Quote of the day by Haruki Murakami
One of the most memorable lines written by renowned Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami is what he wrote at the beginning of Kafka on the Shore when he introduced the protagonist who decided to leave his home on his 15th birthday. “And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about,” Murakami wrote profoundly.The storm is a metaphor for life’s crises. It feels tough to tide over these storms, but finally, they all get over, always. At the end, we don’t remember how we got through the crisis because our memories from that time get blurry. It’s not forgetfulness but it’s a kind of daze through which people just push and at the end of the storm, they are never the same person. The storm changes the person, though the person can hardly remember whether the storm ended, or how they overcame it.
Context of Murakami’s storm quote
15-year-old protagonist Kafka believed he was escaping his father but every strange event in the novel, the prophetic dreams, the surreal encounters, the blurred line between reality and imagination, forced him to confront parts of himself he would rather avoid. The storm that Murakami referred to was an inner journey rather than an external disaster.In this chapter, before the storm quote appears another profound passage by Murakami: “Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing direction. You change direction, but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverised bones. That’s the kind of standard you need to imagine.”
Why Murakami’s storm quotes are unforgettable
Mutrakami warns that the storm will come as it is sometimes inside us. There is nothing we can do to resist the storm. He asserts that we will make it through the storm and emerge as changed people. Murakami does not define what difference means — whether it will be for good or bad. But there wll be no return to the previous self.Notwithstanding Kafka’s situation in the novel, Murakami’s quote stands as a profound truth that every storm changes us and gives birth to another identity.
