Essay Sample on Literary Analysis of The Second Bakery Attack

The story by Haruki Murakami, The Second Bakery Attack, informs of a couple that has just tied the knot and wakes up in the morning with what would be described as a ravenous need for food. The kitchen is, however, disappointing as what is available is not enough to quench their hunger. The situation makes the husband remember a similar incident when he had to rob a bakery with his roommate to satisfy his hunger, but the baker had a demand for them to first get a taste of Wayne's music. The story takes an interesting twist with the wife concluding that the husband had been cursed from his first robbery, and the only way he would break the curse was by attacking another bakery something which sends them into the action of searching for the next bakery. As such, the focus of the paper is based on its literary analysis and how the literary elements influenced its development.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The first literary issues of analysis get based on the setting, the point of view, the characters, and the theme. The story is set in Tokyo, which at the time was experiencing many cases of terror attacks. As such, most stories told or written during the era had characters whose actions were primarily impacted by poverty, as seen in the case of the leading character. It is also notable that the story is presented from the first-person point of view (Takano & Unagami, 2013). The narrator is giving accounts of his life experiences to the wife, who influences the second robbery that becomes the main issue and subsequently assuming the title.

Unlike stories with many characters, The Second Bakery Attack is a story with few characters. The characters include; the narrator, the wife to the narrator, and MacDonald's customers and workers. As such, its comprehension and understanding are equally easy. Some of the themes that come out loud while reading the story are those of hunger, crime, and the interference of the order of nature. It is explicit that both the narrator and the wife were hungry hence the second robbery. Crime becomes dominant, and it is primarily caused by hunger and a belief to erase a curse. On the part of interference with the order of nature, the wife of the narrator is expected to be submissive, but she controls how the narrator thinks and reacts to situations (Takano & Unagami, 2013). She makes him believe that he was cursed from the first robbery and convince him to engage in the second bakery attack.

The next section of literary analysis focuses on the particularly literary elements used in the development of the story—for example, those of symbolism, metaphor, and tone. On the part of the symbolism, stylistic elements like the volcano are used to represent the curse as well as the past. Volcanoes are landforms that develop over time; the same is also expected from the consequences that result from a person's doings.

Music in the story can also be described as metaphoric. In most cases, people draw pleasure from listening to songs from their favorite artists. However, in the story and according to the wife of the narrator, it connoted a curse or rather a burden that the narrator had to endure before quenching their hunger hence the second bakery attack (Takano & Unagami, 2013). The tone can also get described as dark humor, and it has been used in the story in depicting the already discussed themes.

In summary, the story is both interesting and educational. It follows the accepted tenets of a short story and, as such, used different literary elements. Some of the elements that have been discussed are those that elucidate on the setting, the plot, the characters, and the themes, to mention but a few.

Reference

Takano, M., & Unagami, N. (2013). Reading Haruki Murakami's" The Second Bakery Attack." Research reports of Tokyo Metropolitan College of Industrial Technology, 7, 18-25. https://metro-cit.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=144&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1