Norwegian Wood
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I didn't understand the ending of this book, what happened exactly?
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The whole book is a flashback so it proved that Watanabe was saved from depression.As to the question if Midori and Watanabe ended up together, I think not. Because along the story Midori said that if Watanabe eventually decides to choose her that he'd take only her and think only about her. But at the start he kept his promise and never forget about Naoko.
THE ENDING EXPLAINED. I just read Norwegian Wood and finished it this morning. The ending really got to me but I couldn't explain it. At first I had two theories. One was that Toru was now feeling what Naoko felt and was becoming mentally unstable. He was reaching out to Midori from this place that he described as, 'no place.' Toru was now hopelessly sick and lost. I also thought that maybe it was just a way of saying that Toru and Midori's relationship wasn't going to work. Like he's calling her saying he wants to start over but his future self who's telling the story now thinks that their love was hopeless and that it was doomed from the start no matter what and that's why he's lost.
I went back to the book and read it again. The line that stuck out to me was when he said that he looked up to see people walking to nowhere. The ending had a totally new meaning to me. It meant that we're all just going from A to B never stopping in between. That we're oblivious to the beauty of the world or we just don't care. That's why he describes it as 'no place.'
It's very existential. It made me think of the song Nowhere Man by The Beatles. But anyway I hope this explanation makes sense. I didn't see it anywhere so aha I guess I figured it out and no one else did. It is like he's sick like Naoko, maybe Naoko realized this. There's a quote by Albert Camus, I'm not really sure if it's relevant but here it is anyway, "The realization that life is absurd (or meaningless) is not an end but only a beginning. This is a truth that nearly all great minds have taken as a starting point. It is not this discovery that is interesting, but the consequences and rules of action drawn from it."
I feel like death was a vicious cycle that kept on being passed around in this book. So first kizuki's death gets passed on to Naoko and her suicide gets passed on to Toru. Except he didn’t die but confided in Midouri who represented life in the story. In the end, Midori takes up on the role that Wannatabe was initially playing. And recalling the first chapter, we can see that he did manage to live on while knowing that death is an innate part of life. Speaking of Midouri seperately, I feel like she was the girl who fully gave toru herself and was the source of health he couldn’t find from anyone else throughout the book (besides stormtrooper ofc, but he also leaves in the start of the story bad joke sorry) lol I also noticed how throughout the story Toru's has sexual encounters with Naoko, Reiko and Midori and the other girls he sleeps with during his hostel time except the only thing the separates Midouri is that he actually waits for her despite her constant sexual dynamic with him.
ALSO does anyone else here think Reiko herself might have been the pathological liar??
Well what I think is as said in the first of the story he was in the plane and he hears the norwegian wood song and it takes him all back maybe he never really stopped traveling and the end of the book is really the time that he thinks he should stop traveling and getting back to reall life and the end of the book is really the time he needs to hear Midori's voice. And he just doesn't know where he is he just knows he wants to get back.
As it seems people still read and post on this thread, albeit being 5 years old, and considering I just finished this excellent book and was kind of confused about the ending too, I'll share my theory.First of all, I'd like to make it clear that I believe there's no "true ending". Murakami clearly ended the book the way he did to let people discuss and have their own endings. So I'm not right or wrong at all, that's just how I interpreted the book.
In my perspective, Toru and Midori do stay together. The key point for me is whether it happens back in 1970 or in book's present time (1987 I guess). I prefer to believe and think it makes more sense for it to be in the 70's, the telephone booth scene happening as soon as Reiko departs. Japanese is sometimes a very hard language to translate and comprehend, and I believe translating this last paragraph must've been a pain in the ass in the sense of translating the meaning of it. I think the "dead center" and people heading nowhere is just Toru's perception of society. He's an outsider, and he's been spaced out for a long time since Naoko's death. By the end of the book, Toru realized Naoko was gone. Even though he resisted accepting it for a long time, he ended up realizing he had lost her ("...But forget it, Kizuki. I'm giving her to you. You're the one she chose, after all."), and he was bound to lose Midori too if he didn't talk to her soon. If they stayed together until book's present time, it's uncertain, though.
Now, the first chapter. You must read it again after finishing the book. The meadow scene happens when he first visits Ami hostel ("Autumn 1969, and soon I would be twenty"), and in this scene Naoko tells Toru about the "well", which is in fact a metaphor for her depression. At this point she already figured they couldn't stay together, and I think she was already considering suicide. Here she shows us how she felt awful for having sex with Toru ("How could you have done such a thing? Why didn't you just leave me alone?") and not with Kizuki, the one she really loved (at some point in the book she wonders why she couldn't get wet with him, but did get that night with Toru). She didn't blame Toru for doing it, but herself for her body "accepting" him and not Kizuki ("I didn't meant to hurt you(...) I was just angry at myself."). I think Naoko slowly grew despised of herself for it, and that's what led her to commit suicide. She reached a point where she couldn't stand being herself anymore.
In the first chapter we also read about how difficult it is for Toru to remember Naoko, meaning he outgrew and freed himself from his own sadness. This book is basically about how everybody is flawed and how some people just can't cope with it.
:) here is my interpretation: the answer to that question is on the cover of the book: Norwegian wood .. :)
y does it say 'new' after every single comment?
A Slice of the Moon wrote: "I'd rather interpret it in a positive sense. Watanabe is shown to be someone who cannot open up about his problems - even his friend Nagasawa comments on how he is secretive when it comes to his ..."
I totally agree with you. choosing Midori, he came back to life and decided to be alive, in addition as you said, the book starts 10 years later so we are sure he's alive.
I hated the ending. It made me feel like he had a mental breakdown and somehow he got through that (hence the first part of the book). And even though I'm not a fan of Midori, I feel bad for her because in my brain I think she had to take care of him Toru... That's why he got better.
Allyson wrote: "The whole book is a flashback so it proved that Watanabe was saved from depression.As to the question if Midori and Watanabe ended up together, I think not. Because along the story Midori said th..."
I agree. Naoko asked that he always remember her. Midori insisted that he think only of her. Also, it may be that Reiko is the love of his life. In any case, he is in an impossible situation.
Maybe the book should have been called In My Life. It seems to follow the lyrics closer.
I think that “the place that is no place” is between life and death. Life = Midori, death = Naoko, and he’s trapped in between them. Maybe the “no place” is symbolised by Reiko, and the well at the start. So he’s calling to Midori to get him out - we know he’s choosing life over death (unlike Kizuki). Unlike Naoko, he will make it out of the well.
Anna wrote: "I think that “the place that is no place” is between life and death. Life = Midori, death = Naoko, and he’s trapped in between them. Maybe the “no place” is symbolised by Reiko, and the well at the..."This is optimistic. I hope you are right. Perhaps it's easy to be judgmental about Watanabe, but he did, as you remind us, choose life.
any one tell me sexuality in norwegian wood?
Omar wrote: "any one tell me sexuality in norwegian wood?"Dear Omar,
I think that one theme of the book is the psychological effects of different kinds of sex. This issue is most obvious in Naoko, who can perform oral and manual sex without batting an eye but who has to go to the hospital after engaging in vaginal sex. She later tells Reiko that the feeling was very powerful but that she never wants to feel that way again.
The other major theme of the book is honesty, and I think that Reiko is the link who combines the two themes: Her life goes off track when she has sex with a dishonest person; and she recovers after having sex with an honest person.
Sex seems to be a measure of compatibility...I'm afraid I'll have to read it a few more times before understanding more.
Thank you so much for this page and for the comments. I really have little to add about the ending, only that Murakami does open pathways for looking into the nature of ourselves. I hope he gets the Nobel this year, he deserves it, Not only for his beautiful narrative, but for the depth of it. Some may call it whimsical, but I think it is multidimensional.
Hey guys !! It's 2019 now .And I just read the book .ik im late tho 😆 but your comments about this book is so interesting.I loved reading all of em after so many years of its publishing .Its such a Weird feeling that I'm reading these comments of so many years back from a different part of the world at 12:00 PM . This feeling is just too weird ..haha ok bye I'll get going I have classes tomorrow 🙋
Sneha wrote: "Hey guys !! It's 2019 now .And I just read the book .ik im late tho 😆 but your comments about this book is so interesting.I loved reading all of em after so many years of its publishing .Its such a..."I hope you enjoy your class tomorrow, Sneha.
Did anyone else catch that when he dropped Reiko off he ended up in Ueno station? Midori's father had tried with tremendous effort as a dying man to tell Toru something about a ticket, Ueno, and Midori. He even said please. Toru travels a lot in this book but I believe that was the only time it mentions him being there. I'd personally like to believe that he remembers this, and her stories of wanting to run away. Maybe he gets to tell her where he is and they have a free spirited adventure with no real destination in mind
It may imply that people with a tendency to mental illness recognise each other as kindred spirits, and then proceed to augment the illnesses of one another.
What I think happened at the end is that after Reiko left, Toru couldn’t bear living in Tokyo where he had walked in so many places with Naiko and there were too many memories to go on living there. So he left for Germany (there has been a lot of mention of his German class so maybe he always thought of escaping to Germany or maybe he found a job there) and never contacted Midori again despite Reiko’s wise words. After 18 years of struggling with depression alone, after landing in Hamburg and having the past dug up by ‘Norwegian Wood’, he thinks of Midori and calls her and says he wants to start afresh with her.
I had the same thought. There's a section break right before Toru calls Midori. I think the call is a bookend to the beginning of the book after he lands in Germany and he's called Midori from Germany. He has just realized after so long that "Naoko never loved [him]."
Many times, concept of "death as a part of life and not separate from life" has been repeated in the novel. It doesn't matter if Toru falls in the cycle of death which was passed from Kizuki and Naoko. Neither does it matter if Midori is able to save Toru from his depression. All that mattered was that the world seems to be the same to a person who can see death and life as one.Special mention: Reiko is said to know if a patient will recover soon or not. She understands that Toru is waiting for Naoko to recover and believes that this is positive for Naoko's recovery. However, Reiko is unable to say when (and will) Naoko recover. Naoko was special. She saw death and life with same vision. For her, recovery was same as staying unrecoverable. She saw suicide or death as a part of life (both her's and Kizuki's), which is why she could never move on.
In the first chapter, she talks about a deep well, with no boundaries or markings. If anyone falls in it, it will be his/her end. Nobody would be able to say where he/she disappeared. The well she was talking about was death. Death lies in the meadow of life.
She even asked Toru to promise her he wouldn't let her fall in it and never forget her. But adds on that this wouldn't be possible. It would be wrong for both of them. Because death was always there in both their lives. Naoko knew this and Toru was yet to realise this.
Shreya.Booked wrote: "I'd rather interpret it in a positive sense. Watanabe is shown to be someone who cannot open up about his problems - even his friend Nagasawa comments on how he is secretive when it comes to his ..."
I agree with this completley. Exactly my thoughts after finishing it. I read on a review that the ending had a twist and was a "sad ending" and I was like "did I read a different book?" I guess my immediate interpretation was the same you had.
Tim wrote: "Deadbeatgrandpajoe wrote: "I hope he didn't get with Midori, I didn't really like her"Really? I liked Midori."
me too. She was by far more likeable than Naoko who was nothing but a burden for Watanabe. She knew it'd happen, that it's not right for Watanabe yet sje didn't try particularly hard to not engage with him.
But again, she isn't perfect and it wasn't her fault that she was in such a psychological state and that she needed someone to take care of her, to love her. She was a human being afterall, so can't hate her for that.
But I see no justifiable reason to hate Midori. She was, in a sense, just like Naoko but atleast she chose to live much like Watanabe.
The protagonist remains alive, well & still a little blue, but that's just how he is. In the last para of the book he has finally straightened things out and is genuinely reaching out to Midori. By the phrase "again & again from the dead center of this place that's no place" I think the author means the protagonist is calling out to Midori from his soul; "again & again" can be interpreted negatively but I think in a positive context it signifies a longing.In a negative ending's context it looks like the protagonist lost touch with reality. I am not inclined towards that because this man has a strong sense of his self, a clear understanding of people's characters; sure he has gone through a lot of loss but he has grieved and "come out" of that grief like a champ; he is an innate optimist who chooses life. The main point of contention for him was always his morals and not a mind that slips away from him.
Apologies for any ignorance in my opinion.
He goes back and forth between his older self and his younger self. It seems unlikely that he went crazy.
The Ending.I've been living in Japan for over twenty years. I just finished 'Norwegian Wood', my very first Murakami book, about ten minutes ago December 2024. I'm here looking for answers, if there are any.
Having read classical Japanese novelists such as Soseki, Kawabata, Shikibu, Yoshimoto, Ranpo, Mishima, etc, some in the original language, I can say that HM does not really fit into the same kind of 'homegrown' storytelling styles that those authors are known to employ.
His style is by far, more westernized (I've heard Japanese scholars criticize him for this). Also, it should be noted, many of his books are more popular outside of Japan than within. Though this should not surprise as many masterful creators achieve greater fame outside of the rigors of their own society. The reason I bring this up is some folks might have, in my view, mistakenly attributed the open ending to a Japanese style of storytelling. I have to disagree with that. I would link it, like others have noted, more to a style reminiscent of Hemingway or Fitzgerald than, say rather, a tale from Oe or Yoshimoto.
I really enjoyed the novel and didn't quite expect the sexually explicit nature of the writing. Pretty hot stuff! I had never heard anyone describe his books thus. But it was fun, especially knowing Jay Rubin at Harvard was translating all of it. I came away from the novel feeling Murakami could be described as a Japanese John Irving. In other words, everything in the story revolves around sex and death. That's a compliment.
Now The Ending.
This is how I got here. To look for answers, if there can be any for what happens on that last page.
Personally, I took it to mean the following:
* Watanabe is in Germany.
* The plane has landed. The airport is the nowhere place, with faceless shadows of people going nowhere (who hasn't felt that way in airports? Remember, The Beatles also gave us 'Nowhere Man').
* He's clutching an airport phone, calling Midori—finally. Eighteen years later, in fact. They were NOT together all this time.
It's undeniable that this final cryptic paragraph completes the bookends that surround the flashback which is the novel. What is up for debate is everything else.
I believe he does not kill himself; he chooses life. However, he also continued to be tortured by Naoko and her choice. So he didn't take Reiko's advice either, (being happy with Midori). Not at first. Eighteen years have now passed. He's 37 now. He's 'landed'.
I took it as symbolic, and not an accident, that he was flying in the air, being nowhere exactly. But, as the ending describes, he has landed. On his feet. He has become an adult. And now, finally, after reliving all of that, he is ready to call Midori, ready to be happy.
However...
We are not given any information, aside from the fact that she is still among the living, simply by her answering the phone. She could be married with children, who knows? All we know is she picked up the phone and after an interminable silence, asked where he was. We know her personality. We know she is a firebrand who holds grudges (she gets "boiling mad" as her sister describes). But if eighteen years have passed since he spoke to her, which is what I believe has occurred, than it is too late for them. Like the movie 'Cast Away', she has moved on. But she still loves him.
Sad, yes. But I think it's not intended to be a happy ending after so much grief in the story. It would be too much of a reversal in my mind for 'and they lived happily ever after' to wrap it all up.
Bottom line: He didn't kill himself, but he and Midori did not get back together, either.
However, from this point on (the ending) who knows? Maybe she waited for him. Maybe not. We'll never know. But we do know he landed.
At first, I enjoyed Midor’s character, her quirks and uniqueness but as the story developed, I felt as if she was emotionally depending on Toru. Simply put, manipulating him to fulfill her unjustified desires. Remember how she did not speak to Toru for two months because he didn’t compliment her hairdo? I felt empathy for Watanabe because as introvert and reserved he was, he suffered the most. First, Kizuki, then Storm Trooper, Naoko and even Midori’s tantrums. More so, he understood Hatsumi as well. This character went through major emotional breakdowns but remained steadfast.
As for the ending, I feel the pain had finally hit him. He shared Naoko’s pain with Reiko and with her leaving to Aashikawa, it suddenly dawned upon him that that the only connection he had with Naoko was leaving too.
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Not that this has anything to do with the ending, but I just wanted to mention it.
The ending did leave me thinking that he was trapped in a world or his own, in his own mind and that he wanted to reach out for Midori but it was too late, he couldn't go back. It actually gave me the impression that he was in an institution and everything was happening in his imagination.