Speaking of "Norwegian Forest", many people want to claim a happy ending for Midoriko in the book, after all, in the original book, watanabe is ready to have a new beginning, the first time to call Midoriko, want to start over with Midoriko, but in the original text, Midoriko did not give a loving response, leaving Watanabe in the middle of the place where it is not, constantly calling for Midoriko.
It's a funny ending, because if the ending goes a step further, Midoriko may give an accepting response, but if Midoriko insists that Midoriko wants to reject Watanabe, she really asks Watanabe, "Where are you now?" ”
So how confused is Watanabe? What does Watanabe really want?
This article will explore Watanabe's hidden "threesome" concept of love from the three perspectives of "three-person love", "three-person life", and "three-person humanity", and try to interpret an answer.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > (1) Three-person love, Nagasawa and Hatsumi, are the predecessors of Watanabe and Midoriko</h1>
In fact, it can be said that the shaping of Nagasawa and Hatsumi is to match Watanabe and Midoriko.
One day after Nagasawa decided to go abroad, Nagasawa wanted to pull Watanabe and himself to dinner with Hatsumi, Watanabe was a little dazed, at that time he felt that it was not very good to rush into a couple's dinner, but Nagasawa felt that with Watanabe, he and Hatsumi could be happier, at this moment, Watanabe suddenly had some trance, felt that this scene was familiar, it seemed that the previous exchanges between Naoko and Kizuki were often like this.
In this book, Hatsumi and Nagasawa are like the feelings of Midoriko and Watanabe, Hatsumi refuses to talk about Nagasawa's flower heart at the dinner table, because she loves Nagasawa deeply in her heart, so she has been indulging Nagasawa's flower heart, and she can only express her dissatisfaction by saying that Nagasawa pulls Watanabe, a well-behaved child, to express her dissatisfaction. Because she knew in her heart that if she rebuked Nagasawa's flower heart, it would be Watanabe who said to break up.
But Watanabe's answer is intriguing, and he does not defend himself or for Watanabe, but instead points out with a high arrogance that Watanabe and himself are actually the same kind of people, that is, "you cannot fall in love with someone in your heart, but there is always a place to stay awake and have a sense of hunger and thirst." ”
Hatsumi is speechless and can only choose to leave, because she can't control her deep love for Watanabe, and she doesn't know where to return except for repeated injuries. This is actually very similar to Midoriko, although the personalities of Hatsumi and Midoriko are opposite, but Midoriko in the situation of love, in fact, is similar to Hatsumi, except that Hatsumi fell in love with a man who relies on flowers to engage women to dispel loneliness, and Midoriko fell in love with a man who had others in his heart, and then Midoriko was ignored by Watanabe many times, or missed Naoko but refused to give Midoriko an explanation, what she could do was to fantasize about a woman image that she could think of the man's favorite, to comfort herself, Or rather, to please Watanabe.
In this way, it can be said that by looking at Watanabe's advice to Hatsumi, you can see how Watanabe positions the future of his love in his heart. In the book, Watanabe is also very powerful, not caring about his relationship with Nagasawa, and earnestly persuades Hatsumi to let Hatsumi leave Nagasawa, because if Hatsumi expects Nagasawa to be smoothed out by suffering, it is impossible to aspire to a plain life.
In fact, Watanabe himself may not realize that Watanabe himself is such a person, he can't fall in love with someone in his heart, so he must choose a woman who will never fall in love with himself to chase. For Watanabe, Naoko's image meets his image requirements for women, and the sense of distance in Naoko's heart that cannot be consumed by Kizuki's death is exactly what Watanabe really needs in his heart.
So throughout the book, you will find a very interesting thing, that is, in the action with Watanabe, there is very little space for two people who are really private, but they are often three people, whether he is in Hatsumi and Nagasawa, in Naoko and Kizuki, or in Naoko and Reiko, that is, the state of the three people getting along is actually Watanabe's most comfortable mode in the relationship. While yearning for freedom, he is afraid of loneliness, but because he does not have the ability of Yongze after all, he can only refuse to let his love go to the routine through the performance of confusion and pain and struggle.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > (2) Three-person life - death is an interwoven variation of love</h1>
"Norwegian Forest" seems to be a book about youth, but because there are too many deaths mixed in the book, and every love looks heavy, it can be seen that in the heart of Haruki Murakami, almost everyone has some psychological pain caused by the original family, some people can only choose to die in the end because they can't survive this pain, and the remaining few people can only carry the pain of the deceased and survive by their own tenacious will.
Counting the people who are still alive in the book, in addition to Watanabe himself, the main thing left is Midoriko, Nagasawa and Reiko, but it cannot be said that reiko, Midoriko and Nagasawa's life is very happy, Midoriko also has to endure the early death of her mother in life, her father is eager to let her and her sister die for her mother, and the difficulties in life, but the character of the mother and son is very clear at the beginning, she is because she hates school, and regards learning as a confrontation with the school, and only then does she learn to learn well, which can also be seen in Yongze. Ken swallowed three slugs when he was a student, and Yongze could force himself to do so with his own perseverance, so such a person could survive successfully in the end.
And Reiko may be the weakest person in this, she stayed in the mental hospital for many years, the only happy family time, but also ruined by a malicious gay little girl, it can be said that such a destruction is difficult for her to bear, but when Watanabe and Reiko contact, his feelings have always been "beyond the age of youth". "Physically and mentally stretched, relaxed and happy", perhaps because Reiko herself is a healing type of person, so she is "much more patient with others, and it is easy to find out the good side of each other", so in the awkward situation, she can also find a suitable way for herself to survive, through mutual help, so that both sides can be redeemed.
And Watanabe's relationship with them also underwent a great transformation with the departure of the living. Because Hatsumi died two years after marrying, so Watanabe never contacted Nagasawa again, perhaps Watanabe is a person with many, many dead people in his heart, for him, the weight of the deceased is more than the living, Hatsumi's death is mainly because of the death of love, so if you want to pay tribute to Hatsumi, you can only break the relationship with Nagasawa.
And reiko's deep contact, but also because of Naoko's death, it can be said that for Reiko, leaving the nursing home is a matter of courage, but because of the eagerness to save Watanabe's mood, she made a step forward in the course of her life, Reiko listened to too many stories of Watanabe and Naoko, knowing that Naoko and Watanabe's regrets, perhaps lies in Watanabe's desire and Naoko's way of wanting to thank, all because of Naoko's physiological problems and can not go on, so Reiko put on Naoko's clothes, instead of Naoko, Complete this seemingly absurd settlement.
After this reconciliation, Watanabe finally came out of Naoko's death, but this way of reconciliation is also destined to leave too many emotional obstacles for Watanabe and Midoriko, for Midoriko, Watanabe may be a person who will make people happy, but the premise of coaxing people to be happy is always based on the fact that he can sort out his emotions step by step, and Naoko's death will always be like an untime bomb, poking at Watanabe's heart. This is an area that Midoriko can't set foot in, and they can only end up at such an incomprehensible origin forever.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > (3) Trinity—a man's first glance, sometimes foreshadows the outcome of feelings</h1>
In Watanabe's emotional life with several women, there is a very interesting little detail, Reiko and Naoko are women who have had a relationship with Watanabe, and Watanabe has a very delicate description of the appearance and even habits or feelings of these two women, and the feelings for Midoriko are supposed to have a long period of time, but in this book, Midoriko has never had a specific face description, more is to emphasize Midoriko's short hair and the maverick feeling she brings to others.
In the book, Midoriko always seems to be the woman who loves to open up and talk, whether she let Watanabe add herself to sexual fantasies or pray that Watanabe can really be with herself, there is no real satisfaction. Her existence is as foreshadowed by the title of the book, when "Norwegian Forest" is a song, it only appears when Reiko and Naoko are present, and Midoriko in "Norwegian Forest", she should have no face.
What position should Midoriko look like in Watanabe's mind?
Perhaps a woman who gives life to Watanabe, Watanabe regards Midoriko as a kind of redemption, a friend, that feels like Naoko to Watanabe herself, and the only thing missing here is love.
In fact, from Watanabe's aesthetic, it can also be seen that the women Watanabe likes should be biased towards the traditional female category, with the classical slender beauty of Wenjing, Naoko, Hatsumi, and even Reiko, more or less have such qualities, only Midoriko, which is completely out of this type, if there is no Midoriko's own initiative, there may be no story between the two of them. But Midoriko's initiative, so that Watanabe, who has been struggling in the swamp, saw some tenacious and vital beauty, watanabe and her, can be free to be themselves, play together crazy, and even watch yellow movies together, but from the perspective of love, Watanabe can give Midoriko, but this is it.
So, in the end, what's so good about Norwegian Woods? Is it good that the deformed three-person relationship? Or is it an extremely delicate and life-like depiction?
I think it's all, and not exactly.
It can be said that "Norwegian Forest" is a book that either makes people look very aggrieved, or makes people read it very heavy.
Grievances are grievances, many people read it and are said to be reading the "Little Yellow Book", but because of Murakami Haruki's own so-called "de-fishing" description, the relationship between them will always have one side with a cold taste, that kind of boring and life-like form, so that the description itself is not impactful.
And the heaviness is heavy in that when we read this book, the more we can feel the truth in the book, the more we can feel the heaviness of life, in life, the completion of the self is and mutual redemption is not an easy thing, at least love is difficult to do, often the final result, but one is trying to redeem, and the other is longing for warmth on the one hand, while yearning for freedom.