By Abel Fellow Not unlike an army of protagonists before him, the nameless main character and narrator in Harukami’s A Wild Sheep Chase struggles to discover the purpose of his life in spite of a universe increasingly unfathomable, with fewer and fewer clues about what is right and wrong. Existentialism. A fancy word for the malaise engulfing me too often, especially for a high school senior. Therefore, while reading this novel, I kept my own thoughts in front of me. Encountering recognizable ideas in my reading helped me to clarify some of my own ideas about who I am and where I’m going. Reading A Wild Sheep Chase honestly made a difference to me. In chapter 32, the sheep caretaker converses with the narrator and his girlfriend …show more content…
Is it necessary to choose my college major now, to work at a boring summer job in order to help pay for Sewanee instead of just going to UTK, where I can languish in the back row of the big classes rather than being pushed to speak up in smaller ones, where I will undoubtedly learn more about the math and biology I don’t care to learn more about anyway? If I turn this essay in on time, it won’t be that good since I’m pressed for time and yet it will be done, and all I really want is to get it done, isn’t it? Or do I think taking my time writing it, trying to find something valuable (to me) to say, is worthwhile even though turning it in late means I can’t get higher than a C anyway? Not to mention the whole girlfriend issue—a girl who will be attending college in California next year, a girl who spends every night either rehearsing or performing in the spring musical, a girl who insists on remaining a virgin at least until she’s in college. In California. Where does that leave me? Alone and frustrated now and in the future, but it’s easier to let time take its toll than to break up with her now just so I can instigate my own wild chase...but not for