On Seeing the
100% Perfect Girl
One Beautiful
April Morning
Haruki
Murakami
The Internal Story- Form
• Murakami adopts a fairytale style into the
recalling of the male protagonists imaginary
pick up attempt, this shows his ideals of
romance are fantasy and unattainable in
reality.
• The structure of the internal story about the
lovers creates juxtaposition with the cold
reality of the rest of the story which he wishes
to detach himself from, this separation of
fantasy and reality shows his loneliness.
The Internal Story- Structure
• In the story of the 100% girl, the internal fairy tale is
surrounded by reality. The story picks on themes of
love and loneliness and the male protagonist is
desperate to be in love. The isolation of this story
within a story reflects how the main character
submerges himself in fantasy to escape the recognised
impracticalities of reality.
• The use of first person in the entirety of the story with
the exception of the fairytale (which is in third person)
creates the contrast of fantasy and reality in the
reader’s mind.
The Internal Story-Themes
Unrequited
LoveIn the internal
story we see the
writer over
compensate for his
life, upon meeting
the girl and talking
to her she tells him
he is ‘the 100%
perfect boy for
me’- with this
being his fantasy it
may show he’s
used to rejection.
Fantastical/Unrealistic
relationships- many
aspects of the internal story
are highly unlikely in reality
and are the kind you’d find in
folk lore, the test of love
especially and agreement
that if they are 100% perfect
for each other ‘We’ll marry
then and there’ –this kind of
idea of true love being
unstoppable and believing
that there’s fate and destiny
to hold them together shows
how his Romantic ideals are
ones more suited for
literature than reality.
Loneliness- the
writer’s repetitive
references to loneliness
highlight it as a key theme
to the story, he uses the
word ‘lonely’ to describe
both the boy and the girl
when writing ‘they were
just an ordinary lonely boy
and an ordinary lonely
girl’ it shows he wants
somebody to identify with
these feelings, maybe
something he hasn’t
experienced and therefore
wishes to conjure up in his
mind.
What does the fairytale tell us about
the main male protagonist?
• Frome the fairy tale we
learn the voice of the story
is a romantic , he says
‘…their heads were as
empty as the young D. H.
Lawrence’s piggy bank.’ D.
H. Lawrence was a western
artist who fledged from a
humble upbringing into the
riches that accompanied his
romantic poetry, writing and
art, his reference to him
may show his obsession
with romantic texts and
musings, in love with the
idea of being in love.