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Reilly Leibow

Professor Jon Beadle

English 115

15 December 2020

Project Text Revised 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 and the reality of that is that that is truly scarier than anything else.

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. The fact that

“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. If we aren’t confident in who we are and except the truth about us as people, no matter

what happens in the world we will avoid seeing ourselves for what we truly are. 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
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realization 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 in comes alive and starts controlling him. Murakami

explains in his story that he is aware that the audience already knows what could have possibly

happened, but he goes on to explain that he’s “sure [we’ve] already guessed the ending to [his]

story. There never was any mirror. […] The cigarette butt [he’d] tossed away was there, as was

[his] wooden sword. But no mirror. There never had been any mirror there. What [he] saw

wasn’t a ghost. It was simple – [himself]” (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 the moment that he realized what had truly

happened the night before. He was the monster. He had thought that there was a monster

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

that they will never outrun the monster within them until they face it.

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

pushing its limits with people. Monstrous society plays 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. In this situation, it was society that made everything worse because “everyone believed

[he’d] been beating up on Matsumoto. […] everyone bought it. [Nobody wanted] to know what

the story was […] No one in the entire school would speak to [him]. As if by consensus – it had

to be – [he] got the silent treatment. Even urgent requests from [him] got a deaf ear. [He] was

avoided like the plague. [His] 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. Ozawa wanted everyone to “…

[recognize] 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). Everyone has the freedom to make their own decisions, but it is up to them to

decide whether they want to take that opportunity or not. Whether they want to be the person to

stand up and make their decision based on what they think and feel and not on to other people’s

opinions or thoughts. People don’t realize how much power society holds on the mind
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and soul of a person. In Ozawa’s case, everyone just believed what they heard. No one thought

for themselves and expanded their horizons on what could possibly be true. No matter what you

thought, or what your beliefs were, that didn’t matter. The truth was that society held to each

person with a firm grasp not letting go. You were trapped in a little box with nowhere to go.

What makes monstrous society truly scary is that you don’t have a choice. No matter how strong

you think you are there will always be a world out there that controls you and holds on to the

perfect mold that you should be. What one person believes to be a minor thing could in turn

effect someone’s entire life. Monstrous society 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 a 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.

Marukami, Haruki. “The Mirror .”

Marukami, Haruki. “The Silence.”