Isolation in Marilyn Chin’s Moon and Murakami Haruki’s Super-Frog Saves Tokyo

This essay will compare and contrast the feeling of isolation faced by the characters in Marilyn Chin’s Moon and Murakami Haruki’s Super-frog Saves Tokyo. The way they adopted to regain connection to the society and to reduce the feeling of loneliness and isolation would also be examined. A comparison would also be made between isolation caused by inter-ethnic factors and intra-ethnic factors. Moon was the first story of Marilyn Chin’s book, Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen. It was a Chinese American revenge tale. In the tale, Moon is an unattractive girl who is chubby. She takes revenge on a group of American boys who have humiliated her because of her race and her appearance. She searches for the boys for thirty days and nights. Then, she sends them to their death ruthlessly. As the tale goes on, she becomes beautiful and famous when she grows up.

At the beginning of the story, Moon was isolated from the others around her due to her unusual ethnic background. She was under humiliation and discrimination because of her Chinese American identity. The isolation she faced was inter-ethnic. She was viewed as an outcast in a foreign country even she has immigrated to America and become an authorized citizen there. The majority of her feeling of isolation is from the unequal treatment of the racist. This means the isolation she facing was between two ethnic groups: the Chinese American and the local American.

As for Murakami Haruki’s Super-frog Saves Tokyo, Katagiri, the protagonist, was a normal, typical Japanese salary man. He worked as a longtime collections officer for the Tokyo Security Trust Bank. He found a giant frog broke into his apartment one day and invited him to save Tokyo from an earthquake together. Frog told Katagiri that the two of them must go underground and do mortal combat with Worm, in order to stop the earthquake from happening.

Katagiri also had the feeling of loneliness and isolation. Yet, the cause of the emotion is totally different from Moon. Katagiri was a typical Japanese man. He was too common that he was “buried” in the society because of his lack of uniqueness. Moreover, he has loose connection with his family after his siblings got married. He was not needed by anyone. He could disappear in the world without anyone noticed. This kind of identity loss made him being isolated from the society. Apart from the external factors, Katagira himself also contribute to this isolation. The two stories showed two entirely different causes of isolation. These variations largely account for the protagonists’ totally different ways of breaking their way through isolation. To deal with the inequality she experienced, Moon chose to take revenge on the group of boys who insulted her. Her revenge action was extreme. She sent them to death. However, this is not the end of her revenge. She tried to improve her appearance as well. This makes her famous and being respected from others. Being isolated inter-ethnically, Moon would like to prove herself by revenge to the American. Being racially classified and isolated from the locals, indeed, affects the self-esteem of Moon. She is not confident of herself anymore. To reduce her inferiority, she has to improve her impression to others. This explains why she tried to gained respect from others by her charming appearance when she grew up.

Moon took the initiative to reverse the situation. She did not only content with her revenge and killing, she would also like to prevent the discrimination and isolation from happening again. It is obvious that the fact that Moon is a Chinese American cannot be changed. To protect herself, she made herself look attractive and famous to prevent others look down on her ever again. It is ionic and humorous that those racist did not only judge others by their race, but also the attractiveness of their appearance. The underlying meaning is that they would not consider you as an outcast if you look nice and pretty.

Also, from the extreme action which Moon took for revenge, an antagonistic attitude is shown towards those who have humiliated her. Killing is chosen as the revenge method informs readers the hostile attitude Moon held for those racist boys of different ethnic group. Moon’s hatred and anger towards the American racist is clearly portrayed.

On the other hand, in Super-frog saves Tokyo, Katagiri faced isolation within the ethnic group. He is isolated from his fellow Japanese citizens within the same ethnic group. In the beginning, he refused to fight the Worm with Super-frog because he is not confident. He kept telling Super-frog that there are many other better choices that are stronger than him. Readers can sense Katagiri’s lack of confidence here. This may due to a chronic inattention from his colleague and relatives. Being ignored by people around him, Katagiri started to doubt his ability. He suffered from low self-esteem for a long time.

Isolation to Katagiri is also a way to protect him from recurrent harm. According to Freud (1961), isolation is characterized as a mental process involving the creation of a gap between an unpleasant or threatening cognition, and other thoughts and feelings. By minimizing associative connections with other thoughts, the threatening cognition is remembered less often and is less likely to affect self-esteem or the self-concept. We can tell from the life and attitude of Katagiri that he never attempted to make a difference. He tended to stick with the current status and try not to get notice from others. His behavior partly responsible for the isolation he received.

The way for Katagiri to get connection to the society again is through his devotion to his community. Despite his timid character, he finally agreed to fight with Super-frog to protect Tokyo, the city he was living in. Before the appearance of the Super-frog, Katagiri kept questioning his own capability and power to accomplish meaningful things. By joining the fight between Super-frog and the Worm to rescue Tokyo, Katagiri regain his identity and confidence as part of the Tokyo community. This can be illustrated by his change of attitude from being not interested in the fight to paying attention to the result of the fight.

Comparing the two protagonists, inferiority is one of the common features for people under isolation. Being isolated or discriminated can affect their self-esteem and confidence. Moon was passively isolated from the society due to her ethnic identity. She revenged and worked hard to make changes and gain respect from other, in order to avoid isolation. Katagiri was comparatively less passive in the process of being isolated. He did not help himself to get out from isolation. Instead, he kept a low-profile to avoid being stand out or noticed by others. His timid personality before the appearance of the Super-frog illustrated the above description.

Moon was classified as an outsider and outcast in the American society. This stimulated her will to compete with the local. In the story, Moon did not focus on merge into the American culture. Instead, she tried to prove that she is good enough to a special and unique existence there. When the isolation is occurred between different ethnic or cultural group, the sense of comparing and contrasting would be great. Since Moon viewed herself as part of the Chinese while the boys are American, when the American looked down of her only because of her race, it is difficult for her to accept the unfairness. Being labeled racially would probably arouse one’s sense of belonging of his own country.

Katagiri never encounter any specific incident that made him feel isolated, but he had already got used to the isolation and loneliness in his life. He did not want to compete with his colleague or to prove his ability. He is passive and “satisfied” with his situation. The isolation occurred within his group. Other people surrounding Katagiri are all in the same ethnic group and race with him, the Japanese. He did not find the need to prove himself or compete with others. His isolation is nothing to do with insult and humiliation. Thus, he is content with the present and not in seeks for changes or improvement.

In conclusion, both protagonists in Marilyn Chin’s Moon and Murakami Haruki’s Super-frog Saves Tokyo display traits of isolation in the story. The isolation and disprivilige are responsible for their sense of inferiority. However, we can see the two characters react differently to deal with the isolation. With Moon being isolated by members of another ethnic group, she is considered more competitive to retain her pride and discontent with the unfairness happened on her. Nevertheless, Katagiri, being isolated from his society and relatives in the same race, less aspiration is shown to change the current situation. The above illustrates the ways of people dealing with isolation depend largely on the cause of it.