村上春樹早期長篇小說之一《尋羊冒險記》（1982）當中，被認為存在著既有的故事形態的「通過儀禮」，但對於是否肯定主角的「人性成長」或「自我實現」這點，先行研究有著不同意見。本論文將拿這部作品來比照希臘神話中的英雄冒險故事的代表性傳說「金羊毛傳說」，並指出先行研究意見分歧的原因在於忽略掉主角「我」的「冒險」故事背後，同時有著友人「老鼠」作為〈弒王＝弒父〉的「通過儀禮」過程。這部作品當中的「我」的行為，與《聽風的歌》或《1973年的彈珠玩具》等其他作品相同，最後都止於「下冥府」去〈邂逅死者〉；此外「老鼠」雖然透過擊斃「羊」來象徵地完成〈弒王＝弒父〉，但終究喪失性命。因此無論哪些結局，「通過儀禮」最後的完成步驟都被迴避掉了。在本論文將嘗試論證，這類型故事發展情節所受到的影響，可推測到在法蘭西斯．福特．柯波拉《現代啟示錄》中可看到的，將詹姆斯．喬治．弗雷澤《金枝》的「為達到否定王權存續的弒王」脫胎換骨的主題。

”A Wild Sheep Chase” (1982) is one of the early novels written by Haruki Murakami, and we can easily find out the structure of rite of passage in it. But there's no common view whether the growth and self-realization of the protagonist exist at the end of the novel. I'll point out it is because that many readers overlooked the process of rite of passage of 'the Rat', a friend of the protagonist 'I', is hidden behind the plots of the adventure of 'I', comparing with the legend of the Golden Fleece; the representative hero's adventure story of 'the rite of passage' in Greek myths. And in this novel, the protagonist 'I' only does the encounter with the deceased by 'the descent to the underworld', that is like in Murakami's other works; ”Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball”, 1973, etc. But on the other hand, 'the Rat' killed 'the Sheep' to execute the 'regicide = patricide' symbolically, in exchange for life of his own, so the executions of their initiation are evaded both. I suppose that there are some influences in it from the theme of F.F. Coppola's ”Apocalypse Now”; 'the regicide for denying succession of the royal authority' inspired from ”The Golden Bough by J.G. Frazer”.