Heroic Traits in the Characters of Haruki Murakami and Fyodor Dostoevsky

Abstract

The psyche of a person who is not following the conventions of the society is a curious place to delve in. There are questions about right and wrong which follow the study of such characters. This paper will bring out a comparative analysis of Crime and Punishment and Kafka on the Shore by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Haruki Murakami respectively. Both the writers have portrayed characters who have denounced the rituals and rules of the society, forming a separate niche for themselves. Nakata and Kafka Tamura from Kafka on the Shore and Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment are the characters whom we will look at through the lens of Friederich Nietzsche's theory of the Ubermensch. These characters fought their own battles, for themselves and the society as a whole. It is crucial for a critical society to understand the background which would have influenced a person to commit certain actions in his life.