The Elephant Vanishes, By Murakami
“Like a Chinese box, the world of the novel contained smaller worlds, and inside those were yet smaller worlds. Together, these worlds made up a single universe, and the universe waited there to be discovered by the reader.” (Murakami, 2003, p100)
One can perceive “The Elephant Vanishes” to be an allegory for the social situation in post-modern Japan during the 1980s. Loughman believes that Murakami’s Japanese society was “absorbing the form, but not the substance of another culture, his [Murakami’s] people have lost their moorings and are adrift” (Loughman, 1997, p. 88). Therefore, using Magical realism “as a tool to seek a highly individualized, personal sense of identity in each person” (Stretcher, 1999), Murakami searched for, and questioned …show more content…
Murakami uses the settings of the zoos and the barns in "The Elephant Vanishes" to help to draw attention to how Japanese society had changed to have less reliance on traditional values. This is primarily suggested through the setting of the “elementary school’s aging gym," which was the “elephant house” (Murakami, 2003, p. 312), in The Elephant Vanishes. The replacement of “little private zoo” with a "high rise condo building" (Murakami, 2003, p. 309-10), is a symbolic representation of the replacing of the old culture of Japan, which occurred after World War One and the surrender of Japan, and the growth in consumerism as well. The significance of this setting to the Elephant Vanishes is not only how the old is swept away with the new but it is also, how these small, symbolic settings are slowly forgotten as well. In the “decaying zoo” (Murakami, 2003, p. 311) as the “grass took over the elephant enclosure," (Murakami, 2003, p. 319), all forgets except for the narrator, and in the zoo being forgotten, symbolically, as are the traditional values. In Barn Burning as well, the girl’s boyfriend decides that the barns he burns are “waiting to be burned”, and give “no grief to anyone” (Murakami, 2003, p. 412), denoting that these barns, like the zoo, are there to disappear, and be
One can perceive “The Elephant Vanishes” to be an allegory for the social situation in post-modern Japan during the 1980s. Loughman believes that Murakami’s Japanese society was “absorbing the form, but not the substance of another culture, his [Murakami’s] people have lost their moorings and are adrift” (Loughman, 1997, p. 88). Therefore, using Magical realism “as a tool to seek a highly individualized, personal sense of identity in each person” (Stretcher, 1999), Murakami searched for, and questioned …show more content…
Murakami uses the settings of the zoos and the barns in "The Elephant Vanishes" to help to draw attention to how Japanese society had changed to have less reliance on traditional values. This is primarily suggested through the setting of the “elementary school’s aging gym," which was the “elephant house” (Murakami, 2003, p. 312), in The Elephant Vanishes. The replacement of “little private zoo” with a "high rise condo building" (Murakami, 2003, p. 309-10), is a symbolic representation of the replacing of the old culture of Japan, which occurred after World War One and the surrender of Japan, and the growth in consumerism as well. The significance of this setting to the Elephant Vanishes is not only how the old is swept away with the new but it is also, how these small, symbolic settings are slowly forgotten as well. In the “decaying zoo” (Murakami, 2003, p. 311) as the “grass took over the elephant enclosure," (Murakami, 2003, p. 319), all forgets except for the narrator, and in the zoo being forgotten, symbolically, as are the traditional values. In Barn Burning as well, the girl’s boyfriend decides that the barns he burns are “waiting to be burned”, and give “no grief to anyone” (Murakami, 2003, p. 412), denoting that these barns, like the zoo, are there to disappear, and be