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Book 2, Chapter 8
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
When Toru wakes up from his dream, he looks at the sky and contemplates what he just witnessed. The more he thinks about it, the more he realizes that his dream is not a dream at all: it is something that actually happened to him. At this point, Toru has lost track of time. He rubs his face and feels enough stubble that he figures he must have been down in the well for at least a day. The fact that there is no one to come looking for him bothers Toru. He is not worried about his safety; he is simply angry that there is no one in his life who would care. However, almost immediately, Toru’s safety becomes a more pressing concern. He reaches over to feel for the rope ladder and finds it is missing. At first, he panics, but quickly he accepts his situation.
Regardless of how the reader interprets what happens to Toru in his dreams, the important thing is that Toru himself thinks the dreams are real. To him, they function as an alternate reality, and so what happens there affects his waking reality. Everything about Toru’s existence in the well is strange. His sense of what counts as reality changes, as does his perception of time. Additionally, the disappearance of the rope ladder symbolizes that Toru is stuck with his new reality in the well and must come to terms with it on his own—there is no way to escape and no one around to help him.
Themes
Toru starts thinking about the past again. He recalls how difficult his relationship was after he returned from his business trip. After the abortion, a gulf opened up between Toru and Kumiko. They never discussed the abortion any further, but both of them clearly had unresolved feelings about it. Hoping to mend their marital problem’s Kumiko suggests a trip to the mountains. Together, Kumiko and Toru go on a hike, hoping to find solace in nature. On this trip, Kumiko breaks down crying. Toru does his best to comfort but Kumiko cannot adequately explain to him why she is sad.
Kumiko’s breakdown implies that the abortion affected her just as much as it did Toru, even if she did not express this in a way Toru—or Kumiko herself—could understand. Toru and Kumiko care for each other, but they also feel isolated from each other and do not know how to resolve this problem.
Themes
Toru wakes up to the sound of May’s voice. May is standing at the top of the well and looking down on Toru. She asks him why he is down there. Toru says he climbed down into the well so he could think more clearly. May thinks this is a bizarre response. She informs him that she took his rope. Toru is not particularly surprised, and he does not react strongly to this revelation. When May asks Toru what he thought happened to the ladder, Toru responds that he thought it had simply vanished. In reality, though, he didn’t think too much about the ladder because he had other things on his mind. May offers to help Toru dig even deeper into his consciousness and then shuts the well’s lid, engulfing Toru in complete darkness.
At first, May’s behavior is playful, but it quickly takes a sinister turn. May claims she wants to help Toru, but her actions suggest otherwise and hint, perhaps, that her earlier comments about death and people’s insides were more than morbid musings. Rather, they are insights into a disturbed mind that could be dangerous. Even if May intends to be playful, her actions could lead to dangerous results. Toru has already stayed in the well for a significant amount of time, and there is no guarantee when May will return. In a sense, May is engaging in a form of psychological torture.
Themes
