Murakami as an Existential Writer Essay -- Philosophy, Writing

Existentialism is a 20th century philosophy and cultivate of literature that holds that aliveness is meaningless and higgledy-piggledy, and any abstract theories about it argon useless. All that exists is the world of phenomena as perceived by our senses. Whatever metaphysical concept that lies behind this world is non only impossible to hunch over and understand, but also holds no significant value. The only choice we ingest to make in life is to accept this world with a gentle of determined joy, to discipline ourselves, and to defy the emptiness and the chaos by conclusion our witness meaning in life (Friedrich Nietzsche Part 4). Although Haruki Murakami does not directly express any existential views in What I remonstrate about When I Talk about Running and Norwegian Wood, he is a quintessential existential writer because so much of existentialist philosophy involves the working out of private dilemmas. There is much focus on introversion in existentialism, and it can be seen in the lives of Murakamis characters.In What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Murakami was facing the dilemma of participating in a 62-mile ultramarathon that in any casek place every June at Lake Saroma in Hokkaido, Japan (104). According to Murakami, The runners run around the shores of Lake Saroma, which faces the Sea of Okhotsk. wholly once you actually run the course do you realize how ludicrously huge Lake Saroma is (105). The weather gradually changed from being freezing to being too warm for heavy clothes during the ultramarathon (105). While Murakami was running, he began feeling smart pain in different parts of his body (109). Even so, he felt very happy upon reaching the finish line, not so much pride as a sense of completion (115). by means of running, Murakami finds his own meaning... ... Through perseverance, we overcome obstacles and find happiness in this chaotic world of ours. We find our own reasons to live and we choose to hold our own values. All of these things are tenets of existentialism. There is no purpose in life but what we make for ourselves.Works CitedFriedrich Nietzsche Part 4 - YouTube. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 25 Sept. 2011. .Murakami, Haruki. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. impertinently York Vintage, 2007. Print.Murakami, Haruki. Norwegian Wood. New York Vintage International, 1987. Print.Island of Freedom - Sren Kierkegaard. RobertHSarkissian.com. Web. 27 Nov. 2011. .Murakami, Haruki, Alfred Birnbaum, and Jay Rubin. The Elephant Vanishes Stories. (TEV)New York Knopf, 1993. Print.