Having now read several of Murakami works, a distinct pattern I've noticed is that the main characters in many of his stories end up being alone and isolated after some profound experience or gained knowledge. In Norwegian Wood, Watanabe loses his best friends Kizuki and Naoko, and is found by himself in some unknown place at the end of the novel. In A Wild Sheep Chase, Boku loses his wife, his eventual girlfriend and his best friend The Rat. In The Strange Library, the main character loses his mom, the starlet and the sheep man. The main characters have in common a kind of innocence and are plain characters; they've always been able to go with the flow of society until some event occurs.
The characters who die. or commit suicide, seem to do so when they can't deal with the flaws of society, particularly Kizuki and Naoko. Both of those characters as well as Hatsumi die at a young age; when they enter adulthood, it seems as though they couldn't live without the comforts of childhood innocence. Murakami seems to leave two options for those who can't deal with society's flaws – either death or acceptance. While the main character in Murakami novel may be living by the end of the story, he or she is often left in a confused state of mind. The main character become permanently detached from society and loses those who are closest to him or her.
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