Drivers Ed

Murakami utilizes first person narrative to reveal the progression of alienation through personal thoughts and the TV people, as they are a symbol of new technology in the lives of Japanese people and in the life of the protagonist. At the beginning of the short story the readers straight off get a look into the inevitable alienation that the protagonists feels. When the main character comes home, his wife is “is go[ing] out with the girls” (198), he is being left alone for dinner and thats when the TV people arrive which commences his downfall into isolation. When the tv is originally brought in they tend to clutter everything out of place, this can contribute to highlighting that the technology of modern ages has provided chaos in the lives of Japanese people. The narrator feels “thrown off balance, that [his] customary world is no longer absolute.”(201), this in turn reveals that the protagonist is feeling disconnected from his reality whoch is shown through first person narrative. Later when his wife comes home he is confused by how she is acting so mundane when a completely absurd thing has just occurred. He becomes obsessed with understanding what happened but does not talk to anyone about it. This leads to further isolation from his wife. Furthermore, during the night he tends to get up and go to the bathroom but this time he spends most of the night once again away from his wife and turns on the tv, the audience sees here that he has become fascinated by the new technology brought in by the TV people. The next day as the narrator goes to work he wants to ask his wife about the tv but doesn't and this insinuates the lack of communication his wife and him have. Anyways, as the narrator goes to work he sees the TV people carrying the same Sony Color tv which reveals that his mind is wandering and is thinking about the incidents that occurred at his home. When he tries to ask one of his co-worker he gets ignored for the rest of the day. It sees that by