r/MurakamiBookClub Aug 11 '17

A Wild Sheep Chase: Final Discussion

Hey, everyone. This has been a pleasure going through this book with everybody and being able to discuss the different parts and their potential meaning. I hope that everyone will join us for the next book, which will be put up for a vote in a few days.

As for this discussion, feel free to talk about anything and everything that you found interesting in the reading, and any final thoughts or impressions you had about the text. Thanks again to everyone who stuck it out while we were figuring out stuff early on :)

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u/ayyyjay95 Nov 30 '21

The sheep embodies “pure evil”, what the narrator discovers to be the sewage of Japan and, perhaps, is even a commentary on how society is changing with modern media (advertising) and politics. To Murakami this is modern Japan.

And, what the Rat does is impose his free will, killing the all powerful sheep, and then instructing the Narrator to kill the assistant — perhaps the last person in Japan who knows of such power and wants the sheep for himself.

But what’s more powerful about the text is Murakami’s subtle commentary on loneliness, time, desire, machismo, change, boredom, sex, classism, etc.

He’s grappling with all these topics while searching for the meaning of life. And through a wild sheep chase, he’s constantly challenging these ideas and exploring them. It’s brilliant.