Town Of Cats Essay

In Haruki Murakami’s Town of Cats, the protagonist, Tengo, embarks upon a journey to visit his father at a sanatorium. Upon the long train ride to visit his father, Tengo recalls the unorthodox childhood faced alongside his father with the absence of his mother; Tengo despises his father and blames him for the life he had and when he reaches the sanatorium, he has an altercation with his father, reads him a story and his father leaves him with a metaphorical statement about his childhood and future. Murakami’s writing shares a perspective from Tengo’s point of view, thus portraying the narrative in a consistent negative tone. Moreover, throughout his life Tengo has been selfish and too focused on the negativity in his life to see the good in
Tengo’s father carried his son with him for three reasons, two of them specifically being “. . . he could not leave the boy at home alone. On weekdays and Saturdays, Tengo could go to school or to day care, but these institutions were closed on Sundays. . . . Another reason Tengo’s father said, was that it was important for a father to show his son what kind of work he did”. Tengo was ashamed to work alongside his father on Sundays because other kids spent their Sundays going on trips or playing. As an adult recalling these events, Tengo oversees his fathers care. Aside from school, his father played a parental role in putting Tengo in a day care center thus assuring he wouldn’t be alone from Monday to Saturday. Sunday, there were no options however Tengo’s father decided to take his son along with him so he did indeed have company and in addition to providing company with his son, he attempted to show his son what his father did to peak his interest. The fact that Tengo’s father prioritized showing his son his career as a parental value, we are able to see Tengo’s father does have morals for being a parent. Overall, although Tengo’s Sundays were far from what other kids have done, Tengo’s father played a role in assuring his son didn’t spend the week