Genre
Bildungsroman
Setting and Context
Japan (mostly Tokyo), 1968-1970
Narrator and Point of View
Toru Watanabe, 1st-person, narrating from around 18 years after the events of the novel.
Tone and Mood
Nostalgic, innocent, sensitive, and simple.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonists: Toru, Naoko, Midori; Antagonists: N/A.
Major Conflict
Toru tries to search for a meaning in life. Naoko tries to overcome her worsening mental health. Midori tries to find someone who will love her. All three try to overcome loneliness, move past painful memories, and grow up.
Climax
Naoko commits suicide.
Foreshadowing
Naoko jokingly tells Reiko that she would share Toru with her sometime. Later, Reiko does sleep with Toru.
Understatement
Most of the things that Toru says are understatements; when people, such as Midori, compliment him on his emotional acuity, he simply says that he is an ordinary guy.
Allusions
Toru reads many books and mentions them by title, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" and Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain."
Imagery
The workings of weather (rain versus shine) and the environment (urban Tokyo versus rural Ami Hostel) are always invoked to set each scene.
Paradox
Toru falls deeply and genuinely in love with Midori while still being attached to Naoko.
Parallelism
Toru acts as a mediator between Nagasawa and Hatsumi, just as he did between Kizuki and Naoko.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The memory of Naoko, especially of her body, is preserved in her t-shirt that she bequeaths to Reiko.
Personification
The firefly that Toru releases into the night air from the rooftop of his dormitory is described as going through a kind of emotional development, which concludes with it recouping its memories and proceeding into a future.
