Tells us all we
need to know,
e.g. age, lonely,
desperate for a
woman
His lack of identity
may show that the
young mans
emotions are an
inevitable part of
modern life
The Girl
We know even less
about, possibly lonely
and looking for love too
May just be his fantasy
Not that special, he is
just desperate, even
her lacking a nose
doesn't bother him!
Themes
Loneliness
narrator admits to being lonely
she has to also be lonely to fit
into his fantasy
allows us to laugh
at the male
delusion of the
lonely female who
would be won over
by his story...
Fantasy and reality
100% perfect - male fantasy
amusing naivety
no communication, he cant
even recall her looks
completly
colleagues make out it is a
regular occurrence when he
tells them
parallel worlds
Man and woman may
have a parallel life
If things had only
happened at a
differnet time, in a
different place or
with different
people...
Setting
April 1981
Spring = new life and rebirth
falling in love?
very fashionable area
where 2 people may
meet, however the
bustling streets are a
contrast to the authors
inner thoughts
Tokyo is a
huge area
(8 million
people) so
he is very
unlikely to
see her
again
Language
Changes tenses, lines 1-5 is present tense
17-26 is past tense
27-58 describing girl in
present tense
59-115 is past tense,
what he wished
happened
sometimes addresses reader 116-117
"you" = causes reader to
have empathy with him
Light and colloquial in "she's" and "I'd"
Contrast in 4th
section when he
recalls almost a
fairy-tale story
no names show they could be anyone!
dont know where they are in fantasy
flower shop could
symbolise the
possibility that he
would go and buy her
flowers. In real life this
would seem strange,
but in his fantasy it is
not crazy or
impulsive.