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Book 1, Chapter 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Reality and Subjective Experience
Free Will
Desire and Irrationality
The Personal Impact of War
Social Alienation
Summary
Analysis
After meeting Malta, Toru returns home, where he finds Kumiko, who tells him about her day at work. As Kumiko talks, Toru thinks about how content he is with his day-to-day existence since quitting his job. When she is done talking about her day, Kumiko asks Toru what Malta said about the missing cat. Toru tells Kumiko that he is no closer to finding the cat because Malta was vague. This news upsets Kumiko, who cares deeply about the cat and wants to get it back as soon as possible. The cat is the first cat Kumiko has ever had, and she considers it an important marker of her relationship with Toru because they adopted it together.
Here, the novel portrays Kumiko and Toru as opposites. While Kumiko’s life is stressful and hectic, Toru’s life is peaceful and leisured. In this scene, Toru hardly listens to Kumiko and instead thinks about himself, which he spends all day doing anyway. He finds conversation with Kumiko dull and does not appear to care about the cat as much as she does. Although the cat is associated with Noboru, in this scene, it also reflects the state of Kumiko and Toru’s relationship. Their different attitudes toward the missing cat suggest that they have different priorities in life and in their relationship. It could also suggest that Kumiko, for reasons that remain unknown at this point in the story, is more concerned about Noboru (her brother) than Toru.
Themes
Kumiko tells Toru that she got Malta’s number from Noboru. This information does not surprise Toru because the Wataya family has always been interested in people who claim to be clairvoyant. The most memorable of these people is Mr. Honda, an old man—now deceased—whom Toru always liked. Mr. Honda was an old man with a hearing impairment whom Toru and Kumiko used to visit regularly. Kumiko’s father respected Mr. Honda and only allowed her to marry Toru because Mr. Honda gave his blessing. Otherwise, it is unlikely that Kumiko’s father, who is rich and snobby, would have allowed her to marry Toru. After their marriage, Kumiko’s father insisted that Toru and Kumiko see Mr. Honda once a week to receive his blessings and listen to his advice.
Mr. Honda is an important figure in the novel, even though he isn’t physically present and only appears in other people’s stories and memories. Like Malta, Mr. Honda claims to possess supernatural powers, which the Watayas take seriously. This passage sets up the relationship between Toru and Kumiko’s family; evidently, there is no love lost between the two. The fact that Kumiko’s father lets Kumiko marry Toru demonstrates how seriously he takes Mr. Honda’s words.
Themes
Toru and Kumiko did as Kumiko’s father asked and went to see Mr. Honda regularly. For the most part, they enjoyed their visits, though they rarely heard advice relating to their own lives. Instead, Mr. Honda would regal them with his war stories. Mr. Honda served in the Japanese army during World War II and was present for the battle of Nomonhan. The battle of Nomonhan took place along the Manchurian-Mongolian border. There, the Japanese army took on the Soviet Army as well as the Mongolians. The conflict was a brutal defeat for Japan, as countless Japanese soldiers died in battle. Many more soldiers killed themselves because of the shame resulting from their defeat.
The Battle of Nomonhan, also known as the Nomonhan Incident, is a conflict that took place between Japanese and Manchukuo-Russian forces in the lead-up to World War II. The Battle of Nomonhan was part of a larger series of skirmishes known as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol, which took their name from the river that ran through the battlefield. Although these skirmishes were significant, killing tens of thousands of people, they never resulted in an all-out war.
Themes
Toru and Kumiko enjoyed Mr. Honda’s war stories the first few times they heard them. However, Mr. Honda tended to repeat himself, and he was not the best storyteller. Because of his poor hearing, he typically shouted rather than spoke his stories. However, one day, Mr. Honda did give Toru a direct bit of advice. He warned Toru that he should be wary of water because water will hurt him at some point in the future. Toru does not take Mr. Honda’s advice seriously, but he remembers it, nonetheless. He also recalls that Mr. Honda told him that when he encounters water, he must go with its flow rather than try to fight against it.
Mr. Honda’s tendency to repeat stories shows that this conflict was a pivotal moment in his life that he has never moved past. Meanwhile, his advice to Toru is similar to Malta’s in that it is rather vague and not immediately or obviously applicable.
Themes
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Back in the present, Toru and Kumiko head to bed. Toru sits in bed and thinks about how Mr. Honda and Malta could be related. He notes that both people have a connection to water. Malta Kano briefly mentioned the healing properties of water in their meeting, and Mr. Honda gave Toru a warning about water. Toru wonders whether this connection is significant. Kumiko interrupts Toru’s contemplation to tell him that she remembers what happened to his missing tie. Apparently, she dropped it off at the cleaners but forgot to pick it up. After their brief conversation, Toru falls asleep while thinking about the sound of a river.
Unlike Kumiko, Toru is skeptical of Mr. Honda and Malta, even though they intrigue him. However, just as he is questioning their abilities, Kumiko proves that one of Malta’s predictions came true. Previously, Malta said that Toru would find his tie outside his house, which appears to be the case. When Toru falls asleep, he finds himself thinking of water, which will continue to be an important symbol as the story progresses.
Themes
