Domestic Violence And Sexual Abuse In Literature - Book Report/Review Example

Domestic Violence And Sexual Abuse In Literature The novel “IQ84” written by Haruki Murakami is about the story of a mysterious world called “IQ84” and the character living through it. In the novel, Aomame is a fitness trainer who is an assassin of abusive men and as she escape from traffic congestion through a stairway encounters a world that is parallel to hers. This world is called “IQ84” as it means “I Question 84” since this situation happens in 1984. She loses the touch with time and understanding of reality soon. According to (Haruki 110) “Like it or not, I’m here now, in the year 1Q84. The 1984 that I knew no longer exists. It’s 1Q84 now. The air has changed, the scene has changed. I have to adapt to this world-with-a-question mark as soon as I can”. Another character called Tengo is an aspiring writer who is a childhood friend of Aomame. Tengo is on an assignment to re – write a short story written by seventeen year old Fuka – Eri and this girl itself is a mystery as she is involved with a religious cult leader called Sakigake. In this story, Aomame is strongly involved in assassinating committers of domestic violence. The basic target of Aomame are the men who beats their wives and people who rape and abuse women. This novels seriously questions domestic violence and the poor treatment of women. The author has portrayed the worst side of humanity like domestic violence, child abuse, child rape and murder. The physical and emotional abandonment of women and children is an integral part of this novel. In this story the main aim of the female protagonist is to kill the men who are indulging in domestic violence and sexual abuse. In the story Aomame is supported by a dowager who is wealthy and is in old age of 70s. The relationship between Aomame and the dowager is personal as well as professional. It is the dowager who gives Aomame assignment to kill men and she works on her command. The dowager itself has lost her daughter to domestic violence and hence has taken up the task of killing abusive men. So from all angle, we can see that domestic violence is the theme which is fueling the story. Additional to this the Fuka – Eri who is the writer of a short story is under the control of Sakigake who is a sexual abuser of women. So, mostly every character in the novel is surrounded by the theme of domestic or sexual violence. In the story, the Dowager runs a safe home for victims of domestic violence. In this book, the author has attempted to give his full concentration on the social issue of domestic violence. When one read this book, the only thing which can run across their mind is the idea of domestic violence and problems it brings to people and society. The author through his book is exploring the realities of world where women are treated in an improper way. The scenarios present in the story are the harsh reality of the world. There are many cases of domestic violence happening in the world and women are the innocent victims of the aggressive nature of men. As the story suggests, many women have attempted suicide or lost their lives due to domestic violence. The author portrays the real world as a difficult problem where there is injustice, violence and oppression. In this book, woman is the central character and the message also surrounds women. Aomama becomes a killer because her vengeance towards abusive men who indulge in domestic violence. She is given all the support and direction by Dowager who herself is a victim of domestic abuse and both these women is working towards eradicating domestic violence abuse although in an immoral way. The author here put forward that how women itself had to take the courage of putting an end to the cruelty towards them. Here no man has taken up the task of fighting against domestic violence but the central character and the victims itself. The Dowager who is a supporter of Aomama is infuriated by the loss of her daughter. She having all the wealth wants to punish the committers of sexual violence and she does it through Aomame who itself is a victim of it. Aomame has lost two of her friends to sexual violence. Also the story subtly implies that Aomame itself might have undergone child abuse in early years of life which makes her all the more committed to kill abusive men.The Dowager also introduces Tsubasa to Aomame who is victim of domestic violence at the hands of Sakigake. Dowager having lost her own daughter wants to adopt Tsubasa but she disappears mysteriously from the safe house. Domestic violence has ruptured the life of Aomame as she struggled in her childhood years and according to the writer she lost two of her only friends to it. So violence and abuse has left many scars on the mind of Aomame which led her many times to suicidal thoughts. Here the author is trying to make it clear that the domestic violence has many consequences on the life of a woman. Woman needs support and security from men and when they lack it they can turn dangerous to men. The vengeance and revenge seen in Aomame and Dowger is due to domestic violence.Dowger is one women who is living in the shadow of domestic violence and working exclusively against this social evil Here, Dowger is seriously tracking down people who commit abuse against women and they are given death sentence by Aomame. We can also see that such people takes law on their hands because of the less role the government play regarding these social issues. If the law of a country is strict then people need to not give punishment to law abiders. So the author is also trying to point out social injustice is someway taken care if government is not doing much about it. In this story, both Dowger and Aomame is professionally engaged in tracking down abusers and killing them. The author shows in the story how hard domestic violence can be and the way in which it spoils the life of young women. We can see that Aomame is a woman who has lost her life due to domestic violence and also she had to follow a life of a criminal due to it. In this story Tengo is also overshadowed by domestic violence as his mother was a victim of it. We ca n also see that Fuka– Eri is a disturbed teenager and due to the nature of her father who is an abuser himself. Broken lives are what the author is trying to project through the book. In the story all people have disturbed and violence shadowed life. The author here shows how the women find the pleasure in giving justice to abused women. As per (Haruki 234)“ Men who wield great violence at home against their wives and children are invariably people  of weak character. They prey upon those who are weaker than themselves precisely because of their own weakness”. The author shows how women have been robbed of their lives and how people like Dowger and Amaze save poor women from abused life and violence. In the story, Aomame is a reserved woman with dark secrets. She has many painful stories to say and all of them relate to domestic violence, she grew up in a cult and escaped from it. Her friend committed suicide because of domestic violence. So killing violent men was her passion and aim in life. According to ( Haruki 37) “This was an easier death than you deserved, Aomame thought with a scowl. It was just too simple. I probably should have broken a few ribs for you with a five iron and given you plenty of pain before putting you out of your misery. That would have been the right kind of death for a rat like you. It’s what you did to your wife”. She even though hates men she does have sexual affair with middle aged men and this could be another way of using men and subsiding her anger. In the story , Fuka – Eri is also suffocated under her father’s life. She is imagining little people who come out of dead goat’s mouth and building Air Chrysalis. And her story is based on this on which Tengo is writing. However as the story moves further Fuka – Eri disappears without question. Moreover, we can see that the characters enter into a questionable parallel world. May be the characters in the novel wanted to withdraw from the real world that they enter into a parallel world. However, we can see that the author tries to speak to readers that one should react to domestic violence and abuse. Silence is not an answer to this problem as it destroys the world of women. In the story Tengo is in love with his childhood friend who is in reality Aomame. But he has sexual relation with Fuka – Eri but surprisingly Aomame gets pregnant. She gets pregnant the night she killed the leader Sega gake who is a sexual abuser of young girls. This could be a resurrection of Fuka-Eri who wants to come into the real world and took the form of baby in Aomame’s womb. It also could be a symbol of the love Tengo had for Aomame has both loved each other since long time.Even while projecting on domestic violence and abuse, the author is nurturing love in the story. One can feel the element of love even in the broken life of Aomame. The novel contains several graphical representations of domestic violence and abuse. Somehow the author conveys to readers that Aomame is justified in killing the committers of domestic violence. In the story, Aomame has an ultimate aim of killing the cult leader Saki gake who is a child abuser. The story also reveals the dark side of incest where Saki gake has sex with his ten year old daughter. The incest is also a symbolization of domestic violence and the author has covered almost all kind of exploitation happening in the world against women. The writer has used fair amount of sexuality and sex in the novel but he would have wanted to explore the concept of domestic violence more by this way. Some sexual encounters and incestuous behaviors can be harassing but the author has done justice to inject the idea well into the reader. The story has been a narration of various characters and the different version of domestic violence and abuse around them. Characters like Aomame, Dowger, Tengo, Fuka – Eri are victims of the domestic violence. And here only one abuser is mentioned vividly and it is Saki Kage and he is atrocious and deadly who even have sex with his daughter. The author has show the world the reality of life and how human can turn into animals when it comes to sex and exploitation. The dominating nature of men and how they suppress wife or women is a classic theme of this novel. We can see that people like Aomame and Dowger do exist in this world. We have seen many occasions where women have been killing men in strange and heinous ways. The author asserts the conduct of Aomame by quoting (Haruki 173) “To get something important, people have to pay a price. That’s the rule the world operates by." The story has a realistic theme even though the story is been told in a fictional way. In this novel all kinds of sexual exploitation and domestic violence are depicted. The author has made a character that is a victim of domestic violence and abuse since childhood and sacrificed her life to avenge against culprit men. Here author also conveys that women are always supported by women and they need to unite to save their respect and dignity. Men in this novel have a villainous role and most of them are shown with a grey character. The author has done full justice to project domestic violence and the story has a credible message to readers Work Cited Murakami, Haruki. IQ84. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2011. Print. Read More