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When recalling a home, many will reveal tales of comfort and nostalgia, naming places that they feel they can return to and truly be comfortable and accepted. Others have no emotional sentiment to any particular location, to them homes are simply means of survival, a shelter for their being. The significance and understanding of the home is explored throughout Haruki Murakami’s novel, Kafka on the Shore. Set in Japan, the novel maintains a heavy focus on the influence of one’s surroundings as it follows two main protagonists, Kafka Tamura and Satoru Nakata.
Though Kafka and Nakata have lead dramatically different lives, their journeys intertwine in location and relationships that develop throughout the novel. Both characters started their lives in Tokyo, yet neither feel emotional connections to the city, leading them to Takamatsu. Leaving behind old shells of shelter, the characters begin to unravel the greater meaning of a home amongst a chain of spiritually linked occurrences. In Kafka on the Shore, Murakami follows independent pilgrimages through Japan in which characters redefine what a home is, revealing larger complications with inescapable relationships and attachments under unexpected situations.
Despite having spent his whole life in Tokyo with his father, Kafka’s emotional disconnect to his father and the city propels Kafka’s search for a true home.
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Kafka makes little attempts at developing any emotional connections with others in Tokyo, doing his “best to avoid [his father]” (Murakami 5) and making a constant effort to put off those around him by putting “a wall around [him], never letting anybody inside and trying not to venture around [himself]” (Murakami 5).
The emotional disconnect and pent up resentment Kafka has for Tokyo drives Kafka’s commitment to self-sufficiency. The young boy quickly delves into becoming independent by his early attempts to become stronger, both physically and mentally. His regular attendance at the gym and the library reveals his desires to be able to provide for himself as he knows he will eventually journey out of the comfort of his estranged father’s money and will have no one but himself to rely on. While Kafka refers to his father’s property as a home, Kafka uses the term loosely given the terms in which he has stayed with his father. The city serves as a constant reminder of the prophecy given to Kafka, promising that he will eventually murder his own father and engage in amorous relationships with his mother and sister. Hoping to avoid this prophecy, Kafka easily packs his belongings in a single backpack and leaves for a life of self-dependence in Southern Japan.
Childhood trauma leads to an emotional disconnect with Tokyo, leaving Nakata confined by his lack of knowledge. Nakata is an aging man, who due to his limited mental capacity, lives off of a government subsidy program, or a “sub city”(Murakami 33) as he calls it. As told through a series of letters and military investigations, Nakata lost his memory and knowledge after waking up from an inexplicable wave of unconsciousness affecting his refugee school. Without any recollection of his life and without basic knowledge, Nakata finds himself disconnected and lost within a city just barely scraping by with his basic needs. Nakata knows he can not survive outside his ward in Tokyo alone, fearing that one day, he will “be the one lost” (Murakami 36). Constricted by uncontrollable variables, Nakano ward houses Nakata, and is the only place he truly knows, yet there is a significant personal disconnect to the location itself, failing to answer Nakata’s questions about life. Nakata sees no meaning in discovering the mystery of his thin shadow as he knows that his progress will be stunted by his mental limitations. He ultimately accepts his mysterious identity, as he sees the mission as futile when “everybody passes on” (Murakami 37) eventually. While many believe homes are places of comfort, for Kafka and Nakata, Tokyo serves as homes in the loosest terms possible. They call Tokyo their home in title only, the city serving as the places they live in, but they lack any fondness to the location they call home. Nakano ward serves as a shelter and place of safety for Nakata, but the ward ultimately fails to provide any emotional connection to the aging man.
As Kafka welcomes new relationships as he builds a life away from his father, Takamatsu opens up places of comfort for Kafka. While continuing his endeavors on keeping himself well educated, Kafka resides in the Komura Library where he befriends a worker, Oshima. Unlike in the past, Kafka finds himself opening up to the fellow library resident, discussing books and the history of the library. Oshima offers his cabin to Kafka, providing the first location in which Kafka can truly realize himself. In contrast to his prior life of constantly pushing off feelings of being overpowered, Kafka is able to reflect upon his situation in isolation, accepting that he may “never outrun that awful feeling” (Murakami 98) of looming weakness. He confronts his inner conflict and allows for himself to take time to maintain himself and let go of his qualms. In contrast to when he failed to remember the last time he smiled, Kafka felt “elated, as if all of a sudden [he’s been] set free” (Murakami 99). These new experiences of self-introspection can be also be seen when Kafka takes residence within the Komura Library run by Miss Saeki. For the first time in his life, Kafka feels intense emotions and love when he meets Miss Saeki. Although he can not completely decipher his feelings for Saeki, he understands that the emotions he feels around the woman is unlike any he has had before. Kafka finds comfort in his room within the library, surrounded by books he used as company, but he finds even greater solace in the presence of Miss Saeki. Kafka finds a new home in the comfort of Miss Saeki. As he lives out his prophecy, Kafka learns what it truly means to be in love and satisfied. While Tokyo was his place of origin, Takamatsu, a dull city in comparison, becomes Kafka’s home. He understands a longing for a certain place or person and becomes completely wrapped in the idea. Although Kafka’s original journey was a path to self-sufficiency, Kafka finds himself in codependent relationships. Unlike his first encounter with Oshima’s cabin, Kafka is in constant turmoil upon his second stay at the cabin, devastated by his distance from Saeki. Kafka’s time in Takamatsu opens him up to unforeseen yet well-received relationships and experiences.
Following the vague instructions given to him by fate, Nakata finds himself in Takamatsu, along with companions he could have never dreamed of having in the past. After having wound up outside of the Nakano ward, Nakata finds himself in swift conversation with a truck driver, Hoshino. Unlike past developments with other people, Nakata easily finds himself in conversation with Hoshino where as past conversations ended awkwardly due to Nakata’s mental capacity. As their connection is almost instantaneous, Nakata tells Hoshino that he must be in Takamatsu and cross the bridge into Shikoku, and with little explanation, Hoshino finds himself willing to take on Nakata. Inexplicably, the two form a fulfilling relationship. Nakata is able to find solace in a companion who is patient with him and is understanding of his downfalls, while Hoshino is given purpose and meaning in life with Nakata’s mission to find the entrance stone. For the first time in both their lives, Nakata and Hoshino feel as though their lives are capable of carrying out greater tasks. When Nakata finds himself in the Komura library, his attitude seems to have changed completely, in a series of “uncharacteristically decisive” (Murakami 282) movements, Nakata understands the reason for his arrival at the library. Nakata’s once rather cynical view on pursuing greater goals has changed throughout his journey as he learns to accept his missing pass given “all [he] understands is the present” (Murakami 288). Nakata understands greater truths about life as he reaches out past his old ground of Tokyo, and is lead by fate alongside Hoshino. While he takes no permanent residence in any place, Nakata’s survival and journey heavily relies on Hoshino. While Hoshino is means for Nakata to survive and carry out what is asked of him, Nakata also has created a completely reliant relationship with Hoshino. When Nakata passes away in his sleep, Hoshino finds himself momentarily lost, but comforted in the fact that Nakat had passed so comfortably. After only a few days, the duo found comfort and solace in their pursuing of an incredulous goal.
Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore follows the stories of two main protagonists, Kafka and Nakata, highlighting their development of new relationships while discovering the importance of a home as they travel through Japan. The juxtaposition of the protagonists of the novel highlights and contrasts the journeys made throughout the book. Ultimately, the characters are tied together by inexplicable and supernatural events, creating a balance in their world. As fates and prophecies are fulfilled, people have completely lived their lives, and peacefully accept their deaths. Murakami’s development of the characters’ pilgrimages and their developments of home as they grow encapsulates the significance of the book. The beauty of Kafka on the Shore lies in the ultimate self-reflection as the raw characters and peculiar circumstances are relatable and human. The journey of the characters, intertwined as chapters alternated in the stories they told, make the reader reflect on their own beliefs. The novel challenges what the reader accepts as normal and tells raw stories of true love and hard truths that play a greater role in society. Murakami questions the reader as the reader discovers themself within the characters, allowing for the journeys of Kafka Tamura and Satoru Nakata become the paths of the reader themself.
What Is a House in Kafka on the Shore Story. (2022, Jan 28). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/what-is-a-house-in-kafka-on-the-shore-story-essay
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