Ask the Expert Tutor: Murakami
In today’s ‘Ask the Expert Tutor’, BartyED’s English tutors discuss studying and teaching Haruki Murakami’s works in an IB context.
IB English: Murakami’s works
Murakami’s texts are commonly studied for IB English Lang/Lit. Many schools choose ‘After the Quake’, a collection of six short stories written in response to Japan’s 1995 Kobe earthquake, or ‘Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche’, a short novel about the 1995 Aum Shinrikyo sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. These texts are usually supplemented with other short stories by Murakami, such as ‘The Year of Spaghetti’ and ‘The Second Bakery Attack’, so that students have a wider sense of his literary style(s) and thematic focal points.
With ‘After the Quake’, Murakami makes use of the short story formto explore boundaries and binaries, isolation and loneliness, indirect violence and oppressive social expectations, and more. With ‘Underground’, Murakami strives to capture a side of the attacks which was ignored by the sensationalist Japanese media: its effects on the average citizen. In this text, themes of isolation, individualism, and lack of communication are palpable and significant.
Contextual and thematic significance of Murakami’s texts
The key to understanding Murakami’s texts is to consider and integrate its sociopolitical and literary contexts into thematic analysis. This means understanding literary influences on Murakami as an author, but also the society and worldviews during which Murakami wrote. While Murakami was heavily influenced by Western culture, the specific social and cultural values of post-WWII Japan informed much of the subject matter and subtextual elements of his works.
Showing sophisticated understanding and analysis of Murakami’s texts means being able to apply contextual knowledge in a meaningful way, rather than in a superficial or one-dimensional one. This is the challenge with IB English in general, and mastering this takes a lot of practice for any student.
Weaker IB English response on Murakami
Depending on which part of the course the Murakami text is used for, an IB English student might produce the following written response on Murakami’s ‘The Year of Spaghetti’:
In ‘The Year of Spaghetti’, Murakami uses many instances of imagery and irony, such as with the “huge aluminium pot … large enough to bathe a German Shepherd”, “steam was my … pride and joy”, “tomato sauce … my one great hope in life”, and “In 1971 I cooked spaghetti to live, and lived to cook spaghetti”. This hyperbolic imagery conveys Murakami’s purpose in criticising the social context of Japan at the time. The spaghetti imagery is also quite unusual and makes the reader feel that the narrator is being ironic since it is so strange. The main character puts a lot of importance into his spaghetti, and it is clear that he is quite lonely, which is how Murakami shows the theme of isolation and loneliness. Murakami’s use of strange imagery and irony therefore expresses to the reader a theme of isolation and loneliness that the main character faces.
Take a look at the sample response above as if you were an examiner. What makes this response weak? Here are some initial comments:
Weak expression: the student’s sentence structures make their discussion seem observational rather than analytical, especially by combining an unclear topic sentence with the evidence.
Too much evidence, lack of focus: the student has included too much evidence, and lumped all of the evidence in one sentence. This is not the kind of close textual analysis that the IB demands and rewards; the student ends up giving quite general analytical comments without clearly exploring the significance of the words.
Extremely vague and general analysis: what is Murakami’s purpose? What is the social context of Japan at the time? This should be stated explicitly rather than left to the examiner’s imagination, as it forms part of the line of argument of the essay. The student should also go in more depth and detail with analysis in general.
Stronger IB English analysis on Murakami
Here is a stronger response that an IB English student might produce. Have a think about what this response improves in:
Through the use of bizarre imagery and word play, Murakami highlights the hyperreality and futility inherent in the narrator’s life, as well as the societal alienation of post-WWII Japan. The text is full of bizarre imagery such as “steam was my … pride and joy … tomato sauce … my one great hope in life”, and “a huge aluminium pot … large enough to bathe a German Shepherd”. By juxtaposing the bizarre with the mundane, such as steam with pride and joy and tomato sauce with the narrator’s only great hope in life, Murakami presents an absurd picture of hyperreality within the confines of the narrator’s apartment. Additionally, Murakami’s use of word play in the line, “[i]n 1971 I cooked spaghetti to live, and lived to cook spaghetti” contributes to this theme of absurdity and futility. Literally, the narrator cooks spaghetti to live, as he must eat to survive; figuratively he cooks spaghetti in order to impose some structure and meaning onto his life. This reflects the deep loss of identity in Japan after WWII. The repetition within this phrase also affords the two clauses a syntactic parallelism that mimics the monotony of a life lived in isolation and highlights the tautologous nature of this statement. Murakami’s use of imagery and irony therefore exposes the futility and meaninglessness inherent within the narrator’s life built around consumption, an alienating new value in post-WWII Japan.
Need more help with Murakami & IB English?
Understanding and writing about Murakami’s texts can seem more challenging than other texts IB English students may have encountered up to this point, and this is in large part due to the postmodern tradition within which Murakami’s works are situated. IB English is a difficult course in general, and students rarely know how to get top marks and improve their weaker skills independently. BartyED IB English tutors have extensive experience helping students navigate the many demands of the course, as well as how to make difficult texts and writing skills accessible to any learner.
If you feel that you could benefit from individualised IB English tutoring, feel free to check out our website for more information here, or reach out to us today at (852) 2882 1017 or enquiries@bartyed.com.