The spiritual growth of "Kafka" actually fulfilled the long-cherished wish of "Nakata" to grow. "Nakata's" own growth was stifled in his teenage years. He could not communicate with people, but since then he can talk to cats. In the novel, "cat" essentially symbolizes the free soul. If Jonny Walker kills the cat to imprison the souls of others, then "Nakata"'s search for and rescue of the "cat" is to save freedom. soul. His killing of Jonny Walker was his own resistance to violence. After that, his journey to the four countries was his path to complete the unfinished growth of his youth, and the moment he opened the entrance stone, he also walked in Deep in the "forest".
The multiple meanings of Kafka’s growth
The coming-of-age novel shows that after the young protagonist experiences some kind of painful event, he either changes his original world view or changes his own outlook on life. character, or both; this change frees him from his childhood innocence and ultimately leads him into a real and complex adult world. Growth is a process from ignorance to knowledge. As everyone grows up, they must think about a series of issues, such as: how to accept their gender identity, how to deal with their own physiological changes, how to get rid of loneliness, etc. Although the pain experienced by "Kafka" was not physical, it was more devastating in nature. "Kafka" did not kill his father with his own hands but was stained with blood; "Kafka" was abandoned by his biological mother at an early age, but was destined to be united with his spiritual "mother" Saeki; "Kafka" suffered from the strong sexual desire in adolescence , and the experience of having to rely on "sister Sakura" to help vent his desires made "Kafka" reflect on himself and move from ignorance to knowledge.
The growth of "Kafka" contains deeper and multi-layered connotations:
First, from a personal level, the growth of "Kafka" is about responsibility. realization. The growth of "Kafka" is a path of understanding the impossibility of absolute free choice, but still choosing to take responsibility and persist in being the strongest 15-year-old boy.
Secondly, from a social perspective, the growth of "Kafka" is the acceptance of history and tradition and the calm face of reality. "Kafka's" search for his mother is the constant pursuit of history and tradition. "Saeki" symbolizes not only the mother's body and hometown that gave birth to the protagonist, but also the entire history and cultural tradition. The combination of "Kafka" and "Saeki" symbolizes "Kafka's" acceptance of history and tradition. Entering the "forest" is "Kafka's" in-depth understanding of history and tradition. After meeting "Saeki" in the "forest", "Kafka" finally listened to his "mother"'s advice and returned to Tokyo, which symbolized "Kafka's transition from rejecting real society to integrating into society, from giving up spiritual growth to taking responsibility responsibility.
"Kafka on the Shore" describes how the soft and undecided soul grows, gathers and takes shape through the human spirit, realizing the free emergence of soul and dignity. The narrative of the novel has a clear two-line structure: the first clue tells the growth process of the protagonist Kafka Tamura in a self-narrative way; the second clue narrates Nakata’s experience and search for the “Entrance Stone”. The work is linked by the coincidence of these two points, and is a narrative art from three aspects: the use of metaphor; the borrowing of traditional genre "myth"; the use of photos, songs and oil paintings; and the fusion of fantasy and reality, integrating the two narrative clues. for a complete.
1. The use of metaphor
Kafka
The meaning of "Kafka" in Czech is crow.
Crow
In Japanese, crows are considered to be spiritual birds that can predict good or bad luck based on their cries.
2. The borrowing of "myths" from traditional genres
From a complex point of view, Tamura Kafka's curse of "killing his father and marrying his mother" and "running away from home" and Odi Pusi's "killing his father and marrying his mother" and "running away into exile" are similar, that is, the fate and actions of the two people are very similar, but the nature of their actions is inherently different. First of all, facing the fate of "killing his father and marrying his mother", Kafka Tamura's state of mind is very different from that of Oedipus. When Oedipus learned the fate of the oracle, his choice to run away from home was a sign of disobedience or resistance to the fate of "killing his father and marrying his mother"; and Kafka Tamura's running away from home seemed to be a deliberate adaptation or an attempt to realize this fate. After careful planning for a long time, he resolutely ran away from home on his 15th birthday. On the long-distance bus to Shikoku, the girl Sakura who sat with him was very caring and took care of him. He thought: "Maybe she is my sister" and left Sakura's phone number when they broke up. One night after arriving in Shikoku, he suddenly lost consciousness. When he woke up, he found his clothes stained with blood in a park. Two days later, he learned from news reports that his father was assassinated at the same time that night. After that, while he was working and staying at the Takamatsu Prefectural Library, he always felt that the elegant and mysterious female librarian Saeki was his mother. One night Saeki came to his room, and they spent the night like a dream. Then in her sleep, she dreamed that he was having an affair with Sakura. Sakura said, "We are a family and we shouldn't do this kind of thing," but she didn't resist in action. Between the vague dream and reality, Kafka Tamura experimented or realized the curse of "killing his father and defiling his mother and sister".
The inner world of young Tamura in real life is much richer and more complex than that of Oedipus in mythology: Due to family changes, Tamura, who grew up in a cruel and cruel environment, hated his father very much, and even He wants to remove his father's inheritance from his blood; he always wants to ask "why" and take revenge on his mother who abandoned him and ran away from home; at the same time, he is also very jealous of his sister who was taken away back then. Under the intertwining of this complex psychology, "killing one's father and marrying one's mother" is not so much a curse from his father as it is Tamura Kafka's subconscious, which is also the internal motivation for his actions. Therefore, his "running away" is not an Oedipus-style fight against fate or rebellion, but a coexistence of rebellion and compliance with fate. So faced with the same ending - "killing his father and marrying his mother", the two men's attitudes were obviously different: Oedipus believed that it was a sin, blinded himself with his own hands, and chose self-exile again, which showed that he had the courage to take responsibility. The spirit of self-punishment. But Kafka Tamura had no sense of guilt at all. He wandered into the forest not out of guilt, but out of betrayal of social ethics.
"Kafka on the Shore" expresses the Eastern view of destiny, a subversion of traditional concepts, and the coexistence of modern people's consciousness of rebellion and compliance with fate, implying that modern people choose blindly independently. Reality. Haruki Murakami uses the "intertextuality" technique of postmodern works to not only deconstruct the classic text "Oedipus King" but also deconstruct modern society.
3. The use of photos, music and paintings
Haruki Murakami uses fictional worlds such as music and paintings in his works to interrupt the continuity of the narrative and break the "time and space" of the narrative. The order of sequence allows the present to interrogate the past, creating a confusing and illusory world. The purpose is to three-dimensionally reproduce the individual emotions of the subject and effectively express the theme of the work.
Photo
A photo of "Kafka on the Shore." The protagonist "I" packed his luggage on his 15th birthday and ran to Shikoku without any purpose. The only thing he wanted to take away from home before leaving was a photo of him and his sister when he was 3 years old. This was also the only souvenir left by his mother.
The author asked a 15-year-old boy "I" to stand at the "present point" and stare at the "previous past" in a photo, which contains double meanings: First, the picture of his sister in the photo The face that "seems to be wearing a mask in the ancient Greek dramas I have seen in textbooks" is a metaphor for the future world where the siblings are "expected to be present": "light and shadow, hope and despair, joy and sorrow, trust and loneliness"; 2. It is from the photos of the "past" that it reflects the spiritual world of the young "me" at the current point: although the future prospects are unpredictable.
The current "I" can only "face the front" and move forward courageously to find my "own" life path. At the same time, "except for my sister and me, there is no trace of anyone on the coast", which also hints at the inner loneliness of modern people.
Song
A song entitled "Kafka on the Shore". Ms. Saeki was smart since she was a child. When she was 18, she was admitted to a local music conservatory to study piano; her lover Komura was admitted to the University of Tokyo. At the age of 19, she wrote lyrics, composed music, and performed piano accompaniment and became famous in one fell swoop.
After listening to this song at the Komura Library, Kafka Tamura thought: The "little fish falling from the sky" in the lyrics is related to the reality of small fish and eels falling from the sky one day in Nakano District, Tokyo. Consistent; "The shadow of the fleeing monster turned into a dagger and penetrated your dreams." It coincides with "I" passing out in a park in Shikoku and subconsciously killing my father in Tokyo with a dagger. Obviously this interpretation shows that the narrative of the work not only presents the characteristics of spanning time and space, but also obviously lacks "causal relationship": that is, it is impossible for "small fish and eels" to fall from the sky; it is impossible for "I" to kill people in Tokyo in Shikoku Father.
In the last verse of the song, the girl in a green dress touches the "stone at the entrance", "suggesting" that Ms. Saeki is trying to seal her "15-year-old self" with the "stone at the entrance" "Happiness with lovers" makes her and the boy forever immersed in a perfect circle. However, the journey of life is a mixture of joys and sorrows, and it cannot be as perfect as a circle. The work ends with Ms. Saeki agreeing with Nakata to seal the "entrance stone" to the other side of the world, and imploring "I" to return to reality. It reflects that the author is based on reality and aims to explore how modern people survive.
Oil Painting
An oil painting titled "Kafka on the Shore". When the protagonist "I" was working part-time in Jiacun Library, there was an oil painting hanging on the wall of the room where he lived. The young man in the painting was looking at the sky, his eyes full of deep confusion. There were several clouds with clear outlines floating in the corner of the sky, the largest of which was shaped like a half-crouching Sphinx. "I" was alone in the room at night, listening to the song "Kafka on the Shore" repeatedly, and became convinced that the boy in the oil painting corresponded to the sphinx "monster" in the lyrics. Because after Oedipus exposed the mystery of the Sphinx, she knew that she was going to be defeated by her opponent and committed suicide by jumping off a cliff. Oedipus then ascended the throne of Thebes and married the queen, who was his biological child. Mother is married. Late that night, the "girl in a light green dress" came to "my" room as usual. She rested her head on her elbow on the table and stared at Kafka in the oil painting. "I" held my breath and stared at her beauty, just like a girl who couldn't get enough of Kafka in the painting.
"I" am convinced that Kafka, who is gazing at the monster-shaped clouds in the oil painting, is the girl's lover Komura, and that girl is the ghost of the 15-year-old Ms. Saeki. In this way, "painting, girl, 'I'" The triangular relationship formed overlaps with the triangular relationship formed by "I", my father, and Ms. Saeki in real life. It is an inquiry into the individual's state of mind under a specific situation. The character Kafka in the oil painting faces the mystery of the Sphinx, which hints at "my" confusion about the future; his tragic fate is a metaphor for the inevitable fate of life. But "I" as a subject still does not give up the pursuit of beautiful things.
The fictional world of the work is composed of "photographs, songs and oil paintings", which completely breaks the sequence of narrative "time and space", and cuts off the continuity of readers' reading sight both auditory and visual, thus achieving The narrative effect of integrating the past and the future into the present fully reflects the narrative characteristics of modern novels.
4. The fusion of fantasy and reality
The physical world is a "dream"-like reality. In "Kafka on the Shore", Haruki Murakami combines the fictional dream world with realistic real life through the world experienced by "I" and a female elementary school teacher in the "dream", and vividly reproduces it. a real world of universal significance.
The reconciliation between "I" and my mother in "Dream".
Ever since the protagonist "I" met Ms. Saeki in the Komura Library, he has imagined that one day she will admit that "she" is "my" mother. To this end, the author invented a "dream world" to allow "I" to realize this wish in a dream: In the dream, "I" was taken into the other side of the world deep in the forest by two soldiers who escaped into the forest during World War II. There I met Ms. Saeki. "I" asked her: "Are you my mother?" She replied: "You should understand the answer to this question. In the past, "I" abandoned things that should not be abandoned. Can you forgive me for my mistake?" "I" replied: "If I have the qualifications, I will tolerate you." Finally, she also asked "I" to "return to real life." "I" agreed to Ms. Saeki's request and gained the motivation to survive.
In "Kafka on the Shore", the author allows the protagonist "I" to "reconcile" with his mother with a "tolerant" attitude and be willing to "return to real life", which undoubtedly has profound symbolic significance. Specifically, for many years "I" have been resentful of my mother's abandonment of "me" and always thought about "revenge" on her one day. But when faced with my mother's plea - "Can you forgive me for my mistakes?" "I" did not use the form of "retaliation" to resolve my resentment towards my mother, but accepted the reality with a "tolerant" attitude. The idea of ??"tolerance" proposed by the author here has profound practical significance. If you think about the causes and consequences of the outbreak of World War II, and the historical background of this work - the 9/11 incident that shocked the world, and the "retaliatory" attitude adopted by the U.S. government in the face of this incident, it is not difficult to understand the author's intentions. Intentions, that is, the first is the relationship between "my" "tolerant" attitude and the "World War II"; the second is the opposition between the US government's countermeasures to the "9·11 Incident" and the idea of ??"tolerance". The idea of ??"tolerance" proposed by Haruki Murakami here is not only a criticism of reality, but also has great enlightenment on the real world. It not only shows the author's attitude towards "violence" - "To cut off the chain of negative factors, there is no other way but to think and tolerate. Similarly, this is the only way to prevent the recurrence of violence", and it also implies The author's criticism of the current foreign policy of the US government.
The lovemaking between a female primary school teacher and her husband in "Dream"
The night before the "mass sleep incident", a female primary school teacher's self-narration: "Before dawn , I dreamed of having sex with my husband who was already on the battlefield. I couldn't tell whether it was a dream or reality. "In the dream, the sky was overcast, there was no wind, and it seemed like it was going to rain soon." The birds were eager to return to their nests. My husband and I were on a rock on the top of the mountain, making love in silence like wild beasts. Because of the war, we separated a few days after we got married. My body was craving for my husband. "
The next day, when she took the children to pick mushrooms in the forest on the mountain, the children who were picking mushrooms suddenly fell to the ground and fell asleep for some unknown reason. Soon, all the other partners returned to normal, but only one student named "Nakata" completely lost his memory. This was the "mass sleeping incident" that occurred in Yamanashi Prefecture on November 7, 1944. Since then, the fate of the female teacher and student Nakata has undergone a fundamental change: the female teacher's husband died on the battlefield in the Philippines a year later, and she could only spend the rest of her life alone after losing her husband; Nakata was reduced to an illiterate person. A "mentally retarded" boy who grew up could only do some simple labor in a woodworking company and lived alone all his life.
In the work, the female teacher has sex with her husband in a "dream" ("making love" = the longed-for reunion deep in the soul), which tortuously demonstrates the alienation of human nature caused by war. That is, the newlywed young couple should have been on their honeymoon, but the husband went to the battlefield where life and death were uncertain. The gloomy weather in the dream, which seemed to be about to rain, not only hinted at the inner world of this female primary school teacher, but also symbolized the entire background of the "World War II" period - overcast clouds; the birds rushing back to their nests hinted at her expectations She has an urgent desire to return to her husband as soon as possible; the beast-like lovemaking with her husband is exactly a portrayal of the distortion of human nature caused by war.
The author tells modern people that they should have a profound reflection on war by telling "dreams".
The fate of the young Tanaka and the female teacher after the "collective coma incident" is a true portrayal of the tragic fate of innocent women and children brought about by World War II, and it expresses the author's anti-war thoughts in a tortuous way. This is exactly the practical significance of the "dream" world. "Kafka on the Shore" adopts a binary parallel structure. The boy's line is written in a realistic way; the Nakata line is written in an illusory or magical way. Although Kafka lived in real life, he walked in the real and virtual worlds, wandering between hope and despair. The voice of the boy named Crow reminds people that people who live in a dualistic world of reality and reality also have dual character traits, that is, what they think and what they do are not necessarily the same thing. Nakata lost his memory and lived in a virtual fantasy world. He is illiterate and can communicate with cats. He has a special power that even he doesn't know about: he can make tons of fish fall from the sky like rain. But his real life is very practical, and his way of leaving and traveling is no different from ordinary people.
The dualistic parallel structure is also reflected in the characters’ dual personalities and behaviors. The Komura Library is the intersection of binary parallelism in the novel. Both Kafka and Nakata met the director Saeki. From Kafka's narrative perspective, the 40-year-old beautiful woman Saeki is an elegant curator during the day, but at night she reverts to a 15-year-old girl who has a physical relationship with Kafka. When Kafka stepped into the core of the "forest" and entered another "forgotten world", Saeki also played a dual role, caring and protecting Kafka. From Nakata's narrative perspective, Saeki has a mysterious life experience, rough experiences and painful memories, which are somewhat consistent with Nakata's supernatural world. The other two structural characters in the novel, Oshima and Hoshino, also have dual character traits: Oshima is a woman and a man, and he seems to be unable to identify himself; Hoshino is vulgar, but through sexual intercourse, he completes "the relationship between himself and himself" Projection and exchange between objects” and obtain “divine enlightenment”.
The dual character of the binary narrative in "Kafka on the Shore", as well as the jumping back and forth between reality and illusion, are all paving the way and deducing the affirmative duality of parallel behaviors: another unknown. Unknowingly, I, a Kafka who is not controlled by the real subject, unknowingly killed his father and had an incestuous physical relationship with his mother and sister; subconsciously, the female teacher who was in love with spring, was unable to In the context of controlling the world of himself and others, masturbation caused menstruation to arrive early, and even indirect sexual violence occurred, causing Nakata to lose his memory; Nakata accidentally killed Jonny Walker and came to the Komura Library secretly. Everything is an arrangement of "God's will", there is no premeditation, no conflict of interest or collusion.