Internal Conflict In Men Without Women

Lonely men with an itching internal conflict controlling their every action are men without women. The desire to become someone else or even disappear to cope with the hurt and haunting desolation a woman can cause a man to feel is exactly what each male character in Haruki Murakami’s ‘Men Without Women’ feel in one way or another. The confusion life can bring calls for a clear perception of yourself. The characters in the short stories struggle recognizing their internal conflict that is causing them pain or bewilderment. Each character deals with the loss or detachment of a lover in a unique way, but wound up with a broken or disordered identity no matter the coping mechanism. The main problem originates from the men not being secure in their …show more content…
Each man is dealing with a predicament concerning women in their life, and in some cases women who are absent from their life. They are all trapped in some way or another. It is easy to jump to the conclusion that a woman and her actions solely cause each characters identity crisis but it is how the men handle and move on from situations that show the true issue. They all have an ongoing internal conflict that they do not recognize and cannot figure out a way to fix themselves. The “Who am I?’ and “What will I be” questions are like a dark cloud hanging over and haunting them. Many of these men live a lie to cover up their emotions and in turn it breaks their sense of self. To all of these men the world does not make sense. They want something better, yet struggle to strive for it. They are men with an erroneous reality and loneliness. Like Tatauski tells Kafuku in the bar, you have to start by looking within yourself and make peace with that. Each of the characters has pieces of their identity that just need to be put back together. Huraki Murakami brings the question of “Who am I?” to life with each character in the short stories and forces them to question their existence and come to terms with their