The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Malta Kano is a fortune-teller who comes into Toru’s life through his wife’s family. Ostensibly hired to help find Kumiko’s missing cat, Malta Kano’s true purpose is to avenge her sister’s rape through Toru’s mental and emotional development. Malta acts as symbol-giver. She foreshadows Toru’s adventures in the well and pinpoints important symbols such as flow and water. Malta disappears from the narrative as swiftly as she enters it. Her absence means that Toru must guide himself through his character development, instead of relying on women to push him through.

May Kasahara is Toru’s teenage neighbor. They meet when both are at stagnant stages in their life. May is the epitome of a person who has no sense of purpose. She endured a traumatic motorcycle accident that was her fault, so her lack of purpose may stem from her guilt. Her character challenges Toru’s loss of purpose; May is a teenager and therefore still learning how to be in the world, whereas Toru is an adult who is as aimless as a teenager. She pushes Toru to stay in the well longer, but she leaves his life when she decides that she doesn’t want to become like him. Toru thus becomes a warning sign to other secondary characters, highlighting the need for him to commit to his own character development.

Creta Kano is Malta’s sister. She defies the separation between the real world and dream-world. Creta calls herself a “prostitute of the mind,” highlighting a sense of herself as sellable and ownable. But she is also identified by her ability to insert herself into the dreams of others, such as Toru. How Creta can do this is not clear, but it is tied to her sister Malta’s abilities. Creta is used to inspire Toru to rethink his life with his wife and to reevaluate his security of his mind. Although Creta forces herself into Toru’s life, she is the closest character to a friend he has in Books 1 and 2. Creta offers Toru the opportunity to leave Japan and find himself far away from the sources that cloud his mind. Toru refuses the chance, an important decision to the novel’s plot development. If Toru left with her, he would be choosing an alternate life in which he and Creta become like man and wife. Creta is his opportunity out of his present situation; she acts as a symbolic fork in the road.

Kumiko is Toru’s wife. She represents the theme that one cannot truly know another person. Human beings are far too complex to be knowable, and Kumiko demonstrates this through her inability to understand her own emotions. She is often secretive and withdrawn because she finds it difficult to come to terms with her life. Instead of confiding in Toru, Kumiko believes that one cannot know another, wholly deteriorating their marriage. Kumiko’s secretiveness parallels the hidden secrets of history Japan would rather not let out. She is ultimately rescued from the trappings of her mind through Toru’s actions and her autonomous decision to kill her brother, thereby resolving the riddle of history.

Nutmeg takes over Toru’s guidance when Malta disappears from the narrative. A former fashion designer, Nutmeg’s life was changed when her husband was brutally murdered, which coincided with the discovery of her healing powers. Nutmeg is a friend to Toru, financially supporting him on his journey to save himself and Kumiko. Although it is certain that Nutmeg is not her real name, she is paradoxically very open with Toru and tells him stories about Japanese history from her firsthand experiences.

Cinnamon is Nutmeg’s son. He stopped speaking when he was six years old, perhaps in response to hearing the story about the zoo massacre. He is a kind, helpful young man who writes a series of stories called “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.” Cinnamon’s major purpose in the narrative is to provide Toru with a guidebook of connections based on the wind-up bird.

Noboru is the central antagonist in the novel. He mentally and physically abuses women, uses violence to achieve political power, and cannot relate to most people. He seeks to tear Kumiko apart from Toru and is Toru’s main challenge between nihilism and hope. In another era, Noboru could also be called Boris the Manskinner. Boris was a brutally sociopathic Russian officer who manipulated people of many countries. Boris kills and tortures with joy and cannot be killed. Similarly, it is difficult to truly kill Noboru Wataya because he is an embodiment of evil. Noboru can be regarded as Boris the Manskinner reincarnated, or they can both be seen as the same type of stock evil character. Both characters take pleasure out of other people’s pain, both characters seek political power, and both believe that average people are intellectually below them and therefore worthy of being controlled.