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.

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.

:]

ok...book report yay