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Prologue:
This is the prologue in which the readers are introduced to Crow, the mysterious ‘alter ego’ of Kafka. This scene takes place is Kafka’s home, of which he shares withs with his father. This is the scene in which Kafka is about to run away. -
Chapter 1: Departure
he first chapter is about the way kafka reminisces about his past and also how he wants to leave his house. He values the valuable that he can take with him when he leaves. But he decided not to take any of those as it would attract people and that it wouldn't be safe for him. He says that his 15th birthday would be a best day to leave his house - “my fifteenth birthday is the ideal point to run away from home. Any earlier would be too soon”. pg 7
This relates to isolation and alienation of me -
Chater 3:Meeting Sakura
This scene takes place on the bus. There are no major points of note other than this is the scene in we meet with Sakura for the first time. The idea/theme of the brother/sister relationship is introduced.
Sakura:‘She’s kind of funny looking. Her face is out of balance-broad forehead, button nose, freckled cheeks and pointy ears. A slammed together, rough sort of face you can’t ignore’[10].
‘In traveling, a companion, in life, compassion’ [22]. - means ‘that chance encounters are what keeps us -
Chapter 5: First Day Away
Kafka learn’s Sakura name.
Kafka meets Miss Saeki and Oshima
The idea of male/male female/male female/female is introduced. -
Chapter 7: 8 days gone.
“ BUt on the evening of the eighth day, as had to happen sooner or later. This simple centripetal life is blown to bits” (63) Represents the manipulation of time as well as the change in the plot.
“ IN a hundred years everybody here, me included. Will have disappeared from the face of the earth and turned into ashes or dust. A weird thought but everything infront of me begins to seem unreal, as if a gust of wind could blow it all away” (59) Displays magical realism. Also shows how Kafka was sim -
Chapter 9: Blackout
“When I come to I’m in a thick undergrowth, lying on the damp ground like some log” (72.) Kafka is unaware of what happened to him and yet he seems to react calmly and simply tries to make sense of the situation. It’s an important event because it might be linked to the murder of Johnnie Walker. It also helps develop Kafka’s character.
“There’s a narrow path there, and I follow the beam of my torch into a place where ther’re some lights. It appears to be the grounds of a Shin"e” (74.) -
Chapter 11:Think of me as your sister.
“think of me as your sister”
-first time we see Kafka being vunerable with someone (sakura)
Similarity to Odepidus Rex:
mystery of who Kafka’s mother is “i don’t even remember what she is like, and i have no idea where she is” (91)
inverse situation to oedipus where Kafka is aware that a crime was committed but he has no idea what was done.
mention of fate “fate seems to be talking me in some even stranger direction” (101).
existentialism.
theme of sexual desire.
complicated relations -
Chapter 13: New Home
Solitude: “But solitude comes in different varieties. What’s waiting for you might be a little unexpected. (...) It might change change, depending on you” (121)
Needs Crow’s help to formulate ideas: “I try putting into words my impressions of the novel, but I need Crow’s help - need him to appear from wherever he is , spread his wings wide and search out the right words for me” (113).
Allusions to literature/music: Natsume Soseki’s Complete Works (p. 113) -
Chapter 15: Cabin Fever
Book on Eichmann trial : “in dreams begins responsibility” (p. 141) - written by Oshima
Washes himself in the rain. Feels ‘elated’, ‘free’, ‘purified’ (p. 147)
(p.148) → foreshadowing of rape of sakura and dream of ms saeki. inevitability of his fate. stresses again the importance of imagination and the responsibility that begins in dreams. -
Chapter 17: Back tracking
- “I never knew the world was full of so many beautiful, natural sounds. I’ve ignored them my entire life, but not now.” (162) Kafka is going through alot of change and is starting to find himself in this magical environment which sorounds the cabin.
- “ This place is too calm, too natural - too complete. I don’t deserve it. At least not yet.” (162) A bit of foreshadowing as well as Kafka knows that his journey is far from completion.
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Chapter 19: Angry Women
Miss Saeki has on a navy blue short-sleeved dress, a cotton coat in her arms, a shoulder bag. Nothing you could call an accessory, and hardly a hint of makeup. Still, there's something about her that's dazzling. She glances at me standing next to Oshima and looks for a moment like she wants to say something, but doesn't.
"You've just been evading the point, mouthing empty arguments that avoid taking responsibility," she says in a really high-pitched voice. -
Chapter 21: Oedipus Prophecy
“ But i'm not so sure. I do the maths and work out that he was murdered the same night i woke up with my shirt covered in blood.” Manipulation of time is seen in this quote as well as the conversion between the two plots of Nakata and Kafka.
“Someday you will murder your father and be with your mother,’ he said.” (217)What Kafka’s father told him relates to the Oedipus prophecy as well as the mystery to who killed Johnnie Walker.
“No,” I say, “that’s not it at all. I just need some time alone -
Chapter 23: The ghost
- sexual desire (239)
- first time we hear of “Kafka on the Shore” lyrics (245) -connection to nakata through lyrircs -connection to current events through lyrics (247) -Entrance Stone.
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Chaoter 25: Falling in love
-Second night Kafka meets the “ghost”
-”I’m not in her dream. She and I are in two separate worlds, divided by an invisible border” (258) Kafka
-” There is one thing, I discover, the girl and I have in common. We’re both in love with someone who’s no longer of this world” Kafka (259)
-” I walk for a while on a path that runs parallel to the sea, picturing the boy in the painting walking the same path..” (260) -
Chapter 27: Coffe with a side of Mystery
“‘A detective from a local station was asking about you,’ says [...]” (283-284.) The police is searching for Kafka because he is a associated to his dad’s murder.
“‘The police said you were a troublemaker at school. There were some violent incidents involving you and your classmates. And you were suspended three times’”(286.) We learn about Kafka’s past and his relations with his classmates. This helps develop Kafka’s personality and gives some more insight into who he is. -
Chapter 29: Sex conspiracy
I stand up straight and take a deep breath. "Sakura, I wish I could do that. I really do. But I can't right now. Like I told you, I can't leave here. I'm in love." (watashi wa koishite iru? Dare ga daisuki desu?)
I hang up, go back to my room, put the single of "Kafka on the Shore" on the turntable, and lower the needle. And once more, whether I like it or not, I'm swept away to that place. To that time. -
Chapter 31: Kafka on the Shore
Theory of Ms. Saeki being his mother first expressed to her
Father wanted to die, like Ms Saeki: “My father was in love with you, but couldn’t get you back. Or maybe from the very beginning he couldn't really make you his. He knew that, and that’s why he wanted to die. And that’s also why he wanted his son - your son, to murder him. Me, in other words. He wanted me to sleep with you and my older sister, too. That was his prophecy, his curse. -
Chapter 33: Did it again.
-mentioning of time. Kafka has been in Takamatsu since 3 weeks (337)
-Kafka is telling himself that he’s an free independent boy who can go wherever he wants to go, but the boy named crow contradicts with him and tells him “There’s no way you can leave here. You aren’t free. But is that what you really want? to be free?” (338).
-Oshima says “That backpack’s like your symbol of freedom” (338) -
Chapter 35: Wondering Presence
“In my dream I was deep inside a cave, bent over in the dark, torch in hand, searching for something. I shout a reply, but whoever it is doesn’t seem to hear me” (354.) This is the dream that Sakura mentions in a later chapter.
‘“Like a train heading towards the station?’[...]’I bet you’re thinking I’m the train’”(360.) -
Chapter 37:
Oshima and kafka having tea and talking about napoleon's war, and how the soldiers died because they were wounded and they did not have medical care for them.
labyrinth. pg 379 line 11
this is the intro to the soldiers and the forest comparison to kafkas life. kafkas inside is the labyrinth. the forest is a place where people can get lost. this means that kafkas life is confusing and he can get lost. therefore kafka soldier and labyrinth are all connected. pg 380 the bold. -
Chapter 39:
Radioheads’ Kid A, Prince’s Greatest Hits, Coltrane’s My Favourite Things : same music since he ran away, representative of his feelings? what he connects to? metaphorical??
“I want to see how deep this forest really is. I know it’s dangerous, but I want to see - and feel - what kind of danger lies ahead, how dangerous it really is. I have to. Something’s shoving me forward” (p. 394). -
Chapter 41
“ I head into the heart of the forest, a hollow man, a void that devours all that’s substantial. So there is nothing left to fear. Not a thing. And i head into the heart of the forest.”(418)
“Im all alone in the middle of a dim maze. Listen to the wind Oshima told me. I listen, but no wind’s blowing. Even the boy named Crow has Vanished.”(417) -
Chapter 43
This is the chapter in which Kafka heads into the the forest for the second time. The readers are aware of Kafka’s angry emotions of his abandonment by his mother. This is also when we meet up with the two American World War two soldiers. Kafka enters the limbo state at the end of this chapter.
I’m not afraid any more.That’s why I chose to be totally defenceless.” Minus my hard shell, just flesh and bones, I head for the core of the labyrinth, giving myself up the void’[428]. -
Chapter 45
the entrance stone (location) can be perceived as the only serene and peaceful place “no thing’s going to harm you here” (447) although it seems like a surreal or out of this realm place the location/ entrance stone requires eletricity. this incorporates the reality vs. magic and how they become one in the entrance stone. The soldiers mention war and possible Japonese enemies that were involved in the war such as chinese,americans and russians (447) -
Boy Named Crow:
- “At this point, the boy named Crow had to be the loneliest bird in the world, but he was too busy to think about that now.” p465
- “In one corner of the clearing was a large round rock and a man in a bright red sweatsuit and a black silk hat sitting on it. He wore thick-soled walking boots, and a khaki-colored bag lay on the ground beside him.”p465
- “Let’s say I play my flute, what’s going to happen? You won’t be able to come any closer to me. That’s the power of my flute.
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Chapter 47:
- “Do you have memories?” Again she shakes her head and rests her hands on the table, this time with palms face up. She glances at them expressionlessly. “No, I don’t. In a place where time isn’t important, neither is memory.” (Young Ms. Saeki and Kafka p 472)
- “I burned up all my memories,” she says, deliberately choosing her words. “They went up in smoke and disappeared into the air. So I won’t be able to remember things for very long. All sorts of things - even my time with you.........
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Chapter 49:
Chapter 49 is the final chapter of the book. In this chapter Kafka meets Oshima's brother: Sada.
In the end kafka reterns to his house and wan't to go back to school. Yet this contradicts his will for freedom. Once he had acheieved his freedom he decided to go back and loose it again.
