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Jasmin Vincent

Professor Jon Beadle

English 115

2 November 2020

Project Text Essay

In literature, there are multiple ways to express the concept of society and the concept of

oneself. Whether it is used to the love, sadness, madness and monstrous side of society and

oneself. The two stories written by Haruki Murakami, “The Mirror’’ and “The Silence” are

examples of monstrous stories that use the concept of a monstrous society and monstrous self.

The events in “The Mirror” displays a monstrous self due to the protagonist encountering a

different version of himself that seems to hate him. The events in “The Silence” displays a

monstrous society due to the protagonist's conflict with a fellow schoolmate. The story that is

more monstrous is “The Mirror” because of the concept of this monstrous self the protagonist

comes to fear and how the use of psychological horror adds to the monstrous self concept.

“The Mirror” is a psychological horror story that involves a man who is working a night

shift at a school.One night on his shift, he encounters a random mirror. In the reflection, it shows

himself in the mirror but the protagonist explains how he feels how his reflection loathes him

(Murakami,59).Which then leads the protagonist to question if he truly fears himself (Murakami

60). The story displays a monstrous self through psychological horror. Psychological horror

focuses on mental, emotional, and psychological states to get a reaction out of the audience. For

example, the mirror showing up and striking a fear in the protagonist, then ending up not being
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there in the end would be the mental,emotional and psychological state that is supposed to leave

an eerie feeling with the audience.

The use of psychological horror in “The Mirror”, is a lot more intriguing than the concept

of a monstrous society in “The Silence”. When reading “The Mirror” , there is a very noticeable

feeling of uncomfortableness in the protagonist when he encounters the mirror. In psychological

horror, the main point is usually to display the feeling of dread , fear and uneasiness so well that

even readers can feel it (Justin). This being said, “The Mirror” does give the audience an uneasy

feeling when reading it meaning it succeeded in getting to the audience. In “The Silence”, there

is a brief moment where one can say there was an uneasy feeling but it wasn’t to the extent of

feeling almost scared. “The Silence” can be easily viewed as someone telling a regular story.

Whereas “The Mirror” can be viewed as a scary story because of the elements of fear against

oneself it uses. Overall the story, “The Mirror” shows a lot more factors that relate to being

monstrous. For example, the broken gate that is being slammed over and over, the mirror itself,

the mirror being gone in the morning and the invasion the mirror had on the protagonist after. All

these parts of the story inflect at least some type of discomfort when being read.

The story “The Silence” is about two coworkers waiting for their plane. While they were

waiting, one asked if the other ever got violent in an argument. This then leads to the protagonist

elaborating on a difficult time in his life and how it made him the person he is now. This story

displays a monstrous society because of the realization the protagonist had revolving his

schoolmate bully. At first the protagonist wasn’t aware there were people like his bully. People

who had power to manipulate others and ruin someone elses all at the same time.The protagonist
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then realizes how there are others in the world who think and act the same way as his bully. The

monstrous shown in this story is the depression state the protagonist goes through after being

shunned from his whole school due to his bully framing him for a suicide ( Murakami 303). For

example, the feeling of being truly alone and being exiled because of something you know you

didn’t do can be scary. It’s scary because you seem like you're stuck. The state of depression the

protagonist goes through can also be seen as monstrous because of the feeling itself. The

depression described in the story is more of a loneliness and empty depression. When reading the

story, some are able to relate to an extent due to depression being common.Though “The

Silence” shows monstrous factors it isn’t in the right sense of monstrous. Monstrous shows in

other common stories like “Dracula” or “Frankenstien” have a literal monster. The monster in

“The Mirror” is the protagonist self but the monster in “The Silence” is society. Even though

society is at times scary, depending on how it is looked at, it isn’t scary enough like “The

Mirror”.

“The Mirror” and “The Silence” by Haruki Murakami are seen as “monstrous” stories.

Both are these that carry enough emotions to make the audience feel on edge when reading it.

Thus, giving the audience a feel of suspense or horror. Murakami uses different methods to get

the concept of horror in these stories. The story, “The Mirror” is the most monstrous because of

its use of psychological horror. It shows how even though someone may think they do not fear

anything, there is always something deep down that does. Given the events in the story, it takes a

chilling event to show us. When reading, “The Silence”, the feeling of loneliness and being

almost shut out by the world is a very monstrous feeling. This story shows how one bad person

and their actions can affect someone greatly. The protagonist in this story goes through this dark

place in his life all because he wasn’t aware there wawa people like his schoolmate. But there
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really isn’t anything monstrous about it when being compared to “The Mirror”. It doesn’t hold

that certain eerie feeling like “The Mirror’ does,“The Silence” doesn’t come off as monstrous, it

holds a different meaning. The monstrous thing in “The Silence” as mentioned above is the

feeling of loneliness. The monstrous thing in “The Mirror” is the protagonist himself. The feeling

of not knowing if he fears himself or if the mirror incident really did a number on him is

monstrous.Because even though there is no physical monster, the feeling of hatred for oneself is

monstrous enough.That being said, “The Mirror” fits the role of a monstrous story a lot better

than “The Silence”.

Work Cited

Murakami, Haruki. “The Mirror” The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami. 1st Vintage

International Edition, New York: Vintage Books, 1994, pp.55-60

Murakami, Haruki. “The Silence” The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami. 1st Vintage

International Edition, New York: Vintage Books, 1994, pp. 292-306

Santurbano, Andrea. “Giorgio Manganelli and the need for monstrous literature.” 2015.

Davis, D. , Justin. “The mirror of ugliness: The cultural catharsis of horror literature as a study of

uninhibited human nature through allegorical and psychological themes.” 2007.