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.