Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 12v1
Mr. Garrioch
World Literature
28 August 2013
One exotic characteristic of Norwegian Wood is that there appears a lot of three-people relationship. Watanabe reminisces his old days when he used to hang out with Kizuki and Naoko. Population three appears again when Watanabe dines with Nagasawa and Hatsumi couple, and when Watanabe visits Naoko’s sanatorium and stays with not only Naoko but also Reiko.
Three people hanging out seems “odd” (30);
after all, it is often hard for an individual to have same degree of affection
and sense of comfort toward two people, so one who scores lower degree is easy
to be alienated. Still, Watanabe asserts that this odd relationship is “the
most comfortable combination”; he feels “a little awkward” (30) about inviting
one of Naoko’s friends as a fourth member and splitting into two pairs of
couples. Same for Nagasawa: inviting Watanabe to he and Hatsumi’s dinner,
Nagasawa says, “I’d be more comfortable [to be with you at the restaurant], and
so would Hatsumi.” (267) Same for Reiko and Naoko: the sanatorium bans “[Watanabe]
and Naoko … to be alone together,” and obligates “an observer” (132), the third
person, to be present.
On contrary, two-people relationship – a much
more common and ordinary status at a glance – seems quite unstable and shaky. Watanabe
and Storm Trooper definitely are not the friendliest roommates in the dorm;
Watanabe occasionally makes fun of Storm Trooper to Naoko and other dorm
residents, and Storm Trooper does not make effort to reconcile with Watanabe
regarding his Radio Calisthenics. Instability appears even more evidently in
relationship between Watanabe and Naoko; when Watanabe promises Naoko that he’ll
stay next to Naoko all the time, she gets confused and claims “It’s just not
possible for one person to watch over another person for ever and ever” (9).
So why does Murakami regard three-people
relationship more highly than that of two-people? Naoko indirectly tells the
answer; she says to Watanabe, “Sooner or later you’d get sick of me.” (9) No
matter how strongly Watanabe believes he can completely understand Naoko some
day, years of waiting with nothing guaranteed will make Watanabe feel doubts
and burdens at least once, and this very moment is what Naoko is worried about.
What can resolve Naoko’s worries is the
existence of a third person who can share these doubts and burdens – as
Watanabe tried to reconcile Nagasawa and Hatsumi’s conflicts, and Reiko stayed
as an observer between Watanabe and Naoko. Norwegian Wood. Norwegian Wood. Wood – remember, wood is
not a set of two trees that depend on each other solely, but a bunch of three
and more trees, tangled complicatedly, that share depend and support
altogether. (437 words)