Haruki Murakami : After The Quake (Pugh Sensei assignment)
Sebelumnya, biarlah saya mengaku dosa. Konon deadline tugas ini adalah hari ini sebelum jam 12 siang. Apa daya, saya cuma tahu kalod deadlinenya hari ini, tanpa embel-embel batas waktu. Dengan langkah gagah perkasa saya menyambangi kantor beliau dan melihat kotak kuning yang konon tempat ngumpulin tugasnya. Anehnya (sekitar jam 2 siang), kotak kuning itu kosong melompong. Berfikir positif, saya ga curiga sama sekali. Mungkin Pugh Sensei ngambil tugasnya biar tu kotak ga keberatan dan tugas anak orang ga ilang. Sante kayak di pante, saya balik ke dorm buat makan siang sore. Lagi asik-asiknya ngunyah tahu (udah murah, sehat bergizi pula), hape saya bergetar hebat (lagi silent mode, makanya getarannya kenceng bener). Email dari mak bita. Isinya bikin geger.
"Kata mona, deadline tugas pugh sensei hari ini jam 12 mak. saya ga tau"
Untung tak dapat diraih, malang tak dapat diduga. Sekarang saya cuma bisa berharap Pugh Sensei berbaik hati mengampuni kesalahan kami dan mau menilai tugas yang sudah kami kerjakan dengan susah payah bantingkursi otak #otakudang.
Btw, daripada kebuang di tempat sampah (amit-amit jikpiiing *ketok-ketok meja*), mending saya share aja disini. Jikalau misalnya (semoga enggak) pugh sensei ga baca pun, minimal yang ngunjungin blog saya baca. hahaaha ;p Enjoy! :D
“No day is so bad it can't be fixed with a nap.”
-Carrie Snow-
“Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep.”
-Fran Lebowitz-
Sleeping and Dreaming as Trauma Healing in Haruki Murakami After The Quake
Haruki Murakami comes with an extraordinary book about Kobe Great Earthquake in 1995. There are total of six short stories: UFO in Kushiro, Landscape with Flatiron, All God`s Children Can Dance, Thailand, Super-Frog saves Tokyo, and Honey Pie. These stories have one obvious similarity, which is about trauma people caught into after suffering great earthquake. Five of it literally mentioned the stories take place on February, one month after the earthquake. Perhaps it was because the stories are talking about post-earthquake trauma.
This paper is going to analyze how Murakami sees and assign “trauma” in his stories. One of interesting topics which come out from every story is about sleeping and dreaming. About how Murakami put trauma in character`s sleeps and dreams and how sleeping and dreaming related with trauma. In his six stories, Murakami consistently write about sleeping and dreaming. There are significant pattern of sleeping and dreaming as healing method to deal with trauma.
Murakami is not alone. Sleep heals. Sleep does relate with trauma. Research revealed that sleep reduces risk of depression. Sleep affects many chemicals in people`s body, including serotonin, hormone which risking people to suffer from depression. When people are sleeping, everything slow or shuts down. It is the time for body to repair damage caused by stress, ultraviolet rays, and other harmful exposures.
Sleeping has three main stages which relate to self-healing function, especially for people with PTSD (Post Trauma Syndrome). First, light sleep. Right after starting feeling sleepy, brain, heart, and muscle gradually slow down its activity. In this stage, people are easily waken up. Second, deep sleep. During this stage, brain is taking rest and restore the energy people spend during waking hours. Self-healing process starts occurring in this stage. Third, REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep or the dreaming stage. In this phase, brain activity is very alike to awakened stage, only the body is paralyzed. Most dreaming occurs in REM stage. Researches also showed that when dream occurs, stress responses shut down and chemicals inside our body which has responsibility for stressful feeling stop being released. Beside, when people entering this stage of sleeping, brain starts processing emotions, retaining memories, retaining stress, and healing psychological traumas. Those are the reason why dreaming could be a healing method for people with PTSD.
Though research showed that sleeping and dreaming can heal trauma, Murakami might has different idea. Sleeping and dreaming in his story doesn’t always cure, meanwhile sleeping and dreaming causes more traumas. Adrenaline runs fast and gets the character depressed. Murakami ideas about sleeping and dreaming can be great counterparts for recent researches.
There are six stories to be analyzed. The first story is “UFO in Kushiro”. The story has two main characters, Komura (the left husband) and Shimao (shaman-alike figure). Second story is “Landscape with Flatiron” with Junko (a girl who left her home) and Miyake (the bonfire guy). In third story, “All God`s Children Can Dance”, readers have Yoshiya (a boy who is searching for his father) and his mother. The fourth story, “Thailand”, there are Satsuki (female doctor) and Nimit (male driver) as the main characters. In the fifth story, “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo”, readers were introduced to Katagiri (salary man) and Mr. Frog. The last story, “Honey Pie”, three figures: Sala (a 5 years old girl), Junpei (a writer), and Sayoko (Sala’s mother and the one that Junpei loves).
Analysis of Sleeping and Dreaming Pattern
Sleeping pattern appeared in the first story since the very beginning. The first paragraph of the story (p.3) mentioned that Komura`s wife didn’t sleep for five days before left home. “Five straight days she spent in front of the television. She never said a word, sunk deep in the cushions of the sofa, her mouth clamped shut, and wouldn’t answer if Komura asked something”. It continued on p.4 “..the sixth day, his wife disappeared.” It could be seen that his wife didn’t sleep or at least got enough sleep since she spent five days watching television. As a result of the lack of sleep, she changed emotionally and became a different person. Even before no sleeping period, she was described rarely spoke to people. But when she did not sleep at all, it got worse. She didn’t even talk to her husband and suddenly left.
Still in the first story, it was also explained that “..He (Komura) slept well with her (wife), undisturbed by the strange dreams that had troubled him in the past. He no longer had to worry about death or disease or the vastness of the universe. (p.5)” Murakami described opposite effect for person who sleep well at night. When Komura had good sleep, he didn’t worry about those things that used to bother him in the past. Good sleep gave him comfort and relief feeling. Though his satisfaction didn’t lead him into good relationship with his wife, but he let go of his depressed and fear about his past.
In the last part of the story, Komura met Shimao and they ended up trying to have sex but failed. Having sex is also believed as one of healing therapies which aim to relax the patient. But Komura was thinking about his wife and had almost lost his temper to Shimao. Instead of having sex, he sank himself into the bed. It was on p.23 “..he sank his head into his pillow again, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. The huge bed stretched out around him like a nocturnal sea.” It seems like Komura had entered the light sleep stage, where his body started to slow down everything and try to be more relax, tough his heart is still pounding. When he opened his eyes, he was not in anger anymore, but talked honestly with calmer voice to Shimao. Sleep helped Komura to control his emotion and healed his anger.
Move to second story, “Landscape with Flatiron”, sleeping and dreaming became more obvious and being talked in the character’s conversation. In the beginning of the story, Junko was described was watching television when Miyake called her few minutes before midnight because he planned to make a bonfire (p.25). It showed that both Junko and Miyake didn’t sleep until midnight. On p.35, Miyake confessed that he couldn’t sleep at night when there’s refrigerator around. The reason was because he always had bad dreams about it. “I have the same dream over and over. I wake up in the middle of night drenched with sweat. But even after I wake up, the dream doesn’t end. (p.40)” Still on the same page “I go to kitchen and open the refrigerator, I didn’t notice it was still a dream because I don’t have refrigerator. Cold hands. Dead people’s hands shoot out from the darkness and grab me by the neck. I scream and wake up for real” It seems like Miyake was dreaming about having a nightmare. When Junko asked him when he started having the dream, Miyake answered, “Way, way back there. A year or two years it left me alone. I had the feeling things were going to be OK, I’m saved, but it started up again.(p.41)” Miyake didn’t remember when was the first time he had that dream. As he couldn’t answered, readers also doesn’t know whether it was the dream first that haunted his life and made him hate the refrigerator or was it because he didn’t like refrigerator from the very beginning and started having nightmares about it. According to sleeping and dreaming research, Miyake had those dreams again after being left for year or two because actually he still thought about that. He was scare and it dragged him back to his own nightmare.
In the last part of the story, Junko told Miyake she felt empty and asked for suggestion. “Get a good night’s sleep. That usually fixes it”, answered Miyake (p.44). Junko took the advice and closed her eyes. During that almost light sleep, she talked to herself about her feeling to Miyake. She had an honest self-talk conversation about her emotion. On the next page, Junko felt herself getting sleepy and asked Miyake, “Mind if I take a nap? Will you wake me up when the fire’s out?”. Miyake answered, “Don’t worry. When the fire’s goes out, you’ll start feeling the cold. You’ll wake up whether you want to or not.” Then Junko dropped into fleeting, but deep sleep. Junko sank into deep sleep and perhaps started recovering herself or dreaming as stage of healing her depression. She felt safe and relax so she could fall asleep easily. But she didn’t feel totally comfortable about sleeping because she still wanted to be waken up when the fire, thing that make her feel relax and warm, went out.
The third story, “All God’s Children Can Dance” might didn`t have many parts about sleeping and dreaming. But Murakami started this story with sleeping scene. “Yoshiya slept after getting drunk and didn’t totally conscious. He wanted more sleep, but on the same time he felt too awful to sleep” (p.47). Yoshiya wanted to lose his bad hangover by running from his consciousness, by getting sleep. He didn’t do it because he couldn’t even sleep. He couldn’t run or heal those awful things he felt. In other page (p.50) it was also mentioned Yoshiya slept with her mother, “They slept in separate bedrooms, but whenever she felt lonely at night she would crawl under his covers with almost nothing on.” It continued, “Yoshiya has to twist himself to keep his mother unware about his erection. Yoshiya started masturbating or going to porn shop since he was terrified of stumbling a fatal relationship with his own mother.” This passage might explained more about mother complex sympthom, but could also be seen as the one who you are sleeping with might influence what do you feel about that person. When people are sleeping, they go unconscious and are not able to take control of what they feel. Yoshiya slept with his mom, even when he grew as teenager, it might be the caused so he had different feeling about his own mother. Dream was also mentioned in the last part of this story. Mr. Tabata, the one who saved his mother’s and his life, said, “This life is nothing but a short, painful dream (p.68).” Mr.Tabata confessed that people are sleeping and living their life in a dream. People are on their deep sleep stage and that was probably the reason human can’t take control of what happening in their life.
The fourth story, “Thailand”, also talked obviously about sleep and dream. In the beginning, readers could see Satsuki was awake and restless while the other passanger were sleeping. The other passanger didn’t feel the heat because they were drown in their own world and their body took a rest from the real world. On page 76, Satsuki did a self-talk conversation as she closed her eyes. “Yes, she tought, he lived in Kobe. I hope he was crushed to death or swallowed up by the earth. It`s everything I`ve wanted for him all these years.” The same pattern like what Junko did in the second story. People confesses and talks to their self when they close their eyes, when they almost go into light sleep and slow down their brain. Those characters ensure their selves about what they really want.
This story, differ from other story, seemed to say that dream might mean or want to tell you something. A belief in most of Asian countries or Thailand as representative. Passage about this came on page 78 “When Satsuki grew tired of reading, she napped. She had a short dream about rabbit. At first she observed the rabbit but soon she became the rabbit itself. Even after she awoke, she had a bad taste in her mouth”. She had a dream. She had a trauma and she was in process to get over that trauma by having a dream. Dream might mean something became more obvious on p.85 “You’re going to have a dream about a large snake. Think of it as your life and holding it until you wake up.” Satsuki treated people’s bodies by medicine, while dream treated people’s spirit. Something couldn’t be healed by scientific medicine. As Satsuki tried to tell Nimit her problem, he refused and told her to have her dream. Satsuki’s problem was not thing that could be overcome by talking or thinking, but by having deep sleep, rest the brain, and let your body healed your self. Finally, Satsuki took the advice, closed her eyes, and told her self to sleep (p.90). It might or might not work. Sleeping and dreaming are not things you can force your self to do. Just like people can’t force the healing process. It just happen. Even researcher doesn’t know how people fall asleep or heal their self. Seems like Satsuki still had long way to go to break the stone inside.
The next story, “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo”, sleeping and dreaming come in sequences. The character was twisted between dream and reality. When Katagiri saw Frog for the first time, he thought he was dreaming (p.92). People think they are dreaming when they are seeing something unsual or uncommon. They seek for a place or shelter (dream) to avoid strange things. Katagiri was shot on the day when he was supposed to help frog to save Tokyo. He felt unconscious. Readers couldn’t be sure whether process of healing in unconsciousness because body was shot and felt incredible pain similar with unconsciousness because people sleep. Readers were left confused.
Katagiri woke up in the hospital but the nurse said he wasn’t got shot. “Somebody found you lying unconscious in the street. And you had a really bad night, some awful nightmares. You yelled ‘Frog! Hey Frog! You did a lot!’. (p.109)” Again, the nurse guessed Katagiri was dreaming because it was uncommon for human to be friend with a frog. Beside, Katagiri thought he was shot while the nurse said he wasn’t. He, as well as the readers who were left confuse, wondered which one was the real dream.
Then frog came to hospital and said Katagiri helped him in the battleship. “You did a great job in your dreams. (p.110)” “I don’t remember doing anything in my dreams”, Katagiri answered. Frog replied, “The whole terrible fight occured in the area of imagination.” It showed that imagination might lead people to something bad. Imagination is not something as unconscious as dream. Brain is still active when people imagine something. Finally, when frog said he was tired, Katagiri suggested him to take a sleep. “Take a good, deep sleep. You’ll get better. (p.111-112)” It showed Katagiri believed that sleep heals. But as frog slept, his body was eaten by worm. Katagiri screamed and the nurse came again and asked whether he had a nightmare again (p.114). Soon after the nightmare, seemed like Katagiri was able to accept that frog died because he saved Tokyo. Once again pattern about dream heals your worry came out. “Katagiri closed his eyes and sank into a restful, dreamless sleep. (p.114)” As he felt relief, he didn’t have that dream again. He was healed and he didn’t need that dream to heal himself again, for a while.
The last story, “Honey Pie”, talked about bedtime story as healing method. Sleeping and dreaming as trauma healing and trauma trigger were showed through the characters. The story was begun with Junpei reading a bedtime story about bear for Sala. He expected his bedtime story could drive drive Sala good, deep sleep to find some healing. Sala did fall asleep but she got a nightmare too which woke her up and made her cry. Sala got nightmares about The Earthquake Man (p.119). “Since then, she often woke up in the middle of the night, can’t stop shaking and crying.” Dream should heal people, but in this case, dream gave bad effect for Sala. Instead of healing, dreams haunted Sala so she was afraid of sleeping. “Sala spoke in a flat voice, like someone who has just been ripped out of a dream” p.144. Junpei thought it was because she saw too much TV news about earthquake. When people see or hear too much bad news, moreover in television where images were showed, people tend to repeat those images unconciously. Perhaps it was what dragged Sala into her nightmares.
In order to encounter the scary news, Junpei told children stories to guide her dream. When people feel relax before they go to sleep, they might don’t need to have bad dream. But Sala was different. She had trauma and as a result it appeared in her sleep. She had a dream and shook and cried after it might be one of the healing processes. Kids couldn’t express their feeling. If she could release her feeling by crying, she might feel better afterward. “Junpei eased himself down to the carpeted floor by the bed to watch over them in their sleep. (p.146)” Junpei was trying to guide the dream. He was trying to protect Sala from her nightmares. In the last part of the story, Junpei also had self talk conversation. “Junpei closed his eyes and thought about the long stretch of time. He didn`t want to think of it as something he had used up without any meaning” p.146. The same pattern in second and fourth story when the characters talked to their self as they closed their eyes.
Sleeping or Waking Up?
Sleeping and dreaming might appear as a patten in six of Murakami’s stories. But is it really about dream or Murakami was trying to talk about the opposite thing, about waking up? As these six stories have pattern about sleeping and dreaming, it also mentioned about waking up. Start from “UFO in Kushiro”. Kumora’s wife didn’t sleep for five days because she was watching television and left on the sixth days. It might be not because her emotion got unstable as she didn’t sleep, but she was awakened from her daily boring life. She left because she realized Komura had nothing she had ever wanted.
The same thing could also be seen in “Landscape with Flatiron”. Junko was awakened by the phone call. At the end of the story, she would also be awakened by the bonfire as the fire went out. She couldn’t run or sleep forever. She had to face the reality.
The next story, “All God’s Children Can Dance”, Yoshiya was awakaned by his bad hangover. Hangover might not be a wise alarm to wake someone up, but still it dragged Yoshiya from his attemp to go back to his comfort zone where he didn’t have to worry about his father, sleeping.He wanted it but he couldn’t. He had to be awake.
In the forth story, “Thailand”, an announcement woke Satsuki up. A warning that something bad, described through turbulance, is going to happen. It’s not the dream that told her about the future, but the announcement that told something is going to occur in her life.
Being awake also appeared in “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo”. In this story, it’s difficult to differentiate which was the reality and the dream. Both happened alternately, didn’t give any chances for Katagiri to think. In the end of the story, as he opened his eyes and switched on the light, he no longer saw the bad dreams or frog eaten by worm. Even the nurse said “Oh good, you’re finally awake. (p.107)” He was awakaned from his unconsciousness and dreams. He was ready to face the reality again.
The last story, “Honey Pie”, waking up was mentioned at the very last part. Junpei waited until Sayoko awake to ask her to marry him. As she awake, he would be able to tell what he wanted to and being wake up was great. Also “Junpei want to write about people who dream and wait for the night to end, who long for the light so they can hold the ones they love. (p.147)” He didn’t want to guide someone into good dreams or deep sleep anymore, yet he wanted them to wake up so they could reached for their love.
Conclusion
Murakami mentioned sleeping and dreaming as healing method as well as trauma trigger in his six stories. Though research revealed that sleeping can cure, but Murakami slightly has different idea. He put sleeping, sleeping, and dreaming as two magnetic poles which pull each other. Trauma causes (bad) dreams and sleeping and dreaming can somehow helps the characters to get over of their (bad) past. Also, Murakami mentioned about waking up. The characters were awakened up by their own alarm. Though sleeping and dreaming are relieving, but they have to stay awake to face the reality. On the other hand, when sleeping and dreaming drag them into shock, they are awakened to give them time to breath and leave the dreams behind. Sleeping, dreaming, trauma, and waking up keep on appearing constantly.
This paper for sure need deeper analysis. Pattern of sleeping, dreaming, trauma, and waking up can be more investigate through his interview or more scientific prove. Content analysis related to those subject is expected to be conducted to find deeper result.
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Well, despite of my bad grammar and poor words choices, I do still hope sensei will take my paper and read it instead of throwing into garbage. ;p
References :
http://www.asiaone.com/Health/News/Story/A1Story20071227-42673.html
http://tatjana-mihaela.hubpages.com/hub/REM-sleep
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/11/111129-sleep-dreaming-rem-brain-emotions-science-health/
"Kata mona, deadline tugas pugh sensei hari ini jam 12 mak. saya ga tau"
Untung tak dapat diraih, malang tak dapat diduga. Sekarang saya cuma bisa berharap Pugh Sensei berbaik hati mengampuni kesalahan kami dan mau menilai tugas yang sudah kami kerjakan dengan susah payah banting
Btw, daripada kebuang di tempat sampah (amit-amit jikpiiing *ketok-ketok meja*), mending saya share aja disini. Jikalau misalnya (semoga enggak) pugh sensei ga baca pun, minimal yang ngunjungin blog saya baca. hahaaha ;p Enjoy! :D
“No day is so bad it can't be fixed with a nap.”
-Carrie Snow-
“Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep.”
-Fran Lebowitz-
Sleeping and Dreaming as Trauma Healing in Haruki Murakami After The Quake
This paper is going to analyze how Murakami sees and assign “trauma” in his stories. One of interesting topics which come out from every story is about sleeping and dreaming. About how Murakami put trauma in character`s sleeps and dreams and how sleeping and dreaming related with trauma. In his six stories, Murakami consistently write about sleeping and dreaming. There are significant pattern of sleeping and dreaming as healing method to deal with trauma.
Murakami is not alone. Sleep heals. Sleep does relate with trauma. Research revealed that sleep reduces risk of depression. Sleep affects many chemicals in people`s body, including serotonin, hormone which risking people to suffer from depression. When people are sleeping, everything slow or shuts down. It is the time for body to repair damage caused by stress, ultraviolet rays, and other harmful exposures.
Sleeping has three main stages which relate to self-healing function, especially for people with PTSD (Post Trauma Syndrome). First, light sleep. Right after starting feeling sleepy, brain, heart, and muscle gradually slow down its activity. In this stage, people are easily waken up. Second, deep sleep. During this stage, brain is taking rest and restore the energy people spend during waking hours. Self-healing process starts occurring in this stage. Third, REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep or the dreaming stage. In this phase, brain activity is very alike to awakened stage, only the body is paralyzed. Most dreaming occurs in REM stage. Researches also showed that when dream occurs, stress responses shut down and chemicals inside our body which has responsibility for stressful feeling stop being released. Beside, when people entering this stage of sleeping, brain starts processing emotions, retaining memories, retaining stress, and healing psychological traumas. Those are the reason why dreaming could be a healing method for people with PTSD.
Though research showed that sleeping and dreaming can heal trauma, Murakami might has different idea. Sleeping and dreaming in his story doesn’t always cure, meanwhile sleeping and dreaming causes more traumas. Adrenaline runs fast and gets the character depressed. Murakami ideas about sleeping and dreaming can be great counterparts for recent researches.
There are six stories to be analyzed. The first story is “UFO in Kushiro”. The story has two main characters, Komura (the left husband) and Shimao (shaman-alike figure). Second story is “Landscape with Flatiron” with Junko (a girl who left her home) and Miyake (the bonfire guy). In third story, “All God`s Children Can Dance”, readers have Yoshiya (a boy who is searching for his father) and his mother. The fourth story, “Thailand”, there are Satsuki (female doctor) and Nimit (male driver) as the main characters. In the fifth story, “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo”, readers were introduced to Katagiri (salary man) and Mr. Frog. The last story, “Honey Pie”, three figures: Sala (a 5 years old girl), Junpei (a writer), and Sayoko (Sala’s mother and the one that Junpei loves).
Analysis of Sleeping and Dreaming Pattern
Sleeping pattern appeared in the first story since the very beginning. The first paragraph of the story (p.3) mentioned that Komura`s wife didn’t sleep for five days before left home. “Five straight days she spent in front of the television. She never said a word, sunk deep in the cushions of the sofa, her mouth clamped shut, and wouldn’t answer if Komura asked something”. It continued on p.4 “..the sixth day, his wife disappeared.” It could be seen that his wife didn’t sleep or at least got enough sleep since she spent five days watching television. As a result of the lack of sleep, she changed emotionally and became a different person. Even before no sleeping period, she was described rarely spoke to people. But when she did not sleep at all, it got worse. She didn’t even talk to her husband and suddenly left.
Still in the first story, it was also explained that “..He (Komura) slept well with her (wife), undisturbed by the strange dreams that had troubled him in the past. He no longer had to worry about death or disease or the vastness of the universe. (p.5)” Murakami described opposite effect for person who sleep well at night. When Komura had good sleep, he didn’t worry about those things that used to bother him in the past. Good sleep gave him comfort and relief feeling. Though his satisfaction didn’t lead him into good relationship with his wife, but he let go of his depressed and fear about his past.
In the last part of the story, Komura met Shimao and they ended up trying to have sex but failed. Having sex is also believed as one of healing therapies which aim to relax the patient. But Komura was thinking about his wife and had almost lost his temper to Shimao. Instead of having sex, he sank himself into the bed. It was on p.23 “..he sank his head into his pillow again, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. The huge bed stretched out around him like a nocturnal sea.” It seems like Komura had entered the light sleep stage, where his body started to slow down everything and try to be more relax, tough his heart is still pounding. When he opened his eyes, he was not in anger anymore, but talked honestly with calmer voice to Shimao. Sleep helped Komura to control his emotion and healed his anger.
Move to second story, “Landscape with Flatiron”, sleeping and dreaming became more obvious and being talked in the character’s conversation. In the beginning of the story, Junko was described was watching television when Miyake called her few minutes before midnight because he planned to make a bonfire (p.25). It showed that both Junko and Miyake didn’t sleep until midnight. On p.35, Miyake confessed that he couldn’t sleep at night when there’s refrigerator around. The reason was because he always had bad dreams about it. “I have the same dream over and over. I wake up in the middle of night drenched with sweat. But even after I wake up, the dream doesn’t end. (p.40)” Still on the same page “I go to kitchen and open the refrigerator, I didn’t notice it was still a dream because I don’t have refrigerator. Cold hands. Dead people’s hands shoot out from the darkness and grab me by the neck. I scream and wake up for real” It seems like Miyake was dreaming about having a nightmare. When Junko asked him when he started having the dream, Miyake answered, “Way, way back there. A year or two years it left me alone. I had the feeling things were going to be OK, I’m saved, but it started up again.(p.41)” Miyake didn’t remember when was the first time he had that dream. As he couldn’t answered, readers also doesn’t know whether it was the dream first that haunted his life and made him hate the refrigerator or was it because he didn’t like refrigerator from the very beginning and started having nightmares about it. According to sleeping and dreaming research, Miyake had those dreams again after being left for year or two because actually he still thought about that. He was scare and it dragged him back to his own nightmare.
In the last part of the story, Junko told Miyake she felt empty and asked for suggestion. “Get a good night’s sleep. That usually fixes it”, answered Miyake (p.44). Junko took the advice and closed her eyes. During that almost light sleep, she talked to herself about her feeling to Miyake. She had an honest self-talk conversation about her emotion. On the next page, Junko felt herself getting sleepy and asked Miyake, “Mind if I take a nap? Will you wake me up when the fire’s out?”. Miyake answered, “Don’t worry. When the fire’s goes out, you’ll start feeling the cold. You’ll wake up whether you want to or not.” Then Junko dropped into fleeting, but deep sleep. Junko sank into deep sleep and perhaps started recovering herself or dreaming as stage of healing her depression. She felt safe and relax so she could fall asleep easily. But she didn’t feel totally comfortable about sleeping because she still wanted to be waken up when the fire, thing that make her feel relax and warm, went out.
The third story, “All God’s Children Can Dance” might didn`t have many parts about sleeping and dreaming. But Murakami started this story with sleeping scene. “Yoshiya slept after getting drunk and didn’t totally conscious. He wanted more sleep, but on the same time he felt too awful to sleep” (p.47). Yoshiya wanted to lose his bad hangover by running from his consciousness, by getting sleep. He didn’t do it because he couldn’t even sleep. He couldn’t run or heal those awful things he felt. In other page (p.50) it was also mentioned Yoshiya slept with her mother, “They slept in separate bedrooms, but whenever she felt lonely at night she would crawl under his covers with almost nothing on.” It continued, “Yoshiya has to twist himself to keep his mother unware about his erection. Yoshiya started masturbating or going to porn shop since he was terrified of stumbling a fatal relationship with his own mother.” This passage might explained more about mother complex sympthom, but could also be seen as the one who you are sleeping with might influence what do you feel about that person. When people are sleeping, they go unconscious and are not able to take control of what they feel. Yoshiya slept with his mom, even when he grew as teenager, it might be the caused so he had different feeling about his own mother. Dream was also mentioned in the last part of this story. Mr. Tabata, the one who saved his mother’s and his life, said, “This life is nothing but a short, painful dream (p.68).” Mr.Tabata confessed that people are sleeping and living their life in a dream. People are on their deep sleep stage and that was probably the reason human can’t take control of what happening in their life.
The fourth story, “Thailand”, also talked obviously about sleep and dream. In the beginning, readers could see Satsuki was awake and restless while the other passanger were sleeping. The other passanger didn’t feel the heat because they were drown in their own world and their body took a rest from the real world. On page 76, Satsuki did a self-talk conversation as she closed her eyes. “Yes, she tought, he lived in Kobe. I hope he was crushed to death or swallowed up by the earth. It`s everything I`ve wanted for him all these years.” The same pattern like what Junko did in the second story. People confesses and talks to their self when they close their eyes, when they almost go into light sleep and slow down their brain. Those characters ensure their selves about what they really want.
This story, differ from other story, seemed to say that dream might mean or want to tell you something. A belief in most of Asian countries or Thailand as representative. Passage about this came on page 78 “When Satsuki grew tired of reading, she napped. She had a short dream about rabbit. At first she observed the rabbit but soon she became the rabbit itself. Even after she awoke, she had a bad taste in her mouth”. She had a dream. She had a trauma and she was in process to get over that trauma by having a dream. Dream might mean something became more obvious on p.85 “You’re going to have a dream about a large snake. Think of it as your life and holding it until you wake up.” Satsuki treated people’s bodies by medicine, while dream treated people’s spirit. Something couldn’t be healed by scientific medicine. As Satsuki tried to tell Nimit her problem, he refused and told her to have her dream. Satsuki’s problem was not thing that could be overcome by talking or thinking, but by having deep sleep, rest the brain, and let your body healed your self. Finally, Satsuki took the advice, closed her eyes, and told her self to sleep (p.90). It might or might not work. Sleeping and dreaming are not things you can force your self to do. Just like people can’t force the healing process. It just happen. Even researcher doesn’t know how people fall asleep or heal their self. Seems like Satsuki still had long way to go to break the stone inside.
The next story, “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo”, sleeping and dreaming come in sequences. The character was twisted between dream and reality. When Katagiri saw Frog for the first time, he thought he was dreaming (p.92). People think they are dreaming when they are seeing something unsual or uncommon. They seek for a place or shelter (dream) to avoid strange things. Katagiri was shot on the day when he was supposed to help frog to save Tokyo. He felt unconscious. Readers couldn’t be sure whether process of healing in unconsciousness because body was shot and felt incredible pain similar with unconsciousness because people sleep. Readers were left confused.
Katagiri woke up in the hospital but the nurse said he wasn’t got shot. “Somebody found you lying unconscious in the street. And you had a really bad night, some awful nightmares. You yelled ‘Frog! Hey Frog! You did a lot!’. (p.109)” Again, the nurse guessed Katagiri was dreaming because it was uncommon for human to be friend with a frog. Beside, Katagiri thought he was shot while the nurse said he wasn’t. He, as well as the readers who were left confuse, wondered which one was the real dream.
Then frog came to hospital and said Katagiri helped him in the battleship. “You did a great job in your dreams. (p.110)” “I don’t remember doing anything in my dreams”, Katagiri answered. Frog replied, “The whole terrible fight occured in the area of imagination.” It showed that imagination might lead people to something bad. Imagination is not something as unconscious as dream. Brain is still active when people imagine something. Finally, when frog said he was tired, Katagiri suggested him to take a sleep. “Take a good, deep sleep. You’ll get better. (p.111-112)” It showed Katagiri believed that sleep heals. But as frog slept, his body was eaten by worm. Katagiri screamed and the nurse came again and asked whether he had a nightmare again (p.114). Soon after the nightmare, seemed like Katagiri was able to accept that frog died because he saved Tokyo. Once again pattern about dream heals your worry came out. “Katagiri closed his eyes and sank into a restful, dreamless sleep. (p.114)” As he felt relief, he didn’t have that dream again. He was healed and he didn’t need that dream to heal himself again, for a while.
The last story, “Honey Pie”, talked about bedtime story as healing method. Sleeping and dreaming as trauma healing and trauma trigger were showed through the characters. The story was begun with Junpei reading a bedtime story about bear for Sala. He expected his bedtime story could drive drive Sala good, deep sleep to find some healing. Sala did fall asleep but she got a nightmare too which woke her up and made her cry. Sala got nightmares about The Earthquake Man (p.119). “Since then, she often woke up in the middle of the night, can’t stop shaking and crying.” Dream should heal people, but in this case, dream gave bad effect for Sala. Instead of healing, dreams haunted Sala so she was afraid of sleeping. “Sala spoke in a flat voice, like someone who has just been ripped out of a dream” p.144. Junpei thought it was because she saw too much TV news about earthquake. When people see or hear too much bad news, moreover in television where images were showed, people tend to repeat those images unconciously. Perhaps it was what dragged Sala into her nightmares.
In order to encounter the scary news, Junpei told children stories to guide her dream. When people feel relax before they go to sleep, they might don’t need to have bad dream. But Sala was different. She had trauma and as a result it appeared in her sleep. She had a dream and shook and cried after it might be one of the healing processes. Kids couldn’t express their feeling. If she could release her feeling by crying, she might feel better afterward. “Junpei eased himself down to the carpeted floor by the bed to watch over them in their sleep. (p.146)” Junpei was trying to guide the dream. He was trying to protect Sala from her nightmares. In the last part of the story, Junpei also had self talk conversation. “Junpei closed his eyes and thought about the long stretch of time. He didn`t want to think of it as something he had used up without any meaning” p.146. The same pattern in second and fourth story when the characters talked to their self as they closed their eyes.
Sleeping or Waking Up?
Sleeping and dreaming might appear as a patten in six of Murakami’s stories. But is it really about dream or Murakami was trying to talk about the opposite thing, about waking up? As these six stories have pattern about sleeping and dreaming, it also mentioned about waking up. Start from “UFO in Kushiro”. Kumora’s wife didn’t sleep for five days because she was watching television and left on the sixth days. It might be not because her emotion got unstable as she didn’t sleep, but she was awakened from her daily boring life. She left because she realized Komura had nothing she had ever wanted.
The same thing could also be seen in “Landscape with Flatiron”. Junko was awakened by the phone call. At the end of the story, she would also be awakened by the bonfire as the fire went out. She couldn’t run or sleep forever. She had to face the reality.
The next story, “All God’s Children Can Dance”, Yoshiya was awakaned by his bad hangover. Hangover might not be a wise alarm to wake someone up, but still it dragged Yoshiya from his attemp to go back to his comfort zone where he didn’t have to worry about his father, sleeping.He wanted it but he couldn’t. He had to be awake.
In the forth story, “Thailand”, an announcement woke Satsuki up. A warning that something bad, described through turbulance, is going to happen. It’s not the dream that told her about the future, but the announcement that told something is going to occur in her life.
Being awake also appeared in “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo”. In this story, it’s difficult to differentiate which was the reality and the dream. Both happened alternately, didn’t give any chances for Katagiri to think. In the end of the story, as he opened his eyes and switched on the light, he no longer saw the bad dreams or frog eaten by worm. Even the nurse said “Oh good, you’re finally awake. (p.107)” He was awakaned from his unconsciousness and dreams. He was ready to face the reality again.
The last story, “Honey Pie”, waking up was mentioned at the very last part. Junpei waited until Sayoko awake to ask her to marry him. As she awake, he would be able to tell what he wanted to and being wake up was great. Also “Junpei want to write about people who dream and wait for the night to end, who long for the light so they can hold the ones they love. (p.147)” He didn’t want to guide someone into good dreams or deep sleep anymore, yet he wanted them to wake up so they could reached for their love.
Conclusion
Murakami mentioned sleeping and dreaming as healing method as well as trauma trigger in his six stories. Though research revealed that sleeping can cure, but Murakami slightly has different idea. He put sleeping, sleeping, and dreaming as two magnetic poles which pull each other. Trauma causes (bad) dreams and sleeping and dreaming can somehow helps the characters to get over of their (bad) past. Also, Murakami mentioned about waking up. The characters were awakened up by their own alarm. Though sleeping and dreaming are relieving, but they have to stay awake to face the reality. On the other hand, when sleeping and dreaming drag them into shock, they are awakened to give them time to breath and leave the dreams behind. Sleeping, dreaming, trauma, and waking up keep on appearing constantly.
This paper for sure need deeper analysis. Pattern of sleeping, dreaming, trauma, and waking up can be more investigate through his interview or more scientific prove. Content analysis related to those subject is expected to be conducted to find deeper result.
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Well, despite of my bad grammar and poor words choices, I do still hope sensei will take my paper and read it instead of throwing into garbage. ;p
References :
http://www.asiaone.com/Health/News/Story/A1Story20071227-42673.html
http://tatjana-mihaela.hubpages.com/hub/REM-sleep
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/11/111129-sleep-dreaming-rem-brain-emotions-science-health/
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