The Ice Man, Haruki Marukami
Dr Icelove: Or I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Male Dominated Cultures “The Ice Man” by Haruki Murakami is a woman’s conflictive narrative incurred when facing a new identity spurred by the marriage of a man that does not fit her societal norms. She develops a relationship with a person dubbed the Ice Man even after a friend acknowledges he was different from them. The man’s unusual characteristics do not fit any niche she has come across in Japan. As their courtship turns into marriage, family protest and friends are unaccepting of the union. Marked the black sheep of family and ostracized by friends, she is left alone as he takes a job in a meat warehouse. Lonely, she suggests a vacation to the South Pole. The husband flourishes at the South Pole, learning the language and making friends quickly. Meanwhile, the wife retreats into herself and adopts the characteristics of her husband. Unfortunately, she does not have the ability to connect with the locals as her husband has. The reader leaves the woman realizing she is pregnant with an Ice Baby and she will inevitably become an Ice Woman. Murakami is critiquing the demands of male dominated cultures and the internal struggles women face as they become mirrored extensions of their husbands. As a result, he comments on the turbulent emotional effects of marrying outside of one’s class. Through marriage, the identities of women in societies that hold strong ties to the past vanish and transform into the statuses of their husbands. This story portrays how the wife changes to take on the identity of her husband. “The Ice Man [isn’t] really made out of ice”, he is an outsider that is deemed beneath or less worthy than the group (Murakami 969). Social stratification plays a large role in the choice of a partner in Japan. Marrying for love isn’t enough to get the approval of family and friends in these cultures. The step down
Cited: Charters, Ann. "The Ice Man." The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin 's, 2011. 967-73. Print. Schad-Seifer, Annette. "Gender and Class in Miura Atsushi’s Karyu ̄ Shakai [Low-Stream Society]: Literature Review." Journal of the German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo (2010): 137-52. ACC. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. .