One Beautiful April Morning by Haruki Murakami - Book Report/Review Example

Short story On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning by Haruki Murakami is an account of a brief encounter between the protagonistand a girl he believes to be his perfect romantic partner. The notion of perfection in a romantic partner is hard to define. On the one hand, such person possesses the qualities one admires or sees as desirable in himself / herself or people in general, e.g. kindness, commitment, thoughtfulness. On the other hand, perfection in a romantic partner is linked to the notion of feeling at ease in this person’s company. One can hardly call a romantic partner perfect, if he or she has to constantly be on the lookout not to disappoint or embarrass the partner. In this view, the concept of perfection in a romantic partner is more of a feeling about what is right than a rational and thoughtful analysis of what should or could be right for a person. The idea of perfection is closely connected with that of imperfection, thoughts about perfect romantic partners inevitably trigger insecurities and doubts at to whether one is worthy of such a perfect relationship. That is why I can say that I have never observed such perfection in real life. In my view, perfection is not an absolute state, it is changeable as the life itself. People cannot stop in their emotional and intellectual growth, new events in their lives change their views and sometimes make people redefine themselves. To my mind, people’s ability to undergo changes and grow while retaining harmony constitutes perfection. In this view, I can agree with the protagonist of Murakami’s short story that a perfect romantic partner can “can’t seem to remember” a lot of details about the perfect romantic partner. It is not rational evaluation, but an unconscious feeling. As the protagonist admits, his perfect girl did not have any of the traits he saw as desirable. This fact proves the point, that one cannot label love and divide the impression of the person into a set of clear-cut categories: eyes of such and such shape, certain height, etc. Murakami’s character tries to measure love and romance, tries to define if it’s 100 % or 80%. The headline of the story makes the reader think of a fairy tale about ideal relations that would be impossible in the real world. The author uses the fairy tale to demonstrate that the protagonists’ ideas about love and romance are fantasies, fairy tale is a technique used by the main character to escape from the disillusionment and loneliness of real life. What is more, in fairy tales, everything is possible and does not require as much emotional effort and courage from the protagonist as speaking to people in the real world does. Murakami uses first person narrative in the story with the exception of the fairy tale, which uses third person narrative. In this way the writer creates the contrast between the fantasy and reality in the reader’s mind. Parts of the short story that constitute the fairy tale stress the idea of unrealistic expectations of the main character. In the fairy tale people can be sure that they are “100% perfect for each other”, they decide to “marry then and there”. Such love is unstoppable, there is no way to escape destiny and in spite of all the obstacles the lovers would be reunited. The fairy tale demonstrates the readers that protagonist’s ideals are very Romantic and he lives in the fantasy and not the real world. The fairy tale component of the short story tells the readers that sometimes the stories are the world people resort to when they want to escape the disappointment of real life. For the protagonist, the fairy tale has a happy ending, but he does not have courage to speak to the girl in real life afraid of being rejected or laughed at. On the one hand, he is lonely and want to identify with somebody. On the other hand, the protagonist has not experienced the ideal love he dreams of in reality so he dreams up his perfect partner. . Faulkner’s Burning Barn is a short story about a boy, Sarty, and his search for peace and attempts to free himself from his abusive father. Early in the story the readers learn about the power the father “stiff in his black Sunday coat” has over the Sarty without ever looking at him (Faulkner). When the father speaks it is in “harsh, cold voice”, the family always has to move but always “did not know where they were going” (Faulkner). Members of the family are denied the right to think for themselves or act at their will “None of them ever did or ever asked, because it was always somewhere, always a house of sorts waiting for them a day or two days or even three days away” (Faulkner). In Sarty’s world everything is black and hopeless, he fears his father to the point when he starts seeing him “without face or depth-a shape black, flat, and bloodless as though cut from tin in the iron folds”. Sarty starts to believe that his father’s ways cannot be changed because in the boy’s eye the father figure stands for nothing but cold fear and grief “the voice harsh like tin and without heat like tin” (Faulkner). Sarty does not share the grudge his father bears against the entire world and when they come to visit the mansion of father’s new employers he sees the alternative way of life. The inhabitants of the mansion “big as a courthouse, he thought quietly, with a surge of peace and joy” are “safe” from his father (Faulkner). The white spacious house differs drastically from the black, cold, and crammed wagon where Sarty’s family lives. The boy eventually understands that in his search for peace he should break away from his family. In the end he tried to leave his family behind and “He did not look back” (Faulkner). References Murakami, Haruki (2012). On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning. Retrieved from http://youmightfindyourself.com/post/22131227213/on-seeing-the-100-perfect-girl-one-beautiful-april. Faulkner, William (1939). Barn Burning. Harper’s Magazine. Retrieved from William Faulkner Books.com at http://www.williamfaulknerbooks.com/barn_burning_text.html. Read More