The Town Of Cats Short Story

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The “Town of Cats” by Haruki Murakami is a story about Tengo, a young man who seeks out his elderly supposed father in a sanatorium where he resides, in order to find out the truth about what had happened to Tengo’s mother. The premise of the short story is that Tengo and his father shared a rather turbulent relationship, and it often seems that Tengo and his father share nothing but dislike for each other. But in all reality, Tengo’s father, biological or not, still loves him regardless of his careless façade. This can be seen through the fact that he took Tengo with him to work, always mentioned Tengo’s achievements, and stayed with Tengo after his mother abandoned them. As Tengo often mentioned, that “Every Sunday, he (his father) would …show more content…

Tengo had questioned whether who he thought was his father, was actually his biological father, citing the enormous physical and mental discrepancy, and saying that “My real father must be somewhere else,” (Hurakami, 13). When finally meeting his father in the sanatorium after 2 years, the conversation was cold and distant. When Tengo’s claim that he was his son, his father responding “I don’t have a son…You’re nothing,” (Hurakami, 19). After some back and forth conversation, Tengo had asked “The so who is my father,” in which his father answered with “Just a vacuum,” (Hurakami, 22). One of the reasons Hurakami was praised was because of his deviation from contemporary Japanese literature of the time, and as stated by Encyclopedia Britannica, “this ambiguity, far from being off-putting, was one reason for his popularity with readers, especially young ones,” (Britannica). The conversation continued to be ambiguous, but came to clearing point when Tengo said, “And you raised me after she left. Is that what you’re saying?” (Hurakami, 22). The confrontation might have seemed as though there was nothing but dislike between the characters, yet as seen by the actions of Tengo’s father, he loved him. With a high possibility of Tengo not being his biological son, and even after the mother left, he kept Tengo and raised him. As said by his father, “I filled that vacuum,” (Hurakami, 22). This act showed care and love from the side of Tengo’s father as he, although with likely no obligation to stay with the child, continued to raise him by himself. Filling the role of both parents, he provided all that he could. And even in saying that Tengo was nothing, he did not mean it, as he still had some affection for Tengo even after that time. Tengo was his only relative, and

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