After Dark by Haruki Murakami

After Dark

Haruki Murakami

Themes

The main occurring theme of the book is definitely alienation. Each character in the book is alienated from their daytime worlds and society and wander around in the nighttime world of Tokyo which brings a feeling of escape as a way of dealing with their problems. Mari the main character feels alienated from her family and sister who has been asleep for so long and finds escaping from the issue as a way of dealing with it. Takashi on the other hand is a loner and alienates himself from his family due to issues with his dad. All characters escape from their problems into this nighttime world that feels slightly disconnected from society.

Another major theme in the novel and a recurring theme in Murakami's books is the feeling of two separate worlds existing right next to each other. A sense of a divided physical world and a divided psychological world exists throughout the story. Each character escapes to the city at night becoming a different person to their 'day' side as a way of dealing with personal struggles. The story focuses on each person's personality difference between night and day and the city's change between the two. It seems people can leave behind their usual self's and become something different 'After Dark'. A respectable businessman can beat up a prostitute, a young man can explore his musical passion and a student can just be herself. Different aspects of the night expose and influence the different characters as the night progresses. Not only the feeling of night and day as two physical separate worlds occur in the novel but the sense of reality and a fantasy unreal world. Strange magical things occur throughout the book giving subtle references to another world showing itself at night. Never sure which world is real, mirrors reflect aspects of people's personalities that remain after they've left and a strange figure that watches a sleeping girl.

A George Orwell 1984 type theme occurs in the novel quite a lot. The feeling of being watched is experienced by all characters, more obviously Eri Asai who has gone to sleep in a type of coma and is watched by a mystery figure on her TV screen which is unplugged. The man is never identified but he seems very sinister and eventually sucks her into his world. Takahashi studies law and is very interested in how people become almost the same face in front of the law and how the law sees all. "In its presence, all human beings lose their names and their faces. We all turn into signs, into numbers."

The man who beat up the prostitute is identified by use of camera." You never know when a camera's watching you these days." "The walls have ears and digital cameras." The sense of being chased and running away also occurs. Korogi who works at the love hotel says she has to keep running but you never find out what she's running from. Different characters also answer the cell phone left in the man who beat up the prostitute and the same line "we will find you" is always heard on the other end. The phone represents a certain danger that cannot be escaped but this message is said to the wrong people who interpret it differently. It brings certain meaning to Takahashi who feels like he can't hide from his life. The final moment of nighttime in the book ends with the words " You can run, but you'll never be able to get away." Suggesting something about the characters' relationship with the night and the problems in their lives.

Setting

Setting is very important in After Dark. It is mainly set in nighttime Tokyo in an 'amusement district'. It is in the centre of Japan but feels very westernized. The chapters are each separated into different times in the space of one night as the specific times of night influence the characters. The city is always described as very "loud", "vast" and almost as if it's alive, enveloping the characters in the novel until they feel entirely lost. "...the city looks like a single gigantic creature." (pg 1) The characters are all alone in the story and interact with each other within the city but a sense of "foreboding" is always there as if they're being watched and controlled by the city where they live.

The fact that the story is set at night plays a big part in the novel and is a main focus also as the book is called After Dark. The nighttime brings out different aspects of the character's personalities as they can leave behind their daytime personas and become someone else at night. As the night goes on the story seems to get hazier and more dreamlike as if the later it gets the more otherworldly things become. "The door closes...A closer look reveals that Mari's image is still reflected in the mirror over the sink." (pg 67) Reflections stay in the mirrors and characters seem more dreamlike which reveals different aspects of how they're feeling, as the book doesn't really tell you.

At the beginning of the book Mari is introduced sitting at a Denny's fast food in the middle of an amusement district, which makes her seems very small and vulnerable. It is still early at night and everything still feels like it's recovering still from the day. She meets Takahashi there and because of him she leaves to help a situation at the love hotel. The love hotel is the second setting; it is close to Denny's and very dodgy. This happens at the darkest point of night and gives and eerie feeling to the story.

This is also when a prostitute is beat up by a client there: almost as if the night has allowed a respectable businessman to reveal a completely different side to himself and become violent. This is also the time when Eri Asai is trapped completely behind her TV screen in a parallel world and the whole setting of the story feels very dark. "Three a.m. This is the darkest part of the night- and the hardest part" (pg 91) At this time the city transforms into something else entirely to what it is in the daytime and this is the moment when the characters feel most alienated and alone.

All characters are at a time in their lives when they have issues they need to deal with and have run away, physically and mentally. All characters have a specific issue that brings them to run away into the city at night, except for Eri Asai who has gone into a sleep so deep that she is able to escape all her problems in the physical world within her own room. "...it seems to me your sister must have some big problem she's trying to deal with...so all she wants to do is go to bed and sleep. " (pg 162) The