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Book 3, Chapter 38
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
Toru visits May at the factory, and together they sit beside the pond. However, this time there are no ducks to observe. May asks about Kumiko, and Toru informs her that Kumiko refuses to leave jail until her trial, where she plans to plead guilty and accept the ensuing verdict. Toru expresses that he plans to patiently await the completion of Kumiko’s sentence. After she is released from prison, he plans to restart their life together. Additionally, he says he wants to have a child and plans to name the child Corsica.
It is up for interpretation whether Toru’s plans for the future are optimistic and therefore noble, or whether they’re hopelessly naive. After all, nothing in Kumiko’s letters suggested that she wanted Toru to wait for her, and there is no guarantee that she will return to him once she is out of prison. Furthermore, she is likely in prison for a long time. After all, she did commit murder.
Themes
May asks Toru if he received any of the letters she sent him. Toru says that he never received a letter. In fact, he only managed to find her because he asked her mother. They ponder the whereabouts of the missing letters. Later, at the train station, May encourages Toru to call out for her if he encounters any troubles. Toru boards the train and wishes May farewell. As the train rolls out of the station, Toru falls asleep.
The missing letters are one final clue that someone or something is controlling Toru and May’s world. As always, there is a possibility that the letters went missing, but she sent quite a few letters for that to be the case across the board. As with many elements of the novel, the truth about this scenario is open to interpretation.
Themes
