Blog #4 (Late) - Sleep

Reading Sleep had me the most engaged I had been in a Murakami story since A Wild Sheep Chase. I think that this short story is one of his best, and hit all the marks on what makes a Murakami story a Murakami story; particularly, the blurred boundary between reality and the other world. 

Throughout our study of Murakami's works this semester, I find it no understatement to say that he has some real trouble writing female characters most of the time. The cast of Norweigan Wood comes to mind foremost. However, it feels like in writing this story with a female protagonist narrating in the first person he made a real attempt at making this character feel fleshed out and real.

The ending of this short story could seem abrupt and confusing at first glance, but I feel that with some analysis, it makes quite a lot of sense. My interpretation of the ending dealt with the protagonist's sexual trauma which was mentioned quite briefly toward the end of the story. She mentions a college boyfriend who had sex with her without her consent, and this explanation is placed directly before the climactic end. I think that it is this sexual trauma that caused her initial sleeplessness-- the timelines match as well, as mentioned at the beginning of the story. Under this assumption, it is safe to assume that the sleep-paralysis-type dream that she has which acts as the catalyst for her second bout of sleeplessness is the manifestation of that repressed trauma. This is proven further in the parallels in the two scenes with water-- the first, with the creature pouring water on her feet endlessly, and the second with her tears coming uncontrollably. 

Similarly, earlier in the story a police officer tells the protagonist not to hang around certain areas late at night, as a couple was assaulted earlier. The woman was sexually assaulted, and the man was murdered. At the end of the story, the protagonist goes-- dressed as a man-- to a dangerous area. This is, presumably, done so she can face the same fate as the man instead of the fate of the woman that she already faced from her college boyfriend. 

Looking at it through that lens, a lot of the story's contents start making sense to me, but that's just my interpretation of the text. 

-Evan