The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: Book 2, Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

When Toru wakes up, he is sitting in almost complete darkness. He reminds himself of why he came to the well: he wants to meditate on the nature of reality and his existence. In doing so, he hopes that he will figure out what has happened to his life in the last few weeks. Like Mamiya, he wants a light—metaphorical or otherwise—to shine down on him so he can find some truth in what is otherwise a bizarre and seemingly disconnected set of events.

Toru recalls his wedding. Despite the wealth and power of Kumiko’s family, their wedding is a modest affair. They have a private ceremony, eat a nice meal together, and that is it. For most of their marriage, Toru works at a law firm. However, because he never pushes himself to get a law degree, it is difficult for him to get promoted, and eventually his position at the company stagnates. Meanwhile, Kumiko works for a publishing company where she makes a modest amount of money. No matter what, she refuses to take anything from her family.

Despite their modest income, Kumiko and Toru were happy together for their first few years of marriage. However, after being married for three years, an incident occurs that strained their relationship. After a single instance of unprotected sex, Kumiko gets pregnant and neither Kumiko nor Toru are ready for a child. Kumiko immediately decides it is best to abort the pregnancy, and though Toru sees her point, he is uncomfortable with the idea. He tries to convince her they could make ends meet even with a child. However, he also says that the decision is ultimately Kumiko’s and will accept whatever she decides.

One day not long afterward, Kumiko goes and gets the abortion on her own. She does not tell Toru that she is going to the clinic—she just does it. At the time, Toru is away on a business trip. After the procedure is over, Kumiko calls Toru and tells him what happened. Toru does his best to be supportive, but he finds himself crying over the phone. Kumiko tries to comfort him and tells him that the operation was not bad at all.

After the phone call with Kumiko, Toru walks around the town where he is staying for his business trip. He makes his way to several bars and drinks in each of them. At one bar, he sees a musician who stops his show to give a speech about the relationship between emotions and music. He argues that it is difficult to convey emotions to other people, even via a medium like music.

Then, the musician performs what may or may not be a trick where he burns himself and seems to be experiencing immense pain. His actions receive a visceral reaction in the room. Finally, the man stops what he is doing and implies that what he was doing was merely a trick. However, some people remark that it looks like he was actually burning himself. This trick—if it was a trick—is an important memory for Toru.