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On Seeing The 100 % Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning, By Haruki Murakami Short Story

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Is there such a thing as a 100% perfect love? Haruki Murakami explores this question in his short story “On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning.” Murakami balances magical elements with reality to convey the message that the concept of perfect love in all probability does not exist but even if it did, it cannot overpower the rest of reality. Murakami uses elements of magical realism throughout his narrative to highlight the improbability of such a love’s occurrence. The narrator, having just passed his notional soul mate in the street, says “I know from fifty yards away: she’s the 100% perfect girl for me” (Murakami, 1). Certainty of having seen one’s soul mate is something that seems so fictitious it could fit right …show more content…

Even though the meeting of the two soul mates is a miracle too wonderful not to be taken advantage of, “a tiny, tiny sliver of doubt took root in their hearts” (2), eventually driving them to test their good fortune. Sadly, this occurrence is common in the world outside of fiction. Often when something perfect finds its way to an un-expecting person, he or she will eventually doubt its legitimacy. When the lovers finally meet again after fourteen years, “the glow of their memories was far too weak, and their thoughts no longer had the clarity of fourteen years earlier” (3). Miracles cannot be counted on to occur more than once. The boy and girl had their chance, but believing that if their love was meant to be they would know each other when they next saw each other, they let it pass them by. One never knows what can happen even within a minute that could change his or her life. In the case of the “100% perfect” couple, all memory of each other was lost and because they did not take hold of their fate, they missed out on true love. The narrator’s tale begins with an optimistic “once upon a time,” but ends with “a sad story, don’t you think” (3). Stories do not always have the ending that was expected when they cheerfully began. Life itself can be a sad story. That is one of the patterns of reality Murakami uses to balance out his fantasies. The narrative’s closing sentence rings with

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