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Norwegian Wood Essay

850 Words4 Pages

Title
“To be or not to be” (Shakespeare, 3.1.57) is a theme that novels often ask, but death must be regarded as a part of life, or it can consume a person. The novel, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami is a gripping novel about how love can tear someone apart. Toru, the books main character is left with seemingly nothing, until he meets Midori. She pulls him back from his state of despair, giving him a reason to live again. Life and death taunt Toru and linger on his mind throughout the novel.
Toru’s best friend, Kizuki takes his life as a teenager. Toru never learns how to get over this, tipping him over into the dangerous side of thinking; suicide. “‘Unlike you, I’ve chosen to live [...] I’m not a teenager any more. I’m not the same guy I used to be. I’m twenty now. And I …show more content…

They are desperate for love, but Naoko proves to be the wrong match for him in college when her mental health deteriorates. Toru’s relationships are not all inherently bad. Midori meets Toru and makes him realize how much there is to live for. "’You know, they've got these cookie assortments, and you like some but you don't like others? And you eat all the ones you like,and the only ones left are the ones you don't like as much? I always think about that when something painful comes up. 'Now I just have to polish these off, and everything'll be OK.' Life is a box of cookies’" (103). Midori is teaching Toru an important life lesson that even when times get rough, it is okay, and he will just have to push through. Polish off the box of chocolates, and life will get better. “‘Well, it’s just that life has been too cruel to us till now,’ Midori said. ‘But that’s O.K. We’re gonna get back everything it owes us’” (267). Midori gets Toru to realize that it is not okay how life has treated them until now. Toru understands now that it is up to him to let life run its course and live happily, despite the cards he was dealt. With death

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