Post #4

We talked about music in Murakami's other works, so I wanted to talk about Norwegian Wood by the Beatles.  The song itself is short, but has no chorus and has lines that obviously seemed to inspire Murakami's book in some ways.  The first line of the song "I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me" is a great summary of Watanbe and Naoko's relationship.  Watanabe until the end of the book is completely engrossed with Naoko.  Watanabe never had possession of her in some way, but Naoko definitely held a sort of control over Watanabe and his life.  Watanabe's interest in Naoko restricted his relationship with Midori.

The ending of the song is also similarly similar to the end of the book.  The second to the last line is "And when I awoke I was alone, this bird had flown" similar to how Naoko left Watanabe in the novel.  However, not all of the lyrics were influential for Murakami.  The narrator in the song burns down the girls house in revenge, whereas Watanabe achieves a sort of closure through Reiko at the end.  There was a burning house in the novel, it just wasn't Naoko's.