英文摘要 |
”A Wild Sheep Chase” (1982) is one of the early novels written by Haruki Murakami, and we can easily find out the structure of rite of passage in it. But there's no common view whether the growth and self-realization of the protagonist exist at the end of the novel. I'll point out it is because that many readers overlooked the process of rite of passage of 'the Rat', a friend of the protagonist 'I', is hidden behind the plots of the adventure of 'I', comparing with the legend of the Golden Fleece; the representative hero's adventure story of 'the rite of passage' in Greek myths. And in this novel, the protagonist 'I' only does the encounter with the deceased by 'the descent to the underworld', that is like in Murakami's other works; ”Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball”, 1973, etc. But on the other hand, 'the Rat' killed 'the Sheep' to execute the 'regicide = patricide' symbolically, in exchange for life of his own, so the executions of their initiation are evaded both. I suppose that there are some influences in it from the theme of F.F. Coppola's ”Apocalypse Now”; 'the regicide for denying succession of the royal authority' inspired from ”The Golden Bough by J.G. Frazer”. |