-
Essay / Readers' Interpretation of Barn Burning by Haruki Murakami
The fictional world of Haruki Murakami is known for being populated by lonely people. But they love stories and don't mind telling them. A characteristic of Murakami's novels is that they reference many stories or tales that have no relation to the main story, to reinforce its themes and create a more complex fictional world. With Haruki Murakami's short story "Barn Burning", the reader can interpret the different meanings that a phrase or saying may or may not mean depending on the context in which it was spoken. Essentially, this excerpt encourages one to piece together and question the validity of the narrator's life as well as the overall meaning and theme of the story. Thanks to the first-person narrative, you can feel like you're part of the story and know what's happening in real time. There are questions that generally remain unanswered by the author and it is up to the reader to answer them for themselves. The excerpt on which this explanation is based proves that you may need to read between the lines to fully understand what is happening throughout the story.Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay “Barn Burning” is more than just a short story with a main protagonist and theme. It’s a beautiful metaphor for relationships. The story revolves around the narrator who finds the idea of burning barns appealing and is curious as to when the next barn will burn, as he is stuck in a typical suburban lifestyle, he also discovers that the disappearance of the young woman to whom he became attached and the meaning of the sentence begins to intertwine and connect with each other at the end of the story. The narrator finds his relationship with the young woman quite interesting because she is not tied to suburban life and ends up accepting her as she is. The man that the young woman introduces to the narrator turns out to be a handsome man who travels a lot. It was only when the young woman and her new man came to the narrator's house to smoke and drink that a sentence would remain engraved in the narrator's memory for the longest time. In the featured article, the man indicated that barns are built almost everywhere. This means that no matter where or how it was built, a barn is essentially created by any means necessary and is susceptible to burning. This shows that no barn is safe from fire and that the longer a barn has been in place, the easier it is to catch fire, although this is very unlikely given that newly built barns are the ones that burn the fastest. In essence, what the man might have meant when he said, "It's as if that's why they were put there in the first place." No sorrow for anyone. They…just disappear. One, two, poof! is that in every relationship, at least one person is considering burning down the barn because they might have lost the sparks they initially had in the beginning. Essentially, these barns would perish so badly in the flames that everything would disappear without a trace. The way Haruki Murakami was able to allow the reader to draw their own conclusion regarding his interpretation of the story is what makes his style of writing all the more compelling. Murakami was able to present the imagery of hot relationships and the harsh realities that come with them once they are created. The very idea that any human relationship is nothing more than a superficial existence and doomed to crash and burn after losing its initial spark is what interests »..”