Loss of Innocence in Murakami and Salinger

An interesting connection that I observed between Murakami and Salinger's writing is the theme of innocence being lost or stolen. Murakami's short story "A Perfect Day for Kangaroos," begins with Boku and his girlfriend going to go to a zoo to see a baby kangaroo. Boku mentions that they saw an article in the newspaper about the kangaroo being born a month ago, but they just couldn't find the time to go see the kangaroo until this moment. He says that the month went by so fast, he could barely remember anything that he did, but hey, "that's life"(Murakami 1).

When they finally go to the zoo and see the baby kangaroo, Boku's girlfriend is disappointed because the baby kangaroo is no longer a baby. Perhaps Murakami is trying to show how quickly childhood goes by and that this period of innocence is so valued (and capitalized on) in our society precisely because it is so fleeting. People are obsessed with kittens, puppies, and baby kangaroos because they possess this pure and innocent quality that we are robbed of once we enter adulthood and are confronted with responsibilities and societal expectations that we did not have to worry about as children. 

Murakami may have also been trying to comment on how the relationship between a parent and their child changes when the child starts to grow up. Maybe Boku's girlfriend is so excited when the baby kangaroo climbs into its mothers pouch because it shows that the while the baby kangaroo is not technically a baby anymore, it still needs the warmth and protection of its mother's pouch. Perhaps Boku's girlfriend had a child of her own that has grown up, or maybe she wants a child and to have that kind of connection that the mother kangaroo has with her baby. Another theory could be that she had a miscarriage and it had a traumatic effect on her, which could explain why she was so worried before going to the zoo that the baby kangaroo had died or that the mother kangaroo had a nervous breakdown. 

If Boku's girlfriend has experienced trauma from a miscarriage, this could be an interesting connection to  Seymour, the main character in Salinger's short story, who seems to have PTSD from fighting in WWII. Seymour also is drawn to the idea of innocence, as he spends time with a little girl named Sybil and tells her a story about mythical creatures called "bananafish," which can be interpreted as a warning about both adulthood and consumerism. The way that the bananafish act like "pigs" after they swim into a hole where there's a lot of bananas, as Seymour describes it, could represent how modern society corrupts the youth and innocence of children. Seymour personally had his youth stolen from him as he was forced by the government to fight in a war and now carries the trauma of those experiences. Perhaps Seymour finds comfort in Sybil in a similar way that Boku's girlfriend finds comfort in the baby kangaroo. 

While it is quite obvious from their titles that "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" influenced Murakami's"A Perfect Day for Kangaroos," I think it is also interesting that Murakami's story ended so differently from Salinger's. Maybe Murakami was trying to send a more hopeful message.

-Penny