*insert timely snapchat filter that makes you a rainbow-vomiting unicorn*

So other than unicorns being majestic and whimsical AF…. why did Murakami pick unicorns to represent memories of the people that reside in the subconscious of the main character? Unicorns are mythical (I think) creatures that show up in many different cultures across time…. Scottish coat of arms, Renaissance art, the Indus Valley, Harry Potter, and some even argue that a unicorn-like creature was mentioned in the bible.

My first thoughts if someone mentions unicorns are the My Little Pony figurines, but I’m sure that was not was Murakami was thinking. I think he was more leaning towards the idea that unicorns are a thing of dreams and that dreams arise from the subconscious. Secondly, the narrator of the End of the World is “The Dreamreader,” so it seems fitting that the medium for his job is unicorn skulls. He’s reading dreams through a thing of dreams.

Upon asking my family the first word that comes to their mind when I say unicorn, this was their response:

Younger Sister: Magic

Stepdad: Bull shit

Mom: Horn

Older sister: Horse

My mom wasn’t exactly helpful, but she’s busy knitting. However, my sistesr and stepdad were pretty on point. Unicorns are magical and remind me that the  End of the World chapters resemble magical realism while the other chapters are more technology, information, and industrial related. Secondly, from class discussions we have determined that the act of shuffling is totally pointless because it is essentially destroying information. The professor should have taken a note from the scientist in Gojira  and simply burned all of his work and data. That being said, shuffling is bull shit just like how my dad thinks unicorns are bull shit. Lastly, my first impressions of the setting of the End of the World  was that it was incredibly pastoral. It focused on the trees and the beauty and the nature found in the walled city. I didn’t realize at first that the beasts were unicorns so I at first pictured them as cows and horses. Interesting that my older sister’s first thought of unicorns was horses. Unicorns represent a range of things from the narrator’s line of work to dreams to  magic to even pastoral images.

Dani dms10