Hard Boiled Wonderland Essay

Isolationism in Hard Boiled Wonderland

In his book Hard Boiled Wonderland, Haruki Murakami attempts to create a narrative that promotes one main idea in different perspectives. There are two separated settings for the novel which reinforces the main theme. Isolation is a clear theme that can be recognized throughout the novel, both in the environment that surrounds the narrator and in the main character’s own mind. The author distinctively creates a mysterious combination of two different narratives in his book. Some chapters are titled “Hard-Boiled Wonderland”, others are presenting a description of the end of the world. “Hard Boiled Wonderland” reminds me of the narrative common for science fiction or fantasy tales. This is a world where no one has a name, only a role or occupation. The part of the book titled “The End of the World,” on the other hand, is a story of an amateur who is seeking for a place in an isolated town, surrounded by an enormous wall. The narrator has been separated from his shadow and will soon be separated from his mind. Even though the stories seem
It does always result in trying to escape that isolation, but when we are isolated from ourselves it resides within us, and escape is impossible. It sits closer to the concept of separateness rather than loneliness. It is clear that in “The End of the World”, the narrator’s isolationism is because of his own choice. I argue that the most important way in which the novel discusses isolation is to see it as an internal state which does not necessarily have anything to do with how isolated one is with regard to other people. Instead, it is to show that as even as social beings who constantly interact with others carry elements of isolationism in our lives. Marukami effectively makes the whole story subordinate to the theme of isolationism to relate the reader to his