User:Min2015/sandbox

This is my sandbox.

Title

 * This novel created in 1992. South of the border was a song from Nat King Cole, it pointed Mexico. But what is west of the sun? Shimamoto told one story: "A farmer who was living in the wilds of Siberia, He works every day in his field, he sees nothing when he looking around. The north is the northern horizon, the east is the eastward horizon, the south is the southern horizon and on the west by the western horizon, however nothing else. Every morning, when the sun rises from the East horizon,he goes to work in the fields, knocking off for lunch when the sun directly overhead and goes home to eat then sleep after the sun falls on the west side of the horizon. Day after day being continue the life like this, the farmer feels something was dead…” Shimamoto says: there might have something in the west of the sun, maybe not. Anyhow it is a place where is completely different with south of the border. ( Refer to “South of border west of the sun” Chapter 14)

Main character
Hajime


 * Hajime grew up in the environment of small family model. He is the only child in his family which makes his parents have absolute control over him. Being the only child makes he feels inferior, feeling as a special existence because he couldn’t share his feelings with siblings as others. The most unendurable is the prejudice against the only child by others. Many people think the only child must be spoiled by parents, sickly, and extremely headstrong. The prejudices of the people which makes he irritated, but really make he irritated that is what people think of him are true. He tried to cover up and ignored these weaknesses but it always to be mentioned by others. This really makes him feel friendless in his boyhood.  At the same time, Hajime has experienced political and campus struggles.  He againsted toward to the rapid development of the bubble economy of the postwar Japanese capitalism.  He believes that now their parents have created the "self", not a "true self" for him,  he even sank into  a crisis of self identity, he tried to pursue his own real scenery which belongs to himself.  However later on he used  his father in law’s  capital  to open a Jazz club, and according to the instructions of  him, Hajime invested his money into the stock market and real estate, and quickly become rich.  Although he has his own everything, family and wealth. This may be a perfect life,  even in his  own eyes.  But his soul is not filled,  he always feel something are missing. It was a certain thing he had lost in his boyhood....

Shimamoto


 * Shimamoto appeared while Hajime feels inferior as the only child in his family. They were 12 years old when they met, and she was like a ray of sunshine to open Hajime‘s heart. Shimamoto was a very pretty girl but polio has left her lame, even though Hajime still thought she was very pretty and different from others. The solitary Hajime encountered with Shimamoto who also came from a one-child family and found that there were many common points between each other. However they soon became a good friend whom they could share their secrets . They spend long afternoons in her living room listening to Liszt and Nat King Cole on her father's prized new stereo,  and talking with a pre-adolescent openness that becomes erotic only in retrospect. They were in a delicately poised relationship and had a period of pure and amused time. Shimamoto saved Hajime and gave a great support to his unbearable isolated world. For Hajime, Shimamoto’s existence was not just the end of the loneliness as a partner, more important was he found the resonance of the mind from her. Shimamoto filled the missing sense of his life, she was the indispensable existence. They separated when entering junior high-school and moved to different areas. Dramatically, they met each other at 36 years old again. Hajime is catapulted into the past unreservedly but Shimamoto suddenly left him without left  a word after they spent a night together.  Shimamoto is a  beautiful, intense and mysterious women, we don’t know any background of her, we know that she used to have an aborted child. She was single, no working but having a very decent life quality.

Yukiko


 * Yukiko was married to Hajime at her age of 30. But Hajime rarely mentioned her in the 6 years’ marriage life as a husband, until he met Shimamoto again at his age of 36. The author only slightly mentioned her. However,  the image of Yukiko as a wife is still  pale. Until the end of story, Yukiko as a woman and a wife had the first initial conversation with Hajime, while he feels helpless since Shimamoto left. Her figure was clearly fleshed out, and played a vital role in the end of the story,  such as she pointed out Hajime is egocentric, and he only pays attention to his own feelings while ignoring other people's feelings, especially her psychological process in the marriage life. In addition, she has been acting as a traditional wife who always listen to her husband, but suddenly standing  in a strong position in the end and lecture the husband how to be a better man. She is the person who can love and light up others in love, and only her love is not destructive in this novel. Her husband's betrayal once made her desperate, however she returned to love and opened her heart to accept her husband.

Historical background

 * Hajime bored in 1551, was the first birth tide of Japanese post-war. At that time the aftermath of war is almost nonexistent, Japan has just recovered from the rubble and entering the high-speed development period, but lacking of laborers and material resources. Therefore, the State encourages people to have children to build their homes. Most families had at least two or three children, middle-class family who have only one child such as Hajime is rare. Hajime is forlorn being the only child without any sibling, and he accompanied by books and music in his childhood. The situation and people’s prejudice affects him a little solitary and obsessive.( http://newslet.iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ssj12/ssj12.pdf )

cited:

 * http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/16/haruki-murakami-agony-uncle-fans-online-questions
 * This source talks about Haruki Murakami responds to readers’ questions online, and he shared his life experiences and thoughts to his readers.




 * https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/02/14/reviews/990214.14hawthot.html
 * This source talks about the details of 'South of the Border West of the Sun", including how the protagonist meet and separated.


 * http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/discussionpapers/2005/Nakanishi.html
 * This source talks about the suicide phenomenon in modern Japanese literature and analyzed that how this happened.
 * http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/discussionpapers/2005/Nakanishi.html
 * This source talks about the suicide phenomenon in modern Japanese literature and analyzed that how this happened.


 * http://www.murakami.ch/about_hm/bookreviews/bookreview_south_of_the_border.html
 * This source talks about most of Haruki Murakami's works and brief introduction of the novel.