Leibow 1

Reilly Leibow

Professor Jon Beadle

English 115

2 November 2020

Project Text Final Essay

The monster within exceeds your expectations. Monstrous self is a representation of the

inner being that is depraved, cruel, and possibly a beast. In the short stories “The Mirror” and

“The Silence” by Haruki Murakami, both present monstrous views with one being monstrous

self and the other being monstrous society. “The Mirror” by Haruki Murakami presents that

monstrous self is more monstrous because it can have more of an effect on a person because the

representation of your inner self dictates the thoughts, actions, and the way you perceive the

world and other people.

Monstrous self is more monstrous because the reality that you are your own greatest

enemy is truly terrifying. Society affects your way of life but the monster within you affects the

way you see yourself in comparison to everyone and everything else in the world.

“If our sense of self is so fragile that we avoid seeing ourselves honestly, we will avoid,

ignore or exaggerate criticism […] the fear of judgment can be paralyzing, derailing our

best performance efforts” (Johnson).

The reality that yourself is truly the scariest thing is the purpose of this quote. You are your own

worst enemy. The monster in the mirror is more terrifying than the monster in front of you. In

“The Mirror” by Haruki Murakami, the person in the mirror is a representation of the realization
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that the monster that he thinks is there is really himself. At first, he doesn’t recognize who it is

but then the monster within comes alive and starts controlling him.

“I’m sure you’ve already guessed the ending to my story. There never was any mirror.

When the sun came up, the typhoon had already passed. The wind had died down and it

was a sunny day. I went over to the entrance. The cigarette butt I’d tossed away was

there, as was my wooden sword. But no mirror. There never had been any mirror there.

What I saw wasn’t a ghost. It was simple – myself” (Murakami 60).

That is the reality of it. The person in the mirror is the true monster and coming to terms with it

is what is truly scary.

The truth or what could potentially be the truth is what is really scary. When Haruki

Murakami wrote about monstrous self in “The Mirror” he depicted that the true monster is

within. The monster in the mirror is scarier than any scary movie or monster that anyone can

think of. In the short story, once the terrifying night is over, he goes back to the spot from the

night before and all that laid there was a burnt out cigarette. There was no shattered glass, no

mirror, no scary monster, just him. It was in that moment that he realized what had truly

happened the night before. He was the monster. He had thought that the monster was controlling

him and making him do things that he didn’t want to do, but the truth about what was happening

was that he was the demon controlling himself. He was seeing the ugly side of himself that

everyone wishes they can ignore. The protagonist came face to face with the truth and then

changed his life completely. Finding out what was truly inside made him deeply reflect on his

life. Currently, you will find no mirrors in his house. He lives his life everyday reflecting on

what he saw that night and the realizations that surfaced. Most of the time people assume that the
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monster they are running from is someone or something else, but what they don’t realize is that

they will never out run the monster within them until they face it.

Although monstrous self is more monstrous, monstrous society does of its way of

pushing its limits with people. Monstrous society plays a big a big role in feelings and the

community of people as a whole. The society’s views on things truly and ultimately affect the

well-being of a person.

“Everyone believed I’d been beating up on Matsumoto. I don’t know what nonsense Aoki

was peddling, but everyone bought it. I didn’t even want to know what the story was; I

knew it was dirt. No one in the entire school would speak to me. As if by consensus – it

had to be—I got the silent treatment. Even urgent requests from me got a deaf ear. I was

avoided like the plague. My existence was wiped from their field of vision” (Murakami

302).

The society you live in affects everything around you. Specifically in “The Silence” by Haruki

Murakami, the society influences the surrounding environment which then affects the individual.

influenced all the other students that Ozawa was the one responsible for Matsumoto’s

death. No one took the opportunity to discover their own thoughts or decipher the situation,

everyone immediately sided with Aoki making Ozawa’s life miserable.

“… recognizing that freedom is shaped and limited by external forces and yet we are at

our best when we can recognize the extent of our freedom and embrace responsibility

within the scope of that freedom” (Israel).

People don’t realize how much power society holds on the mind and soul of a person. What one

person believes to be a minor thing could in turn effect someone’s entire life. Monstrous society
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seems to be overlooked most of the time. The manipulation that people face truly reflect on what

society has become. It makes people believe things that they didn’t even know were possible.

Monstrous society brings out the deepest darkest feelings of the individual and truly makes them

reflect on society and them as a person.

Even though monstrous society is very manipulative and effective, monstrous self is the

main contributor to people’s fear. The monster in yourself is what the world is afraid of. In the

short stories “The Mirror” and “The Silence” by Haruki Murakami, the development of

monstrous society and self are analyzed. In “The Mirror” the protagonist comes face to face with

his true inner demons. Yes society is factor in what influences you as a person, but only you are

in charge of the monster that you have or will become. This realization that he is the monster is

what changes him forever. The monster inside is what affects you more than anything else but

you inside is what is truly terrifying.

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Works Cited

Israel, Tania. “Navigating Autonomy: A Mid-Career Reflection on Life in Academia.” Access to

Restricted Resources, 31 Oct. 2019, www-tandfonline-
com.libproxy.csun.edu/doi/full/10.1080/02703149.2019.1684673.

Johnson, Jessica. The Self-Compassionate Musician: Learning To Love Your Self Through
Music-Making And Teaching. 2016, search-proquest-
com.libproxy.csun.edu/docview/1827848260?pq-origsite=summon.