Kafka on the Shore Essay Questions

What is the role of fate in Kafka on the Shore?

As one of the novel's major themes, the concept of fate plays a significant role in Kafka on the Shore. To believe in fate is to believe that events develop according to a predetermined destiny and are beyond any individual's control. At the beginning of the novel, Kafka leaves home in order to escape what he worries will be his fate—that he will kill his father and have sex with his mother and sister. This cursed fate, cruelly declared by his father, haunts Kafka. His desire to escape fate sets in motion the book's plot. However, fate proves to be something that Kafka cannot simply run away from. In the opening chapter, Crow hints that Kafka cannot outrun it and likens fate to a "sandstorm" that exists inside Kafka. Crow encourages Kafka to imagine the sands spinning inside him, a sandstorm that reconstitutes itself no matter which direction Kafka tries to run. The events of the novel see Kafka fulfill his father's prophecy in indirect ways. Rather than murder his father directly, Kafka wakes up covered in blood the night his father is murdered in the same way and in the same area as Nakata murders the metaphysical entity Johnnie Walker, who may be Kafka's father's parallel-world alter ego. Kafka also engages in a sex act with Sakura while the two discuss how nice it would be if she turned out to be his sister. Similarly, Kafka finds himself irresistibly drawn to Miss Saeki, but his thoughts of attraction are inseparable from his belief that she may be his mother. Kafka fulfills his fate through surrogate characters who may or may not be his relatives. After doing so, he no longer fears the curse in his DNA, having accepted that fate is something he cannot escape.

What is the significance of the talking cats in Kafka on the Shore?

The cats that Nakata (and later Hoshino) talk to in the novel are significant because they are symbolic of the "parallel world" that exists alongside standard reality. Nakata gains the ability to speak with cats after his traumatic childhood incident at Rice Bowl Hill. Upon waking from his coma, Nakata has lost his soul to the parallel other world, but his shell-like body exists somewhere on the border between worlds. In this state, he finds that he can talk to cats, who are also between worlds. The talking cats are, for most of the novel, an unexplained magical curiosity. However, while talking to Toro on the balcony after Nakata's death, Hoshino learns they understand each other because Toro says they are "on the border of this world, speaking a common language." As a symbol, the talking cats of Kafka on the Shore are significant because they contribute to the major theme of an alternate reality existing alongside and having a porous border with our own.

What is significant about Nakata's childhood coma?

The coma Nakata enters after his teacher slaps him into unconsciousness during the Rice Bowl Hill Incident is significant because it is during the coma that Nakata's soul seems to depart his body. Before the coma, Nakata had been a bright and well-adjusted student. Afterward, he lost the ability to read and write, and lost most of the usual human desires. Nakata recognizes his difference and feels more akin to a cat than he does a human. While his soul is off wandering in the "other world," having separated from his body like souls in The Tale of Genji, Nakata lives in his shell-like body without sexual desire, loneliness, or unhappiness. He also discovers that his shadow is only half as dark as regular people's. Eventually, Nakata finds himself called into action by impulses that come from the other world. Knowing only that he needs to "put things right," Nakata embarks on a journey to Takamatsu, where he locates and opens the entrance stone, and then burns Miss Saeki's memoirs. Having completed his mysterious duties, Nakata dies, and whatever remained of his soul leaves his body even more of a shell.

Why does Kafka feel that he needs to go deep into the forest around Oshima's cabin despite Oshima's warning that he may get lost?

Kafka is compelled to travel deep into the forest around Oshima's cabin because the forest is a symbol that externalizes his internal struggle to be free of the fears that plague his subconscious. First only going a little of the way down the path into the woods, Kafka gradually readies himself to go deep enough to meet the ghosts of two WWII-era soldiers who act as sentries at the entrance to the parallel world. After being led to a village that exists in limbo, the neutral space between life and death, Kafka confronts his subconscious and finds he need not fear his Oedipal curse. He makes peace with his mother having abandoned him when he was a child, and then returns to the world. On the way he is compelled to turn back and stay in the other world, but he resists and comes back to Oshima's cabin feeling a profound peace within himself.

What does Hoshino opening the entrance stone have to do with Kafka's storyline?

In the same way that talking cats symbolize the borderline between our world and the parallel "other world," the entrance stone functions in the story as a physical object that represents the porousness between worlds. When Hoshino flips the entrance stone over, he makes the cosmic opening between worlds larger, which allows Kafka to walk deep into the forest to confront his subconscious. Kafka returns to the normal world, walking back out of the forest, while Hoshino meanwhile has to figure out how to close the entrance again before evil entities from the realm of the dead and the unconscious threaten to invade the world of the living. Although the two characters never meet, Hoshino's actions in the parallel storyline affect Kafka's storyline by making it possible for Kafka to overcome his demons and accept his fate.