The Well Symbol in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

In The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, wells are a physical manifestation of an individual’s subconscious and unconscious mind. Like the subconscious and the unconscious mind, wells literally lie beneath the surface of what is known and visible. In the novel, Toru ventures into a well to escape his conscious and probe the depths of his mind. Toru gets the idea to sit at the bottom of a dried up well from Mamiya, a war veteran, who once was once thrown into a dry well and left to die after a failed military operation. Being in the well pushed Mamiya to his absolute physical limits, and he barely survived. However, he also achieved a sense of clarity about the world and his place in it. When Mamiya tells Toru this story, Toru immediately sees that he needs an experience in his life that would help him to achieve a similar level of enlightenment. As such, he starts spending time at the bottom of a dry well. This experience isolates him from the rest of humanity, while also allowing him to meditate on the purpose of existence.

After spending several days at the bottom of the well, Toru emerges with a strange mark on his face, which grants him special healing powers. The mark—in combination with the well—give Toru access to an alternate reality where he manages to resolve the spiritual emptiness of his life. This alternate reality is an extension of Toru’s subconscious and unconscious mind, which he can only access through extreme circumstances. Traditionally, in psychoanalytic theory, the subconscious and the unconscious are where unresolved conflicts and traumas fester. Because they are hidden from the individual, these conflicts and traumas can influence someone without them knowing it. Throughout the novel, Toru feels like something or someone is controlling him in ways he does not feel comfortable with. However, with the help of the well, a place he goes to access the hidden parts of his mind, Toru is able to overcome the conflicts and trauma of his past. After purging the negative forces in this alternate reality, Toru finds himself once again at the bottom of a well, though this time the well is filling up with water. Traditionally, water represents life, and so its appearance at this point in the story suggests that Toru’s emergence from the well represents rebirth and the possibility of healing.

The Well Quotes in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

The The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Well. 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

It’s not a question of better or worse. The point is, not to resist the flow. You go up when you’re supposed to go up and down when you’re supposed to go down. When you’re supposed to go up, find the highest tower and climb to the top. When you’re supposed to go down, find the deepest well and go down to the bottom. When there’s no flow, stay still. If you resist the flow, everything dries up. If everything dries up, the world is darkness.

Related Characters: Mr. Honda (speaker), Toru Okada, The Miyawakis

Related Symbols: The Well

Page Number and Citation: 51

Explanation and Analysis:

The light shines into the act of life for only the briefest moment—perhaps only a matter of seconds. Once it is gone and one has failed to grasp its offered revelation, there is no second chance. One may have to live the rest of one’s life in hopeless depths of loneliness and remorse. In that twilight world, one can no longer look forward to anything. All that such a person holds in his hands is the withered corpse of what should have been.

Related Characters: Tokutaro Mamiya (speaker), Toru Okada

Related Symbols: The Well

Page Number and Citation: 209

Explanation and Analysis:

Well that's what we were trying to do when we got married. I wanted to get outside myself: the me that had existed until then. And it was the same for Kumiko. In that new world of ours, we were trying to get hold of new selves that were better suited to who we were deep down. We believed we could live in a way that was more perfectly suited to who we were.

Related Characters: Toru Okada (speaker), May Kasahara, Kumiko Okada, The Miyawakis

Related Symbols: The Well

Page Number and Citation: 261

Explanation and Analysis:

And so time flowed on through the darkness, deprived of advancing watch hands: time undivided and unmeasured. Once it lost its points of demarcation, time ceased being a continuous line and became instead a kind of formless fluid that expanded or contracted at will.

Related Characters: Toru Okada (speaker), May Kasahara, The Miyawakis

Related Symbols: The Well

Page Number and Citation: 265

Explanation and Analysis:

Perhaps the mark was a brand that had been impressed on me by that strange dream or illusion or whatever it was. That was no dream, they were telling me through the mark: It really happened. And every time you look in the mirror now, you will be forced to remember it.

Related Characters: Toru Okada (speaker), The Miyawakis

Related Symbols: The Well

Page Number and Citation: 287

Explanation and Analysis:

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 Wind-Up Bird, The Well

Page Number and Citation: 320

Explanation and Analysis:

I brought to mind the sculpture that had stood in the garden of the abandoned Miyawaki house. In order to obliterate my presence here, I made myself one with that image of a bird. There, in the sun-drenched summer garden, I was the sculpture of a bird, frozen in space, glaring at the sky.

Related Characters: Toru Okada (speaker), The Mysterious Woman

Related Symbols: The Wind-Up Bird, The Well

Page Number and Citation: 584

Explanation and Analysis:

I closed my eyes and tried to accept my impending death as calmly as I could. I struggled to overcome my fear. At least I was able to leave a few things behind. That was one small bit of good news. I tried to smile, without much success. “I am afraid to die, though,” I whispered to myself. These turned out to be my last words. They were not very impressive words, but it was too late to change them. The water was over my mouth now. Then it came to my nose. I stopped breathing. My lungs fought to suck in new air. But there was no more air. There was only lukewarm water.

I was dying. Like all the other people who live in this world.

Related Characters: Toru Okada (speaker), Noboru Wataya, Mr. Honda

Related Symbols: The Well

Page Number and Citation: 590

Explanation and Analysis:

The Well Symbol Timeline in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

The timeline below shows where the symbol The Well appears in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Then, May asks Toru if he wants to see a dried-up well near the abandoned house. Toru says he would, so May leads him to it. Toru... (full context)

...can take a sample of the water in his house and a sample from a well in the neighborhood. The request confuses Toru, but he tells Creta she can take the... (full context)

...strap Mamiya to their horse and head north. Eventually, they stop next to a dried-up well. At this point, they take Mamiya off of the horse and stick a gun to... (full context)

The bottom of the well is full of sand, so Mamiya manages to survive the fall. After he lands in... (full context)

...has doomed himself to suffer a slow and agonizing death. At the bottom of a well, he has no way to kill himself, so he is doomed to die of dehydration,... (full context)

Honda rescues Mamiya from the well after three day. Apparently, Honda’s extraordinary powers allowed him to sense that the Mongolians were... (full context)

Although Mamiya is barely conscious, Honda manages to get him out of the well. Together, they make their way back to the Japanese base. Honda never returns for the... (full context)

...Although he had other terrible experiences during the war, it was his time in the well that truly broke him. Later in the war, he lost his hand, and even that... (full context)

...letter, Mamiya tells Noboru what he thinks happened to him at the bottom of the well. When Mamiya was in the well, there was a point when an overwhelming light shone... (full context)

...best to recapture his true self, which appeared to him at the bottom of the well. However, what enlightenment the light offered perpetually evaded Mamiya’s reach. Repeatedly, he failed to find... (full context)

...makes his way to the Miyawaki residence and walks around to the back where the well sits. Once there, he anchors his rope ladder to a nearby tree and uses it... (full context)

As Toru descends into the well, its depth shocks him. The farther he goes, the more afraid the well makes him.... (full context)

Toru sits and thinks at the bottom of the well. He contemplates the origins of his relationship with Kumiko. Apparently, they met because they were... (full context)

...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,... (full context)

Still at the bottom of the well, Toru falls asleep and has another strange dream. He is in the lobby of a... (full context)

...other side of the wall, Toru finds himself alone and in the bottom of a well. (full context)

...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... (full context)

...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... (full context)

...he does so, his mind and body begin to separate. His body stays in the well, but his mind enters the consciousness of the wind-up bird. As the wind-up bird, he... (full context)

...Toru she has been thinking about him a lot since he went down in the well. She has been spending her time researching how long he could survive. May warns Toru... (full context)

...Then, May asks Toru if he has thought about death since going down in the well. Toru admits that he has not. May is shocked. She cannot believe, given Toru’s circumstances,... (full context)

...he only ever scratched the surface. Toru explains to May that going down in the well was his attempt to meditate on the nature of reality and his relationship. Although May... (full context)

Still in the well, Toru becomes disoriented. He is more separated from his body than ever before, even though... (full context)

...unproductive, so he tries to drive these thoughts from his mind. While down in the well and thinking about his memories, Toru realizes he regrets a lot of his life. (full context)

Luckily Creta arrives just in time and rescues him from the well. At first, when Toru hears her voice, he thinks it is just a hallucination. However,... (full context)

...explains that he has been away but does not elaborate or say anything about the well. Then, Malta switches the conversation to talk about Creta. Malta asks Toru if he has... (full context)

...he can think clearly again, Toru realizes he left his rope ladder over at the well. He goes back to the well to fetch it. At the top of the well,... (full context)

...Toru accepts Creta’s explanation and then heads home. The following day, he returns to the well to see if Creta is okay. When Toru arrives at the well, the rope ladder... (full context)

...Toru decides to shave because he desperately needs it after having been down in the well for several days. (full context)

...it is an allergic reaction or if it appeared while he was down in the well. He dwells on this subject and eventually hypothesizes that the mark came from his dream.... (full context)

...waking up in Toru’s bed is that she was naked at the bottom of the well. In response, Toru looks at Creta’s feet and sees that there is nothing abnormal about... (full context)

...he is angry with her. She confesses that she intended to keep Toru in the well until the very last moment to test his resilience. She thought it was important for... (full context)

...to act out. She tells Toru that this is why she trapped him in the well. Additionally, it is why she covered her boyfriend’s eyes while he was driving a motorcycle.... (full context)

...ensure their paths crossed. Also, Mamiya tells Toru that he understands his fascination with the well. Despite the trauma he experienced in Outer Mongolia, Mamiya is still drawn to wells himself.... (full context)

...No matter what, Toru wants to get his hands on the property so that the well will belong to him. (full context)

...camera erected around the premises. Additionally, the new owner hired a landscaper to excavate a well. (full context)

Toru ventures into the depths of the recently constructed well. As he embraces the darkness, he contemplates the contrast between those who dwell in the... (full context)

Toru takes a break from his time at the well, where he has spent much of his time recently, and returns home to rest. To... (full context)

...across the contract regarding Toru’s arrangement with the company that purchased the property containing the well. Both Ushikawa and Noboru are intrigued that Toru secured such an agreement. Ushikawa assures Toru... (full context)

...from Cinnamon or Nutmeg. Without them in his life, Toru’s motivation to venture into the well diminishes. The lack of clients also means he won’t be able to afford the expenses... (full context)

Toru ventures into the well alone and is surprised to discover that the baseball bat he usually keeps there is... (full context)

Upon awakening, Toru finds himself at the bottom of a well that is gradually filling with water, and Toru cannot move. Memories of Mr. Honda’s prophecy... (full context)

...says she is sorry, but she cannot help him. Then she proceeds to close the well. Toru calls her name desperately, but it is no use. The water rises, reaching Toru’s... (full context)

...soothing sound of Nutmeg’s voice. She explains that Cinnamon managed to rescue him from the well and treat his knife wounds. Nutmeg informs Toru that he must now part ways with... (full context)

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Haruki Murakami

The Well Symbol Analysis

The Well Quotes in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

The Well Symbol Timeline in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle