Raaed Zaman
Professor Von Uhl
Professor Yankwitt
HA8 FIQUIS
Society influences many people’s actions and the way they live their lives. It is seen in society that one has their own responsibilities and undergoes many hardships in their life. In “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo ” by Haruki Murakami, the main character Katagiri resembles how society pictures many individuals. Katagiri undergoes many unfortunate events in which he feels like he is out of place in society. He is never acknowledged for all the efforts and hard work he has done throughout his life which causes repression later on. Thankfully due to the frog in the story who tells him that he is the only one who has the power and ability to save the city from the worm who is attempting to destroy Tokyo he begins to gain hope and courage. In the story as seen through a Freudian lens, we can see that the frog in the story is representing Katagiri’s wish fulfillment. This gives Katagiri the strength and hope to find a purpose in society in which he can be seen as a hero. Through a Freudian lens, we can see how society’s expectations affect the id, superego, and ego. Katagiri eventually learns how to balance out the concepts of the id, ego, and superego and let go of the idea of repression even after society expects individuals to put in a tremendous amount of work in which Katagiri doesn’t get acknowledged for.
In “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo”, the main character Katagiri experiences many hardships in his life and is never acknowledged for all his efforts. This shows Murakami’s views on society by showing how society places certain expectations on individuals in which people aren’t even shown appreciation for.“After your parents died, you raised your teenage brother and sister single-handedly, put them through college and even arranged for them to marry, all at great sacrifice of your time and income, and at the expense of your own marriage prospects” (Murakami). Katagiri raised his siblings due to the unfortunate death of his parents and put aside his own self to prioritize his siblings and make sure they have a good future. Thus showing how Katagiri sacrificed his own future for his siblings and was never shown any sort of gratitude for everything he has done. Eventually this all leads to the ideology of repression. “It was accordingly plausible to suppose that the greater the resistance against what we were in search of becoming conscious, the greater would be its distortion. The idea which occurred to the patient in place of what we were in search of had thus itself originated like a symptom: it was a new, artificial and ephemeral substitute for what had been repressed, and was dissimilar to it in proportion to the degree of distortion it had undergone under the influence of the resistance.” (Freud 2217). As seen through a Freudian lens, repression is defined as occurring when a feeling or memory is too painful for an individual which causes the person to unconsciously push information out and become unaware of its existence. This is what had happened in Katagiri’s mind as he was never appreciated for everything he has done, causing him to let go of that feeling and start to believe that he is nothing in society. Due to him never getting acknowledged or even shown a little sense of gratitude, he didn’t think much of what he actually did in life and how he helped many in which he deserved a lot of appreciation for. Throughout the story Katagiri believes that he is not strong and is naive. Katagiri is looked down upon by others in his life which drove him to a point in which he began to believe that he is nothing in society as well. In general people always tend to do far beyond what they have to do and do not get any sense of appreciation shown which eventually leads to them not realizing that they deserve respect and gratitude.
Another Freudian concept that is brought upon includes the concepts of the mind which are the id, superego, and the ego. These concepts elaborate on Murakami’s views on how he sees society as. This shows Murakami’s views on society since it takes a deeper look at Katagiri as a person and how the id, superego, and ego affected who he is. The conflicts that are displayed between the id, superego, and the ego is the major issue displayed throughout the story. Katagiri learns how to create a balance between the three concepts which leads to him realizing his place in society. Each of the Freudian concepts are represented by a different character in the story. Katagiri himself is represented as the ego concept. The ego is the component of personality that is responsible for dealing with reality. This is shown through Katagiri because it is his views and how he sees himself in society. He feels like he is nothing in society. Throughout the story the superego and id are trying to dominate the ego part. The frog in the story represents the superego. This aspect of personality is entirely unconscious and includes instinctive and primitive behaviors. The frog is created in Katagiri’s mind and is also seen as Katagiri’s wish fulfillment who attempts to overtake the ego and recognizes all of Katagiri’s accomplishments and efforts made. In the story it is shown through a Freudian lens that the ideology of one’s wish fulfillment is a big aspect of life. Katagiri’s thought process and how he sees himself in society is included in this aspect. In Freud’s “The Dissection of the Psychical Personality” Freud goes in depth and states “ The super-ego applies the strictest moral standard to the helpless ego which is at its mercy; in general it represents the claims of morality, and we realize all at once that our moral sense of guilt is the expression of the tension between the ego and the superego” (Freud 3). The frog in the story represents the superego as he is trying to make Katagiri realize his worth and help him gain confidence as the superego pressures the ego into doing what is morally correct. Lastly, the worm which represented the id. The worm represented the id as he attempts to bring down Katagiri’s confidence and make him believe that he has no place in society. The battle between both the id and superego to see who can control the ego is what causes Katagiri’s loss of consciousness. According to one scholarly article, “The Concept of Ego Threat in Social and Personality Psychology: Is Ego Threat a Viable Scientific Construct?” by Leary , Terry , Batts Allen, and Tate it goes further in depth and supports the idea that the Ego does not function accordingly and properly if there is no balance with the Superego and id. “ As noted, most research in contemporary social and personality psychology has tried to threaten participants’ egos by challenging or threatening their self-images, self-beliefs, or self-esteem. In fact, ego threat and self-esteem threat are usually treated as synonymous concepts…threatening people’s egos by challenging their self-esteem—providing explicit negative feedback, making participants think about failure indirectly , or calling attention to…” (Leary ).This article explains how the ego which isn’t balanced works against the person. This goes to prove how the battles between the three concepts lead to Katagiri’s loss of consciousness and causes all three to not have a balance which eventually leads to Katagiri’s vanquish. Katagiri lacked love and respect and was overwhelmed overall leading to him ending up in the hospital after confronting his problems.
Overall, Murakami’s views on society are portrayed through Katagiri as he is expected to do a tremendous amount of work and put all his efforts to not get acknowledged for what he does. Through a Freudian lens it is seen how society’s expectations on an individual affects one’s concepts of the id, superego, and ego. Throughout the story Katagiri eventually learns how to balance out the concepts of the id, ego, and superego and let go of the idea of repression even after societies expectations on individuals and when Katagiri in specifics doesn’t receive any gratitude at all in his life. The imbalance between all concepts leads to a loss of consciousness in an individual. Society places many expectations that one must fulfil to have a place in society but even after one does so much work they do not receive the respect they deserve.
Works Cited Page:
Freud, Sigmund. “Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis”. 1910, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b446/cfb00094a2e62f82e8c8e430581891ca4e47.pdf?_ga=2.153662776.1893964575.1597526595-1709737971.1597526595
Murakami, Jay Rubin and Haruki, and Photography by Furi Furi. “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo by Haruki Murakami – GQ June 2002.” GQ, www.gq.com/story/haruki-murakami-super-frog-saves-tokyo-full-story.
Freud, Sigmund. “Civilization and its Discontents: the id, ego, and super-ego”. The Dissection of the Psychical Personality. SUPER_EGO_Lecture XXXI The Dissection of the Psychical Personality – first excerpt.pdf
Mark Leary, Meredith L. Terry, Ashley Batts Allen, Eleanor Tate. Shonkoff. “The Concept of Ego Threat in Social and Personality Psychology: Is Ego Threat a Viable Scientific Construct?”. 2009. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26710903_The_Concept_of_Ego_Threat_in_Social_and_Personality_Psychology_Is_Ego_Threat_a_Viable_Scientific_Construct
