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Book 3, Chapter 17
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
In her fourth letter to Toru, May expresses her sense of not belonging within her mundane and unimaginative family. While her parents perceive the world through a lens of logical order, May recognizes the inherent randomness and chaos of everything around her. Additionally, she confesses her discomfort with the mark on Toru’s face, as it gives the impression that he is sacrificing a part of himself in exchange for something else. Although she struggles to articulate these intangible “somethings,” May cautions Toru against completely surrendering himself to others. Instead, she urges him to retain a sense of self.
Murakami portrays two distinct pictures of the world in the novel: May’s world of chaos and disorder, and Toru’s world of excessive control. Toru fears his view of what the world might be, and often finds comfort in the idea that May’s world is fundamentally true. However, whenever Toru’s world slips into chaos, he desperately wishes for a higher power to pull him out the chaos and return him to the controlled world he is used to.
Themes
