71 pages • 2 hours read
Haruki MurakamiKafka on the Shore
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 33–36Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 33 Summary
Kafka prepares to open the library, so that he can leave once Oshima arrives. He needs some time to himself before he sees Miss Saeki again. He goes to the gym and works out; he is mentally exhausted and confused. After showering and changing his clothes, Kafka goes to the noodle house near the train station. He realizes that he’s been in Shikoku for about three weeks. He contemplates getting on another bus and leaving, but he knows that he cannot leave. The boy called Crow pipes up and reminds him that he isn’t free, but then asks, “But is that what you really want? To be free?” (315).
Oshima echoes this sentiment upon Kafka’s return to the library, telling him that people think that they want to be free when, in reality, they wouldn’t know what to do if they were really free.
Kafka goes upstairs to talk to Miss Saeki, taking a cup of coffee with him. When he enters, she is writing. She stops and looks up at him. She asks him what he does when he works out. They discuss the kinds of strength that are necessary to survive this world. Kafka tells her he named himself Kafka because “kafka” means “crow” in Czech. He is the boy named Crow. Kafka wants to have the kind of strength that absorbs power rather than keeping things out. He wants to be able to quietly endure things. Miss Saeki denies that she interviewed Kafka’s father for her lightning book, and clearly wants him to believe that she’s not his mother. She feels that things are changing around her, shifting.
As they talk, the point of view shifts to “you” indicating that Kafka becomes Kafka plus something or someone more—Kafka becomes Kafka on the Shore, both lover and son. They make love again and spend the night together. They stay together until Monday morning dawns.
Chapter 34 Summary
The terrible storm passes, leaving Nakata spent and exhausted. Alarmed by his appearance, Hoshino asks if he needs a doctor. Nakata just wants to rest and immediately lies down and falls asleep.
Hoshino goes out and wanders the town, ending up in a coffee bar that plays classical music. He hears Beethoven’s Archduke Trio for the first time. As he sits there, he thinks about his life and realizes that he’s an empty person, but, unlike Nakata, he has no excuse for being so. He realizes that he feels like he’s exactly where he needs to be when he’s with Nakata; it’s almost as if Nakata is a spiritual teacher, like Buddha or Jesus.
He goes back to the hotel room and sleeps. When he wakes up the next day, he goes to see two Francois Truffaut films, The 400 Blows and Shoot the Piano Player. After the films, he returns to the coffee shop and asks the owner to play the Archduke Trio again. He muses, “[T]he longer I’ve lived, the more I’ve lost what’s inside me—and ended up empty” (328). He wants to change direction and decides to quit his job and follow Mr. Nakata for as long as he lives.
Chapter 35 Summary
A ringing telephone wakes Kafka on Monday morning. Miss Saeki is gone. Oshima is on the phone, telling Kafka that he must leave the library immediately and lay low for a while. Oshima tells him to gather his things and be ready to leave when he arrives.
Oshima picks him up and, as they drive back to the mountain cabin, Oshima fills Kafka in on what is going on. The police now believe that Kafka planned his father’s death with an accomplice, who carried out the deed—an old man who turned himself in for the murder but was turned away by a policeman who didn’t believe him.
Oshima also wants to separate Kafka and Miss Saeki; he knows that they have been lovers, and though he doesn’t judge them, he doesn’t believe that there is anything more Kafka can do for her. Oshima tells Kafka that he knows that Miss Saeki is dying, and that somehow Kafka is hastening her end.
Kafka, desperately confused, not knowing right from wrong, wants to know what to do. Oshima tells him he needs to get to the mountains and figure out what’s next from there. Oshima advises him to listen, simply listen, to the wind.
Chapter 36 Summary
Nakata still sleeps. Hoshino tries to figure out how long they have been in Takamatsu and what day it is. He calculates that they opened the entrance yesterday, Thursday, so today is Friday, in the evening.
At five a.m. the next morning, the disconnected phone rings. Hoshino answers, and it’s Colonel Sanders on the line. He tells him to wake up Mr. Nakata immediately, take the stone, and move to the address Sanders gives him. The police are scouring the city for the two of them. Hoshino is incensed and claims that he hasn’t done anything wrong and Mr. Nakata isn’t capable of committing a crime. Colonel Sanders doesn’t waste time explaining. He hangs up on Hoshino.
Hoshino wakes Nakata, and Nakata immediately thinks they are in trouble because of Johnnie Walker’s murder. Mr. Nakata astonishes Hoshino when he explains that he killed Johnnie Walker. They leave the hotel, taking the stone with them, and go to the address Colonel Sanders gave them. They find a nice two bedroom apartment with food, dishes, and everything they could want for a short stay. Nakata demonstrates a hidden talent: cooking.
Hoshino asks Nakata what they should do next, and Nakata explains that they are waiting for something to happen; then they must close the entrance.
Chapters 33-36 Analysis
Events move quickly once the entrance is opened. Some characters experience increased insights, while others grow more confused and are drawn into murky, unclear dreams where nothing is certain.
Hoshino realizes that he has done nothing with his life, that he is empty. He doesn’t want to be empty anymore. Nakata, who has already realized how empty he is because of his contact with the entrance stone, now demonstrates that he has talents, not just limitations, by cooking delicious meals.
Kafka sleeps with Miss Saeki again, in his dual role as both returned lover and son, with increasing confusion about what this all means for him. Their last encounter in particular is emotionally wrenching for Kafka, who only grows more uncertain as he falls in love with the adult Miss Saeki as well as her 15-year-old self. Miss Saeki’s self-containment and lack of emotion continue, as well as her refusal to answer any of Kafka’s questions directly. Her motivations remain unclear, though it is obvious that she wants to believe that Kafka’s identity overlaps somehow with her old lover’s through their dreaming together. Oshima, however, has warned Kafka repeatedly about Miss Saeki’s lack of interest in life and her unusual way of looking at things.
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By Haruki Murakami
