83 pages • 2 hours read
Haruki Murakami, Transl. Jay RubinThe Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1994A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Following the Natural Flow of Your World
In The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, characters are challenged to let the world unfurl in its own way. Murakami suggests that human beings, whether because of socialization or their natures, wish to create order and meaning out of the chaos of the world. Murakami suggests that human beings in these societies tend to project their ambitions, dreams, imaginations, and pursuits of happiness onto an uncaring and ultimately random world. The more characters fight the flow of the world, the more traumatized and isolated they become. Rather than fight the flow, Murakami posits that people should pay more attention to the tiny details that hint at larger understandings. In Murakami’s constructed Japan, there are layers of alternative realities that are only accessible by letting go of preconceived notions of the physical and mental limitations of the world.
This is exemplified by Creta’s mental sexual coupling with Toru. Although they don’t physically have sex, Creta intercepts Toru’s dreams and copulates with him in their minds. But the world of their minds is as real and as important as the “real” world. This is also highlighted by the symbol of the deep and dry well that gives Toru and Lieutenant Mamiya access to the boundary-less corners of their mind. Characters that seek to control their world, such as Kumiko, end up falling into despair.
It is said that human beings only use a very small percentage of their brains. If they were able to access all modes of our minds, they could transcend their small conceptions of reality. Murakami attempts this transcendence through Toru’s bildungsroman. The first step is to be open to the idea that there are corners of the universe people refuse to see. The second step is to isolate oneself into a space that will challenge corporeality and propel an out-of-body experience. The third step is to refuse the belief that the out-of-body experience is merely a dream.
Secrets Can Be Disastrous
The secretive nature of individuals and societies is an important theme in this novel. Secrets are analyzed as a normal part of coming to terms with one’s identity. But secrets are also revealed as poisonous in their ripple effect on communities, relationships, and histories.
Kumiko keeps secrets from Toru. Without any understanding of what she is going through, Kumiko does not offer him the opportunity to help her, thereby isolating herself into a deep hole of despair and imprisonment. If Kumiko could just tell Toru the whole truth, she could allow her vulnerabilities to find support in the world outside of herself. Because Kumiko keeps her secrets to herself, she is overtaken by more powerful evil forces. Kumiko may believe that her secrets are her own problem, but the ripple effect of her secrets impacts Toru directly and May Kasahara indirectly, among others.
This is paralleled in Lieutenant Mamiya’s and Nutmeg’s father’s stories. After World War II, Japan dealt with a re-reckoning of the very foundation of its cultural identity. But widely held secrets are the atrocities and injustices performed by the Japanese during the war. Senseless executions, violent murders, disorganized mayhem, cruel pressures, among other brutalities, characterize the Japanese war experience. In keeping these narratives hushed away, lost to time, Japan and its people cannot move forward. This is embodied in Lieutenant Mamiya’s allegory of the well. He is so close to grace, but it ultimately eludes him because humankind is simply not ready to see their true selves. In writing about secrets philosophically, Murakami also criticizes his country’s response to rebuild the nation after the war by hiding the traumas and pains inflicted on others.
In both the character of Kumiko and the historical narrative weaved through this novel, Murakami suggests that only in reckoning with the past can individuals and communities live authentically in the present.
Free Will Does Not Exist—Or Does It?
The issue of free will is a major existential dilemma in the novel. Many characters report feeling a sense of nihilism about their futures. They sense that there is a mysterious “they” controlling their lives. For some characters, such as Nutmeg’s father, this nihilism produces a sense of peace with the present. If a person can’t change the future or control their present, they have no choice but to embrace the natural flow of the universe. But for other characters, this loss of control feels like a curse. Lieutenant Mamiya, for example, is convinced that Mr. Honda was correct that he couldn’t die; furthermore, he allows Boris the Manskinner to curse him to a life of unhappiness. Is it true that Honda and Boris have this power to doom Mamiya to a long and lonely life? Or does Mamiya put too much stock in his lack of free will, thereby proving Boris and Honda correct by giving up on his own autonomy? Kumiko also emphasizes this inner conflict. She is convinced that it was inevitable that she turns bad, but she also places blame for her transition on Noboru.
It is tempting to believe that Murakami agrees that there is no such thing as free will, and therefore life is futile. Yet Toru can control his own mind through his meditations at the bottom of the well. The question here is if Toru was predestined to have this gift, or if he believed enough in the gift to activate what all people can activate.
The issue of free will is so important that it is symbolically featured in the title of the novel. The wind-up bird is responsible for winding up the world. If the wind-up bird has this power, then perhaps humans have no control. On the other hand, the wind-up bird doesn’t actually force people to do anything or think anything—he simply wakes up the world.
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