word back to Tokyo, and when she finally did return to Japan she stayed with another sister of hers in Osaka" (6). The narrators mother did not realize her epiphany until she saw lederhosen put on a man. She did not realize she was suffering or feeling pain until she actually saw what her husband wanted which was the lederhosen. "'That's something even Mother herself didn't understand at the time. It made her defensive and confused. All she knew was, looking at that man in the lederhosen, she felt an unbearable disgust rising in her. Directed toward Father. And she could not hold it back. Mother's lederhosen man, apart from the color of his skin, was exactly like Father, the shape of the legs, the belly, the thinning hair. The way he was so happy trying on those new lederhosen, all prancy and cocky like a little boy. As Mother stood there looking at this man, so many things she'd been uncertain of about herself slowly shifted together into something very clear. That's when she realized she hated Father'" (9). The narrator's mother was suffering throughout her life and finally when she goes on a trip she comes to a realization that she can not love her husband any longer. The smallest details about him brought her disgust. Although it does not make everyone happy in the end, the Mother is happy because after sacrificing such a long time with her husband, she is now free from him.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Short stories by Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami is a writer who has stories that consists of many hidden epiphanies. The main characters come to a realization because of an event and it changes their life dramatically. The experience from the epiphany in each story varies which is why I will just be focusing on one story. The short story "Lederhosen" by Haruki Murakami focuses on a main character who changes her life because of one trip she takes to Germany. The narrator's mother goes on a trip to Germany to visit her sister. She actually stayed there longer than she was supposed to. "Her mother extended the ten days in Germany to nearly a month and a half, with hardly a word back to Tokyo, and when she finally did return to Japan she stayed with another sister of hers in Osaka" (6). The narrators mother did not realize her epiphany until she saw lederhosen put on a man. She did not realize she was suffering or feeling pain until she actually saw what her husband wanted which was the lederhosen. "'That's something even Mother herself didn't understand at the time. It made her defensive and confused. All she knew was, looking at that man in the lederhosen, she felt an unbearable disgust rising in her. Directed toward Father. And she could not hold it back. Mother's lederhosen man, apart from the color of his skin, was exactly like Father, the shape of the legs, the belly, the thinning hair. The way he was so happy trying on those new lederhosen, all prancy and cocky like a little boy. As Mother stood there looking at this man, so many things she'd been uncertain of about herself slowly shifted together into something very clear. That's when she realized she hated Father'" (9). The narrator's mother was suffering throughout her life and finally when she goes on a trip she comes to a realization that she can not love her husband any longer. The smallest details about him brought her disgust. Although it does not make everyone happy in the end, the Mother is happy because after sacrificing such a long time with her husband, she is now free from him.
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