The peculiar story of the monkey and the girl Mizuki is full of symbols and metaphors. Mizuki leads an ordinary and, at first glance, satisfying life. Still, at the same time, in her childhood, she has gone through horrible traumas that made her suppress her feelings and emotions because it is too painful to admit and experience them. At some point appears the monkey with an uncontrolled desire to steal people’s names, especially if they caught her attention.
Eventually, it steals Mizuki’s name which makes her forget it unexpectedly. It turns out the monkey unintentionally helped the girl face her suppressed feelings and the reality she lives in, and the traumas her parents gave to her when she was a child. There are three main symbols in the story: name tags, a bracelet, and the monkey. Each of them is different, but what unites them is their representation of unconscious feelings, which Mizuki starts to explore during the events in the story. Those symbols help the girl consciously analyze her life and guide her through the traumatic experiences and consequences to make her take the first step towards self-recognition. The healing from the phycological trauma may only come when the internal or external circumstances guide the person to the forgotten sufferings and miseries.
The name tags are one of the most intriguing yet significant symbols in the story, for their meanings can be interpreted in many ways. Mizuki starts to forget her name right after the monkey steals it away from her. Whenever she should present herself, she cannot remember her name, particularly on stressful occasions or when she has to answer quickly, so Mizuki struggled with it for some time. However, at some point in the story, the monkey tells Mizuki that it also takes some destructing parts from people #pg 34. The metonymy lets the quote demonstrate to the reader that some people carry the image that probably was never their initial identity.
Meanwhile, Mizuki cannot memorize her name because she has not yet learned the truth about herself. Carrying the burden from past traumas and experiences is part of the false character that can complicate the person’s life. For instance, Yuko might be alive and not commit suicide if only the monkey could take her name tag. When she claimed that she did not want “a monkey running off with it” #pg 18, it referred to her fear of changes and the unknown hidden inside of Yuko. This may be a metaphor for an unwillingness to relieve the negativity and traumatic weight since she would have to take responsibility for the uncovered the truth
The bracelet symbolizes Mizuki’s loss of herself and the absence of belonging to a family. She associates herself with the dog or cat lost from its owner, and she is desperately seeking the way back to the master. Mizuki wore the bracelet like a pet that would go outside the house to get back to the owner #pg3. The literary device that has been used in the phrase is a metaphor. It applies to her loneliness and the feeling of inner isolation. The first colossal loss and betrayal in the main character’s life were when her parents, specifically her mother, abandoned her. Even her father, who, in contrast, created an impression of a decent man, did not care very much about his daughter.
Therefore, Mizuki has never known true parental love and affection. She has never experienced the care, concern, and feeling of the worthiness of someone. She never realized that something was utterly wrong throughout her life and always tried to suppress her emotions to avoid pain and suffering. That was a sign of her shift towards awareness of her mental problems and an attempt to deal with them.
Another controversial symbol is the monkey itself which tends to steal people’s name tags for no concrete reason at all. In the story, a monkey can represent life, the human faith that is unpredictable and impulsive. It claims that it just cannot stop stealing people’s names, although it means no harm and sometimes can even help get rid of some amount of inner darkness #pg30. Those words from the quote might provoke a double reaction from the audience because, from the very beginning, a monkey could be perceived as an evil creature. Firstly, Yuko was worried about the monkey stealing her name tag, and Mizuki started to forget her name when it did it.
However, when it eventually explains that it is nothing more than an impulse, something it cannot control, it becomes evident that there is no specific plan or scheme. Sometimes it makes people forget their names and forget who they are to push them towards the naked truth. To fight the eternal darkness and make all the unconscious become conscious and move towards self-recognition with complete understanding, Mizuki needed an additional stimulus in the shape of the forgotten name.
In conclusion, to summarize all the analysis of the symbolism in the story, it is necessary to mention that eventually, without conscious development, healing from the traumatic experience is impossible. Mizuki, who seemed to have a generally good life and looked satisfied entirely from the side, hid her painful memories from the past. She pushed them so profoundly into the subconscious that Mizuki eventually could not fully feel all the wide specter of emotions.
She rationalized all her feelings but did not live through true joy, sadness, or anger. Therefore, the monkey symbolizes faith that puts Mizuki into uncomfortable situations that reveals the sad truth about her past and present. The name tag is her identity that was dominantly unconscious and unrecognized. When she lost it, Mizuki had to wear the bracelet that indicates her isolation from herself and maternal love, the proper care and attention she never had. Only when she faced the unpleasant and uncovered truth from the monkey, did she, if not entirely but become most conscious and aware of the events that happened.