Kafka on the Shore is the story of Kafka Tamura, a teenager fleeing his home in Tokyo. This story is obscurely connected with the journey of Nakata, a mentally impaired older man who uses his ability to talk to cats to find lost pets. The two storylines begin to converge as the two men travel to the same backwater city, exploring music, books, and the nature of the human soul along the way.
Kafka on the Shore demonstrates Murakami's typical blend of popular culture, mundane detail, magical realism, suspense, humor, an involved plot, and potent sexuality. It also features an increased emphasis on Japanese religious traditions, particularly Shinto. The main characters are significant departures from the typical protagonist of a Murakami novel, such as Toru Watanabe of Norwegian Wood and Toru Okada of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle , who are typically in their 20s or 30s and have rather humdrum personalities. However, many of the same themes re-occur in Kafka on the Shore as were first developed in these and other previous novels.
The power and beauty of music as a communicative medium is one of the central themes of the novel—the very title comes from a song Kafka is given on a record in the library. Metaphysics is also a central theme of the novel as many of the character's dialogues and soliloquy are motivated by their inquiry about the nature of the world around them and their relation to it. The music of Beethoven, specifically the Archduke Trio is also used as a redemptive metaphor. Among other prominent themes are: the virtues of self-sufficiency, the relation of dreams and reality, the threat of fate, the uncertain grip of prophecy, and the influence of the subconscious.
G. W. F. Hegel has an influence on the book and is referenced directly at one point. Dialectics (Thesis, antithesis, synthesis) in particular play a role.
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