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.