Sputnik Sweetheart

Finding Sexuality Through Creativity: Sumire's Journey in Sputnik Sweetheart College

Sexual desire is a word that brings confusion to the mind of Sumire in Haruki Murakami's Sputnik Sweetheart. This sexual desire takes a while for Sumire to comprehend but as the novel continues it is seen that she comprehends it when it comes to the terms of literature, which is composed by her friend K. Another form in which sexual desire is seen, is through music and it is seen like this through the eyes of Miu. Miu is the main reason for Sumire’s sudden comprehension of sexual desire, due to the fact that Miu is the one that makes Sumire feel sexual desire for the first time. These ides of creativity, literature and music, allow Sumire to travel to a place she never thought she would understand.

Sumire’s new place is a place where sexual desire exists, a place so foreign to her that she has to ask her friend K for help on the topic. K allows Sumire to understand sexual desire through literature because it is the only way she understands it, since she is an aspiring writer. K questions if Sumire ever did experience sex, “If she did experience sex - or something close to it - in high school, I’m sure it would have been less out of sexual desire or love than literary curiosity.” (Murakami 21). Through this it is seen that even...

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