63 pages • 2 hours read
Yoko OgawaA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
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What claims does the novel make about how memory works? About its importance and centrality to our lives?
All of the characters have broken relationships, and yet they come together despite their obstacles. How does the novel describe familial relationships? How do such bonds form and solidify, even in the absence of traditional structures?
We read the narrator’s thoughts and observations about the other characters, but no one comments on the narrator’s development. In what ways does the narrator grow as a person throughout the book?
Why does Ogawa chooses to leave the characters unnamed? How does this affect your understanding and interpretation of the characters?
A crucial moment comes when the Professor defends Root—and by extension, the narrator—by writing Euler’s formula on a slip of paper. Research this mathematical concept to consider its significance in the novel. Why does the Professor write it? Why does it affect the widow as much as it does?
In what other ways does the novel address class as a limiting barrier in Japanese society at the time?
Discuss father figures and mother figures in the novel. What is the novel saying about the importance of fathers and mothers?
The Professor is a static character, mostly because he is forced to reset so frequently. In what ways does he demonstrate growth? How does his character change?
The Professor’s love for mathematics stems from a particular, sublime beauty he sees in the field. How does the novel bridge poetry and beauty with mathematics? What does it have to say about the boundaries between these areas?
The Professor firmly believes that math illuminates truths about the universe. Why does he believe this? What does the novel say about the nature of truth?