Essay on "The Ice Man" by Haruki Murakami Haruki Murakami was born in 1949 in Kyoto, a city in Japan. He lived his life in a time and place, where traditions had an absolute influence on people and were very highly valued. This inspired him when he was writing his stories. For influence, he had to read Western literature. In his works, Haruki Murakami discusses arranged marriage in the second half of the 20th century in his country and supports the idea that people should be free to choose who they marry and rebel against traditions to fight for their happiness. This idea is present in “The Ice Man” as when the woman decides to marry the ice man, the idea that the love between them is important is more justified than the idea that her family and she cannot explain the decision to others in an understandable way. Haruki Murakami supports freedom but still suggests that one should not go too much over the line. His idea in the story is to show that telling people who to marry is taking away their right to take important decisions for their lives. When the woman does not listen to all of her family members and mates with the iceman, her decision is justified. Her family does not care about whether the couple is in love, but they concentrate on Japanese stereotypes, which is wrong because if they are not happy, they cannot make their lives valuable. If the iceman and the woman are in love, even if it is difficult to be married, if they try hard enough, they will succeed.