The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

by

Haruki Murakami

Creta Kano Character Analysis

Creta Kano is Malta Kano’s sister. She is a beautiful woman who resembles Kumiko. Like Malta, Creta has spiritual powers, which she employs to help Malta get inside the heads of her clients. As a child, Creta experienced a great deal of suffering, which made her suicidal. While working as a sex worker, Creta had Kumiko’s brother Noboru as a client, he raped her. However, Creta won’t go into detail about the exact nature of the assault when she tells Toru about it. As an adult, she is still attempting to find her place in the world. Shortly after meeting Toru, she decides the work she does for her sister is too overwhelming. As such, she decides to move away from Japan and asks Toru to come with her. She feels connected to Toru, even though they have only known each other for a short time. Ultimately, Toru declines her offer, though the two do have sex before she leaves.

Creta Kano Quotes in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

The The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle quotes below are all either spoken by Creta Kano or refer to Creta Kano. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Reality and Subjective Experience Theme Icon
).
Book 2, Chapter 14 Quotes

What kind of a being was this self of mine? How did it function? What did it feel—and how? I had to grasp each of these things through experience, to memorize and stockpile them. Do you see what I am saying? Virtually everything inside me had spilled out and been lost. At the same time that I was entirely new, I was almost entirely empty. I had to fill in that blank, little by little. One by one, with my own hands, I had to make this thing I called ‘I’—or, rather, make the things that constituted me.

Related Characters: Creta Kano (speaker), Toru Okada, Noboru Wataya
Page Number: 305
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Chapter 15 Quotes

You know, Mr. Wind-Up Bird, just about the whole time you were down in the well, I was out here sunbathing. I was watching the garden of the vacant house, and baking myself, and thinking about you in the well, that you were starving and moving closer to death little by little. I was the only one who knew you were down there and couldn't get out. And when I thought about that, I had this incredibly clear sense of what you were feeling: the pain and anxiety and fear. Do you see what I mean? By doing that, I was able to get sooo close to you! I really wasn't gonna let you die. This is true. Really. But I wanted to keep going. Right down to the wire. Right down to where you would start to fall apart and be scared out of your mind and you couldn’t take it anymore. I really felt that that would be the best thing—for me and for you.

Related Characters: May Kasahara (speaker), Toru Okada, Creta Kano
Related Symbols: The Well, The Wind-Up Bird
Page Number: 320
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 27 Quotes

Whether by chance conjunction or not, the ‘wind-up bird’ was a powerful presence in Cinnamon’s story. The cry of this bird was audible only to certain special people, who were guided by it toward inescapable ruin.

Related Characters: Toru Okada (speaker), Noboru Wataya, Creta Kano, Malta Kano, Nutmeg, Cinnamon
Related Symbols: The Wind-Up Bird
Page Number: 525
Explanation and Analysis:
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Creta Kano Quotes in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

The The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle quotes below are all either spoken by Creta Kano or refer to Creta Kano. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Reality and Subjective Experience Theme Icon
).
Book 2, Chapter 14 Quotes

What kind of a being was this self of mine? How did it function? What did it feel—and how? I had to grasp each of these things through experience, to memorize and stockpile them. Do you see what I am saying? Virtually everything inside me had spilled out and been lost. At the same time that I was entirely new, I was almost entirely empty. I had to fill in that blank, little by little. One by one, with my own hands, I had to make this thing I called ‘I’—or, rather, make the things that constituted me.

Related Characters: Creta Kano (speaker), Toru Okada, Noboru Wataya
Page Number: 305
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Chapter 15 Quotes

You know, Mr. Wind-Up Bird, just about the whole time you were down in the well, I was out here sunbathing. I was watching the garden of the vacant house, and baking myself, and thinking about you in the well, that you were starving and moving closer to death little by little. I was the only one who knew you were down there and couldn't get out. And when I thought about that, I had this incredibly clear sense of what you were feeling: the pain and anxiety and fear. Do you see what I mean? By doing that, I was able to get sooo close to you! I really wasn't gonna let you die. This is true. Really. But I wanted to keep going. Right down to the wire. Right down to where you would start to fall apart and be scared out of your mind and you couldn’t take it anymore. I really felt that that would be the best thing—for me and for you.

Related Characters: May Kasahara (speaker), Toru Okada, Creta Kano
Related Symbols: The Well, The Wind-Up Bird
Page Number: 320
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 27 Quotes

Whether by chance conjunction or not, the ‘wind-up bird’ was a powerful presence in Cinnamon’s story. The cry of this bird was audible only to certain special people, who were guided by it toward inescapable ruin.

Related Characters: Toru Okada (speaker), Noboru Wataya, Creta Kano, Malta Kano, Nutmeg, Cinnamon
Related Symbols: The Wind-Up Bird
Page Number: 525
Explanation and Analysis: