Title: Super-Frog saves Tokyo and Katagiri: a hero in a dream

           “Super Frog Saves Tokyo” is a fictional novel with many elements, such as fairy tales, science fiction and so on. The Kobe Earthquake is the background of Murakami’s writing. After the disaster, people generally have an infinite fear of earthquakes and fear of the recurrence of earthquakes. Therefore, in the dream of Katagiri, Worm is the maker of earthquakes. The Worm brought human beings unbearable disasters, so no one can sit idly by. Ordinary man Katagiri is also full of anxiety about the earthquake. The accumulation of this anxiety makes Katagiri create a frog in his mind, become the stopper of the earthquake, and become the Savior of Tokyo. By means of Freud’s psychoanalysis theory of id, ego, and superego, this paper analyzes the relationship between society, Frog, Worm and the protagonist Katagiri.

        Society had no influence on a person’s id. Id also can be defined as one’s instinctual, it does not care how society judge them. “The id is the mind we are all born with, a seething mass of wholly selfish desires and the impulses aimed at the immediate and complete gratification of those desires. It is the id which is the driving force behind what Freud called the pleasure principle.”(Rennison 38) Id act on the principle of happiness, ignoring social morality. The id can show by the worm and the society. “It was time now for him, too, to cause a massive earthquake, and he’d do it here, in Tokyo.”(Murakami)The worm definitely shows the id in the story, worm desire to make a massive earthquake. To revenge for waking him up in the middle of the sleeping. The worm is totally opposite to Frog. He is a selfish guy doing everything based on his animal instinct. The worm does not care what will happen to the people in Tokyo if he starts the earthquake. The kid, elder has the higher chance to lose their lives in the disaster. But, to worm; it was just a revenge on the thing that makes him happy. When the worm is in the underground and sleeping in the darkest part of the world. There is something in the society also symbolize by the worm as the evil part of our world. “The Kabukicho neighborhood of Shinjuku was a labyrinth of violence: old-time gangsters, Korean mobsters, Chinese Mafia, guns and drugs.”(Murakami) The gangster is the Id in our society. They are the dark side of our peaceful world. They destroyed uncountable human living by killing them or sell the drug. Their hand was full of blood. For them, one’s lives are lighter than a feather.

            One’s ego is most related to society. Ego decided to make the decision based on the external world and the id. “The ego provides the individual with the sense of self and watches over the instinctual demands of the id, deciding whether, when and how they can be gratified.”（Rennison 39) The external world of Katagiri is very boring, living like a loser. Nobody likes him. No one appreciates the work he has done. His sibling never felt grateful toward him even him take care of them since their parents are gone. “I’m an absolutely ordinary guy. Less than ordinary. I’m going bald, I’m getting a potbelly, I turned 40 last month. My feet are flat. The doctor told me recently that I have diabetic tendencies.” (Murakami) He dreams to be a strong and knowledgeable man like the frog. As a debt collector, his job was hated by society.  “And there may be a powerful politician backing them up. They’re into you for 700 million. That is the situation you are dealing with, am I right?” (Murakami) Katagiri fantasizes there is a guy like the Frog. That can make his job easier by threatening the Big Bear company to pay back the debt. Otherwise, his might lost his job if he didn’t get the 700 million back. Moreover Bubble economy reduces the job opportunity. He doesn’t want to lose this job under the kind of bad condition.

        Our superego is shaped by the environment around. Based on the society that people could have different morality standard. “Often operating unconsciously, the super-ego provides us all with our conscience, our sense of what is right and what is wrong, and demands that we often behave in ways acceptable to society at large rather than to our own individual urges.” (Rennison 40) The Frog is like a big brother. He seems to be perfect or the superego. Frog knows how to solve Katagiri’s problem. For example, he gets back the debt of the Big Bear company for him. Also, he is not afraid to fight with the evil worm. “If we should happen to lose our lives in the process, we will gain no one’s sympathy. And even if we manage to defeat Worm, no one will praise us. No one will ever know that such a battle even raged far beneath their feet.”(Murakami) Katagiri and Frog without ever seeking any reward. That is their superego in common. Katagiri found the only recognition from the Frog. Although Katagiri ends the story with no friends, no rewards, and no recognition for helping save Tokyo, Katagiri’s deep, peaceful sleep is a sense of satisfaction and consolation. Not only did Katagiri save people away from the earthquake. But once, he knew that he had done something great and truly perceived and witnessed by another person. Even if that person happened to be a huge, talking, and possibly imaginary Frog.

      “That the day-dreamer carefully conceals his phantasies from other people because he feels he has reasons for being ashamed of them.”(Freud 152) Fantasy means that when a person encounters practical difficulties, because he is unable to deal with problems in practice. He uses fantasy to imagine how to deal with difficulties arbitrarily. So that he can exist in the fantasy world to achieve psychological balance. It is because Katagiri lives ordinary days, do their best to do their work every day, walk on their own track, the society is composed of countless such ordinary people, that is Tokyo. One after another ordinary people constitute this society, we represent justice, in order to save the declining society. Fighting against the evil and corrupt creature of Worm. It’s not Frog’s battle with Worm, it’s the battle of justice and evil within the individual as a society. The fights between Frog and Worm tied, the earthquake did not happen, evil did not succeed, but evil did not disappear, it still exists somewhere waiting for a comeback.

             In the late night when everyone slept, the protagonist and Frog stopped a catastrophe and saved Tokyo. As a result, after a turn of the pen, realized that it was a dream the protagonist had in the hospital. After the nurse woke him up, the slippery feeling of the insects left on him was still there. The Frog and the Worm is actually another self in his dream or subconscious mind. The Frog is his superego and the Worm is the id part of Katagiri. But the reality is unsatisfactory so that he can only realize his ideal through his dream, people in society have faced social and personal constraints. which will make the pursuit id of happiness cannot be released. Then this repressed id is hidden in the ocean of the unconscious, only when people relax vigilance will they appear in people’s dreams. From the dream of Katagiri, we can get a glimpse of the deep thirst deep inside him. It is a good wish toward not have the earthquake again.