Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami - Book Report/Review Example

Considering that many of these characters contrast vastly in the first place, it is only reasonable to assume that each of these characters have a different reason to be drawn to Toru.The first two people to consider are Naoko and Kizuki. Naoko was Kizuki' girlfriend in high school, and Kizuki was Toru best friend. In part we can consider Toru's appeal to Kizuki to be in part having to have been because they had been friends for such a long time. Often times people that grow up together remain friends merely because they have such a long history together.

Naoko, through a shared relationship with Kizuki, might have been drawn to Toru because they had a shared past together, and because Toru also had to deal with the suicide of Kizuki. Because they had this shared experience, they felt that they had something together that two other people couldn't have ever actually known.Not to be overlooked is the fact that two of the most meaningful relationships that Toru has in the book are with people that are suffering from severe mental distress. It was so extreme for Kizuki that he killed himself when he was seventeen.

Toru, while still obviously being affected by the death of his friend, obviously seems to have been able to process the event in a healthier way than Naoko, so something to consider would be in regards to whether Naoko and Kizuki might have been drawn to Toru because he seemed to be a stronger, more stable personality and they might have been attempting to attach themselves to a stronger person that was much more stable than them in order to have Toru as a stabilizing factor in their lives.

Many of the other minor characters are drawn to Toru because of shared interest in Western literature. In Japan it was less common to find people that were quite as interested in American culture as Toru at this time, and anybody that did have this shared interest would have felt that they had a connection to Toru because of this shared interest. Nagasawa is one such character that had this shared interest. In particular, they had a shared love for the book The Great Gatsby. Also, Toru also seems to be the kind of person who adjusts himself to fit into whatever situation that he is in.

This characteristic is enough by itself to be considered a strong reason as to why people were drawn to him. When Toru was with Nagasawa, he followed along with him on his sexual escapades. This was not the personality type that he revealed to the character Midori, so it is safe to assume that Toru was able to fit himself into situations wherever it became necessary to do so make new friends. Even though he seems to be able to fit himself into general situations in order to make new friends, it is rather obvious when we first see Toru amongst other college males that he didn't quite fit in with the typical mentality.

When the other students demanded revolution and then seemingly forgot about the entire ordeal, Toru was hyper critical of these students and considered them to be extremely hypocritical. It is also obvious from the fact that Toru did not produce the mountains of beer cans and cigarette butts that the other students did that he didn't fit in. In part this has to do with his early experience with death. His friend Kizuki's suicide seems to have set him apart from the rest of the students who have not had this sort of life-altering experience.

It has forced him to think more about life in general, and all of this soul searching that other students wouldn't have had any reason to do at the same time seems to have made him a bit of a romantic. Perhaps this is in part what Midori is so drawn to Toru . He does not seem like the other students