Kafka On The Shore
By: Haruki Murakami
Chapter 9
At the beginning of the chapter we find kafka in the woods, or somewhere in a thick brush. We Know its night because he can't see a thing. He doesn't remember how he had gotten there. Kafka doesn't know where his backpack is and tries searching for it, he eventually finds it by the tree trunk and looks around to see if he's been robbed. With his tiny flashlight he knows none of his belongings are missing. The last thing he remembers is he had a second helping of his dinner and after that his memory is erased. He finds himself near a Shinto shrine and helps himself to the bathroom. In the bathroom he realizes how terrible he looks and then on his shirt is a lot of blood. definetly not his own blood and he freaks out not knowing what to do and where to go because of the blood on him he calls Sakura, the Girl from the bus ride, and asks her for help. She tells him to take a cab to her apartment where she questions about his eintire journey and how he got to this position. Kafka just scared and looking for help pours everything out. from the time he left his house to right before he called her. But of course he left out the omen part, that he knows, he can't tell anyone.
Questions/comments
i knew that sakura girl would come back and help!
i think that what happend to those kids at Rice Bowl Hill happend to Kafka that he passed out and now he can't remember a thing.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Chapter 8
Kafka On The Shore
By: Haruki Murakami
Chapter 8
In chapter eight we encounter another U.S. Army Report on Doctor Shigenori Tsukayama, professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Tokyo Imperial University. He was called to the military hospital to examine the boy who was still in a coma from the rice Bowl Hill Incident. They guess that something had to trigger the unconciousness of al l the children. And that this incident has happened in the world before. they all have taken place a little ways away from the school the children go to and all the children fall and then get up on their own with the lack of memory. This has been the first case that one of the children has not regained their conciousness. We find out that Nakata IS the boy that remained in the coma and although he was in a coma his body reacted the same way. He closed his eyes at night, went to the bathroom etc. One day while the nurse was taking his blood, he bled a lot and a couple of hours later he woke up, not knowing anything. He couldn't recognize his parents, he couldn't read, he didn't even know that Japan even exsisted.
Important Quotes
"He'd returned to this world with his mind wiped clean. The proverbial blank state(68).
By: Haruki Murakami
Chapter 8
In chapter eight we encounter another U.S. Army Report on Doctor Shigenori Tsukayama, professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Tokyo Imperial University. He was called to the military hospital to examine the boy who was still in a coma from the rice Bowl Hill Incident. They guess that something had to trigger the unconciousness of al l the children. And that this incident has happened in the world before. they all have taken place a little ways away from the school the children go to and all the children fall and then get up on their own with the lack of memory. This has been the first case that one of the children has not regained their conciousness. We find out that Nakata IS the boy that remained in the coma and although he was in a coma his body reacted the same way. He closed his eyes at night, went to the bathroom etc. One day while the nurse was taking his blood, he bled a lot and a couple of hours later he woke up, not knowing anything. He couldn't recognize his parents, he couldn't read, he didn't even know that Japan even exsisted.
Important Quotes
"He'd returned to this world with his mind wiped clean. The proverbial blank state(68).
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Chapter 6
Kafka On The Shore
By: Haruki Murakami
Chapter 6
The chapter starts out with old man calling out to this large, elderly black tomcat. The old man can talk to this tomcat and so they have a conversation. We find out that the old man talks in third person and that when he was little he had an accident and that's why he's dumb. The old man's name is Nakata and he decides to name the cat Otsuka because it helps him with his memory. We know he's handicap and that the government pays everything for him. On his spare time, people tell him to find their missing cat and in return he'll get money. This is how he meets Otsuka, because he's looking for a cat named Guma. Otsuka asks Nakata about his accident and what happened. He doesn't remember a lot but that he was in the hospital for a long time and then when he woke up he was like this. Otsuka tells him that his shadow is faint like something is missing, apart of them is missing and that he's seen that before in a person and they too could talk to cats like himself. The chapter ends with our two friends departing and going their own separate ways.
Important Quotes
"I had an accident when I was nine years old....I was unconscious the whole time....And when I finally woke up, I couldn't remember a thing" (51).
"Your problem is that your shadow is a bit--how should i put it? Faint. I thought this is the first time I laid eyes on you, that the shadow you cast on the ground is only half as dark as that of ordinary people. I ran across another person like that once" (51-52).
"What I think is this: You should give up looking for lost cats and start searching for the other half of your shadow" (52).
Questions/Comments
This is a very strange book
I think that this old man was one of the boys on that hill when all the children were unconscious, maybe he was the little boy that went completely blank and had to be sent to the military hospital and the university hospital.
I also think that Plato's idea of each person having another half is true because that is what Nakata has to do, he has to find his other half for him to become complete.
By: Haruki Murakami
Chapter 6
The chapter starts out with old man calling out to this large, elderly black tomcat. The old man can talk to this tomcat and so they have a conversation. We find out that the old man talks in third person and that when he was little he had an accident and that's why he's dumb. The old man's name is Nakata and he decides to name the cat Otsuka because it helps him with his memory. We know he's handicap and that the government pays everything for him. On his spare time, people tell him to find their missing cat and in return he'll get money. This is how he meets Otsuka, because he's looking for a cat named Guma. Otsuka asks Nakata about his accident and what happened. He doesn't remember a lot but that he was in the hospital for a long time and then when he woke up he was like this. Otsuka tells him that his shadow is faint like something is missing, apart of them is missing and that he's seen that before in a person and they too could talk to cats like himself. The chapter ends with our two friends departing and going their own separate ways.
Important Quotes
"I had an accident when I was nine years old....I was unconscious the whole time....And when I finally woke up, I couldn't remember a thing" (51).
"Your problem is that your shadow is a bit--how should i put it? Faint. I thought this is the first time I laid eyes on you, that the shadow you cast on the ground is only half as dark as that of ordinary people. I ran across another person like that once" (51-52).
"What I think is this: You should give up looking for lost cats and start searching for the other half of your shadow" (52).
Questions/Comments
This is a very strange book
I think that this old man was one of the boys on that hill when all the children were unconscious, maybe he was the little boy that went completely blank and had to be sent to the military hospital and the university hospital.
I also think that Plato's idea of each person having another half is true because that is what Nakata has to do, he has to find his other half for him to become complete.
It seems that if my predictions are right that all the kids who fell unconscious that day in the forest can talk to cats and that all of them too have their other half missing.
Chapter 5
Kafka On The Shore
By: Haruki Murakami
Chapter 5
At the beginning of the book we find ourselves with the main character Kafka with the girl he met on the bus. They have finally reach their destination, so they exchange names and numbers. We find out that the girl is named Sakura and although Kafka doesn't want to, she wants to keep in touch so she gives him her phone number. Kafka remembers that Sakura wasn't his sisters name but you never know it's really easy changing your name, so he keeps that thought in that back of his head that maybe she is his sister. For the first couple of nights he's staying at the YMCA because he had gotten discount from the YMCA in Tokyo. After those luxurious nights at the Y he has no idea where he is going to stay. Trying to pass time he goes to the Komura Memorial Library where he meets Oshima, the librarian's assistant and Miss Saeki the librarian. Oshima guesses that Kafka is still in high school and questions why he isn't there right now. Kafka tells him that he decided he didn't want to go back ever and Oshima tells him about Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium. How in ancient times people weren't just male or female, but one of three types: male/male, male/female, or female/female. Or in other words, each person was made out of the components of two people. But then God took a knife and cut everyone in half. So after the world was divided to just male or female, and the rest of their lives they would spend their time finding their other half. This made Kafka ponder a lot because maybe this what he was doing? trying to find his other half? While all this thinking, he takes the museum tour where he meets Miss Saeki and he feels like she is important to him, like she should mean something to him. After the tour he goes to his hotel and wonders if his father is worried but doesn't matter he probably doesn't even notice he's gone. He falls asleep thinking of how different life is going to be.
Important Quotes
"Or maybe more like a real home, more than the place I lived in" (34).
"So after that the world was divided just into male and female, the upshot being that people spend their time running around trying to locate their missing other half" (39).
"From the chair I watch how she carries herself, every motion natural and elegant. I can't express it well, but there's definitely something special about it, as if her retreating figure is trying to tell me something she couldn't express while facing me" (43).
Questions/Comments
What if Kafka is just trying to find his other half? What if that's the whole reason for him leaving his house and going on the quest?
I think that the librarian has some signifigance in this story and she'll probably be a key for something.
I don't think thats the last time we're going to see that girl from the bus, i think she'll return....soon
By: Haruki Murakami
Chapter 5
At the beginning of the book we find ourselves with the main character Kafka with the girl he met on the bus. They have finally reach their destination, so they exchange names and numbers. We find out that the girl is named Sakura and although Kafka doesn't want to, she wants to keep in touch so she gives him her phone number. Kafka remembers that Sakura wasn't his sisters name but you never know it's really easy changing your name, so he keeps that thought in that back of his head that maybe she is his sister. For the first couple of nights he's staying at the YMCA because he had gotten discount from the YMCA in Tokyo. After those luxurious nights at the Y he has no idea where he is going to stay. Trying to pass time he goes to the Komura Memorial Library where he meets Oshima, the librarian's assistant and Miss Saeki the librarian. Oshima guesses that Kafka is still in high school and questions why he isn't there right now. Kafka tells him that he decided he didn't want to go back ever and Oshima tells him about Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium. How in ancient times people weren't just male or female, but one of three types: male/male, male/female, or female/female. Or in other words, each person was made out of the components of two people. But then God took a knife and cut everyone in half. So after the world was divided to just male or female, and the rest of their lives they would spend their time finding their other half. This made Kafka ponder a lot because maybe this what he was doing? trying to find his other half? While all this thinking, he takes the museum tour where he meets Miss Saeki and he feels like she is important to him, like she should mean something to him. After the tour he goes to his hotel and wonders if his father is worried but doesn't matter he probably doesn't even notice he's gone. He falls asleep thinking of how different life is going to be.
Important Quotes
"Or maybe more like a real home, more than the place I lived in" (34).
"So after that the world was divided just into male and female, the upshot being that people spend their time running around trying to locate their missing other half" (39).
"From the chair I watch how she carries herself, every motion natural and elegant. I can't express it well, but there's definitely something special about it, as if her retreating figure is trying to tell me something she couldn't express while facing me" (43).
Questions/Comments
What if Kafka is just trying to find his other half? What if that's the whole reason for him leaving his house and going on the quest?
I think that the librarian has some signifigance in this story and she'll probably be a key for something.
I don't think thats the last time we're going to see that girl from the bus, i think she'll return....soon
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Chapter 3 & 4
Kafka On The Shore
By: Haruki Murakami
Chapter Three
At the beginning of the chapter we find ourselves with Kafka who is still on his way to Takamatsu. On the way there the bus decides to take a rest stop where Kafka meets a girl who was on her way to Takamatsu herself. She does most of the talking and Kafka listens. She says how he looks like her brother that she hasn't talked to in ages. Kafka questions that maybe he is the long lost brother and that she is actually his sister. She asks to sit with him on the bus for the rest of the way to Takamatsu and he lets her. Thats how the chapter ends really.
Important Quotes
"I've got a younger brother the same age as you, things happened, and we haven't seen each other for a long time....." (21)
"In traveling, a companion, in life, compassion" (23)
Questions/Comments
Maybe this random girl is actually his sister and maybe she'll be a big role later in the book. And I think that the second quote will mean a lot in the future like she is going to play a big role later in the story.
Chapter Four
The chapter starts out with another one of those U.S. Army intelligence reports. They interview Doctor Juichi Nakazawa who was the one who treated all the unconscious children that day in November. He explained how when he reached where the children were, the children's eyes were looking back and forth as if they were watching something that the adults could not see. But when he flashed a flashlight infront of their eyes they did not react in any way. They all eventually regained consciousness except one boy, Satoru Nakata. Who was sent to the university hospital, then transferred to a military hospital and was never heard about ever again. They all had decided that the americans had dropped a special new bomb that only effects children and not adults because of their weak senses. The whole thing was an unusual, unpleasant affair that effects all that were envolved to the day.
Important Quotes
"The children were looking at something. To put a finer point on it, the children weren't looking at something we could see, but something we couldn't. It was more like they were observing something rather than just looking at it." (29)
Questions/Comments
Was Kafka one of these children that dropped on that hill?
I personally think that he might have been one of these kids because of him all freaking out and running away maybe thats one of the reasons he's doing it.
By: Haruki Murakami
Chapter Three
At the beginning of the chapter we find ourselves with Kafka who is still on his way to Takamatsu. On the way there the bus decides to take a rest stop where Kafka meets a girl who was on her way to Takamatsu herself. She does most of the talking and Kafka listens. She says how he looks like her brother that she hasn't talked to in ages. Kafka questions that maybe he is the long lost brother and that she is actually his sister. She asks to sit with him on the bus for the rest of the way to Takamatsu and he lets her. Thats how the chapter ends really.
Important Quotes
"I've got a younger brother the same age as you, things happened, and we haven't seen each other for a long time....." (21)
"In traveling, a companion, in life, compassion" (23)
Questions/Comments
Maybe this random girl is actually his sister and maybe she'll be a big role later in the book. And I think that the second quote will mean a lot in the future like she is going to play a big role later in the story.
Chapter Four
The chapter starts out with another one of those U.S. Army intelligence reports. They interview Doctor Juichi Nakazawa who was the one who treated all the unconscious children that day in November. He explained how when he reached where the children were, the children's eyes were looking back and forth as if they were watching something that the adults could not see. But when he flashed a flashlight infront of their eyes they did not react in any way. They all eventually regained consciousness except one boy, Satoru Nakata. Who was sent to the university hospital, then transferred to a military hospital and was never heard about ever again. They all had decided that the americans had dropped a special new bomb that only effects children and not adults because of their weak senses. The whole thing was an unusual, unpleasant affair that effects all that were envolved to the day.
Important Quotes
"The children were looking at something. To put a finer point on it, the children weren't looking at something we could see, but something we couldn't. It was more like they were observing something rather than just looking at it." (29)
Questions/Comments
Was Kafka one of these children that dropped on that hill?
I personally think that he might have been one of these kids because of him all freaking out and running away maybe thats one of the reasons he's doing it.
Chapters 1 & 2
Kafka On The Shore
By: Haruki Murakami
Chapter One
We meet the main character Kafka who is talking to his friend Crow. Kafka speaks of running away from his family and Crow just encourages it. Crow speaks of how he is still very young and must make sure to keep on the down low. They describe the relationship between Kafka and his father and how they don't get along at all. He speaks of his mother as if she were dead, but there is no confirmation that she is. Also he talks about his sister, but she hasn't formally been introduced yet in the book. Kafka explains that he's been planning to run away for awhile and has been training physically and mentally for this day for years. At the end of the chapter we see our main character on the bus starting on his journey away from home.
Important Quotes
"Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions" (5)
"A mechanism buried inside of you" (11)
"The omen is still with me, though, like a shadow" (12)
Questions/Comments
I think that Crow could be another side of Kafka, the mature and wise side of him. Maybe Kafka has a split personality.
I think the second quote that i posted is foreshadowing, maybe thats the reason he HAD to leave before his 15th birthday, because of his father using him or something. I have a feeling that it is foreshadowing though.
Who is Crow? a person or another personality?
Chapter Two
The chapter starts out with a U.S. army intelligence report. Setsuko Okamochi is a 4th grade teacher who took her students out on the hill they go on everyday to gather food. Because of the war there is food shortage which is why the children go out to collect food. Nov 7 1944, around ten a.m. they all saw a bright flash of silver, everyone thought it might of been a bomb but none of them were scared because they lived in the mountains and the bomb wouldn't effect them a bit. Everyone in the class had saw that the plane was a B-29. After 10 minutes of hunting for mushrooms the children had started to collapse. At first she thought that they might have eaten poisonous mushrooms. Their bodies were entirely limp, the strenght was drained out of them. Their pulses were fine and none had temperatures. It was as if they were all in a coma, their eyes were still open. The eintire class one by one fell down and the teacher was the only one left.
Questions/Comments
Was Kafka in this group of children?
Well we know the teacher was talking about the past and the present is 1945 or later because her husband died in 1945. So she was talking about the past when she was telling the story about the children dropping into comas.
By: Haruki Murakami
Chapter One
We meet the main character Kafka who is talking to his friend Crow. Kafka speaks of running away from his family and Crow just encourages it. Crow speaks of how he is still very young and must make sure to keep on the down low. They describe the relationship between Kafka and his father and how they don't get along at all. He speaks of his mother as if she were dead, but there is no confirmation that she is. Also he talks about his sister, but she hasn't formally been introduced yet in the book. Kafka explains that he's been planning to run away for awhile and has been training physically and mentally for this day for years. At the end of the chapter we see our main character on the bus starting on his journey away from home.
Important Quotes
"Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions" (5)
"A mechanism buried inside of you" (11)
"The omen is still with me, though, like a shadow" (12)
Questions/Comments
I think that Crow could be another side of Kafka, the mature and wise side of him. Maybe Kafka has a split personality.
I think the second quote that i posted is foreshadowing, maybe thats the reason he HAD to leave before his 15th birthday, because of his father using him or something. I have a feeling that it is foreshadowing though.
Who is Crow? a person or another personality?
Chapter Two
The chapter starts out with a U.S. army intelligence report. Setsuko Okamochi is a 4th grade teacher who took her students out on the hill they go on everyday to gather food. Because of the war there is food shortage which is why the children go out to collect food. Nov 7 1944, around ten a.m. they all saw a bright flash of silver, everyone thought it might of been a bomb but none of them were scared because they lived in the mountains and the bomb wouldn't effect them a bit. Everyone in the class had saw that the plane was a B-29. After 10 minutes of hunting for mushrooms the children had started to collapse. At first she thought that they might have eaten poisonous mushrooms. Their bodies were entirely limp, the strenght was drained out of them. Their pulses were fine and none had temperatures. It was as if they were all in a coma, their eyes were still open. The eintire class one by one fell down and the teacher was the only one left.
Questions/Comments
Was Kafka in this group of children?
Well we know the teacher was talking about the past and the present is 1945 or later because her husband died in 1945. So she was talking about the past when she was telling the story about the children dropping into comas.
Monday, April 16, 2007
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