Super Freud Saves Katagiri
From his parents dying at a young age, to raising his younger siblings, and risking his chances at marriage, Katagiri from “Super Frog Saves Tokyo”, by Haruki Murakami, has received no praise or validation for his work nor his sacrifices all his life and is hated by Japanese society, even though everything he did was out of responsibility and honor. To cope with his repressed hatred for his life and society’s disrespect for him, Katagiri manifests a giant frog which he helps save Tokyo. It is Frog that gives Katagiri the respect and acknowledgment that he wishes for, Freud would call this Katagiri’s way of fulfilling his wishful impulse for validation from society. Katagiri’s hallucination of Frog and Worm serves as a manifestation of his own repressed emotions. Through this dream/hallucination, Katagiri fulfills his wishful impulse for receiving respect and appreciation from society.
Due to Katagiri’s profession as a debt collector, he serves as a symbol in Japanese society that provokes hatred and disgust in others. This intolerance for Katagiri’s profession adds on to his self-hatred. At times Katagiri’s job of collecting debt from gangsters would prove to be dangerous, but he was never afraid. Katagiri did not fear death because to him it would be better to die than live his pathetic life. This is evident when the narrator says, “They could stab him if they wanted to. They could beat him up. He was perfect for the job: no wife, no kids, both parents dead, a brother and sister he had put through college married off. So what if they killed him? It wouldn’t change anything for anybody—least of all for Katagiri himself.” (Murakami 3). It is evident that Katagiri does not value his life and neither does anyone else in society, because of this he struggles with depression as well as low self-esteem.
In order to manage our depression we rely on the expression of our emotions to help us find relief from what torments us, Freud calls this form of treatment “chimney sweeping” (Freud 2202). When faced with the antipathy from one’s self and others we struggle to cope with the desolation and without the help of others, and the weight of misery on our shoulders feels exponential. Society’s intolerance for Katagiri forces him to repress his desire for human acceptance and acknowledgment. As a result of this Katagiri is left alone with his self-hate. Social isolation from friends and family in older adults can lead to higher psychological distress and depressive symptoms (Taylor), which can be seen in Katagiri. This is most evident when Katagiri says, “I live a horrible life. All I do is eat, sleep and shit. I don’t know why I’m even living,” (Murakami 6).
How does someone cope with depression without the help of others? The answer to this question in Katagiri’s case is to construct a giant talking frog that will give him the validation that he needs, while also presenting him with a quest only the most courageous can accomplish. When Frog says, “But I can’t do it alone. This is the key thing: I need your courage and your passion for justice. I need you to stand behind me and say, ‘Way to go, Frog! You’re doing great! I know you can win! You’re fighting the good fight!’” (Murakami 4), it unveils the dreamlike nature of the story. The reader is left to question why did Frog choose Katagiri to be his partner in the battle with Worm, the reason why is because Frog came into fruition from Katagiri’s need for societal validation, he needed to be admired as well as be more than ordinary for once.
It is not uncommon for those with self-esteem and depression to experience hallucinations. According to Smith, “Analysis indicated that individuals with more depression and lower self-esteem had auditory hallucinations of greater severity and more intensely negative content, and were more distressed by them. In addition, individuals with more depression, lower self-esteem and more negative evaluations about themselves and others had persecutory delusions of greater severity and were more pre-occupied and distressed by them,” (Smith). This corroborates with the idea that Katagiri is suffering from hallucinations and explains why he is the only one who can see and hear Frog.
Murakami is an author that enjoys writing extraordinary stories about ordinary people. In an interview about his writing, he stated, “The central character himself is kind of ordinary, and that is very important to me because I sympathize with ordinary people; I like to see the world through the eyes of ordinary people. But the people he is going to meet aren’t ordinary in most cases; they’re kind of strange, weird, unrealistic characters…” (Ali 20-21). This clearly portrays Katagiri as a character; he is an ordinary lonely person who meets an extraordinary character. Murakami goes on to say, “It’s a journey, and you are going to meet some people, somebody, on the way, and be with him or her for a while, but there will be a separation, and you will be by yourself. I think that is life; that is my basic recognition of life. It’s lonely sometimes,” (Ali 20-21).
Typical in Murakami’s writing, Katagiri is left alone in the hospital after Frog was injured in the fight with Worm. This is no coincidence, Katagiri was ultimately alone because he was alone the whole time, in Freudian terms, Katagiri was experiencing a phantasy in order to satisfy his wishful impulse for societal acceptance. Freud states, “You will be taught that we humans, with the high standards of our civilization and under the pressure of our internal repressions, find reality unsatisfying quite generally, and for that reason entertain a life of phantasy in which we like to make up for the insufficiencies of reality by the production of wish-fulfillments,” (Freud 2235). It was both under the pressure of his society as well as his repressed self-hatred, that Katagiri sought fulfillment of his wish to be accepted by society through phantasy.
Throughout the story it is evident that Frog is the only character that shows compassion towards Katagiri, this contrasts the intense feelings of animosity society feels towards him. The disparity between Frog’s treatment of Katagiri and society’s is most clearly seen when frog says, “To be quite honest, Mr. Katagiri, you are nothing much to look at, and you are far from eloquent, so you tend to be looked down upon by those around you. I, however, can see what a sensible and courageous man you are. In all of Tokyo, with its teeming millions, there is no one else I could trust as much as you to fight by my side.” (Murakami 4). Unlike his younger sibling who did not appreciate the sacrifices he made for them as well as the people who are disgusted by his job, Frog recognizes Katagiri’s shortcomings but ultimately accepts him regardless of them. This acceptance from Frog relieves Katagiri of his internal torment and allows him to rest in a “dreamless sleep.”
When Worm is defeated, and Tokyo is saved, Frog reveals to Katagiri that the fight occurred in an area of imagination and ultimately nobody would ever know about the bravery that occurred that night (Murakami 9). This is similar to Katagiri’s internal struggle to cope with his social isolation and depression that nobody will ever know about. As stated before Murakami believes that loneliness is a part of life that everyone has to face, Katagiri had to come to terms with this part of life.
Katagiri exemplifies how dreams (or hallucinations in this case) can serve as a means to fulfill our wishful impulses which cannot be satisfied in reality. He is an ordinary man, serving his role in society based on honor and responsibility that is not appreciated by its other members. To cope with his need for acknowledgment and respect, he unconsciously constructs a six-foot Frog that will fulfill his wish for social acceptance. “Super Frog Saves Tokyo” is a narrative on the significance of ordinary people in society.
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