Preview

The Significance and Impact of the Supernatural in Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
612 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Significance and Impact of the Supernatural in Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore
Pratik Poudel
In-class supervised essay
March 8 2013 The significance and impact of the supernatural in Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore One of the most striking features of Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore is the use of supernatural elements. There are many instances in the book where supernatural events occur and are never really explained by the author. This may seem off-putting to some readers who want all knots tied and events explained, and to others, it just adds to the exquisite and unique taste of the book, whose conclusion creates more questions and answers none. Ghosts appear and make love to the characters, animal rain from the sky, there seems to be past or present in time and music and art serve as doorways inside a person’s soul. Murakami never gives a perceived explanation for these events and merely provides hints that make us think that the whole incident might have been just a metaphor. Regardless of the frustrating lack of answers, each supernatural event in the book is very significant and has an impact on the work as a whole. Let’s take, for example, an instance about halfway through the book where Nakata and Hoshino stop at a rest stop on the way to their destination. As Nakata steps out for fresh air, he sees a young man getting beat up by some teenagers. He attempts to try and stop them, and we as the readers find it comical that this weak, old, frail man who talks to cats and constantly calls himself ‘dumb’, is actually dumb enough to try to put a stop to the incident by himself. This moment can be compared to the quests of Don Quixote and the Coyote’s attempt to catch the Roadrunner because we know that his ‘quest’ is hopeless and he is going to fail. However, what comes next surprises us. Nakata calmly opens his umbrella in the middle of the day and leeches rain down from the sky (Suddenly, unfamiliar greasy objects began to rain down from the sky, striking the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” is a nightmarish tale with a very straightforward, matter-of-fact style, and this style enhances its nightmarish quality. An example of this is found in paragraph, which states, “His many legs, pitifully thin when compared with the size of the rest of him, waved about helplessly as he looked.” When describing this scene, the narrator definitely uses illustrative words, but does not have the disgusted tone one would expect from a story like this. The narrator speaks in an emptier way, which helps magnify the eerie feeling of the work. Both it and Gregor act very removed from the events, not how a normal human would react. Another instance of this is, “So then he tried to get the top part of his body out of bed…

    • 239 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the Metamorphosis,Gregor must work to support his family after they lost the company and lost all their money. One morning he wakes up and discovers he is a vermin. The first thing that occurs to him when he discovers this is how will he get to work and that his boss will come to his house and demand that Gregor come to work, meanwhile Gregor is locked in his room unable to get out of bed because he is a bug. Finally he is able to get out of bed, but the boss is gone the time he gets up. His family sees him and is disgusted and shocked by his transformatio. His sister brings him food and cares for him like no one in his family ever has, but even she becomes disgusted with him after a while. They all ignore Gregor. At one point Gregor is…

    • 329 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, the style enhances the nightmarish quality of the work. The text states, “It took just as much effort to get back to where he had been earlier, but when he lay there sighing, and was once more watching his legs as they struggled against each other even harder than before, it that was possible, he could think of no way of bringing peace and order to this chaos,” (Kafka 12). This is interesting because the situation that Gregor is in is extremely scary and unusual, and the calm language used makes the event seem like a normal occurrence. Although one would think that Kafka would use chilling and disturbing language to describe these events, that is not what he did. The emotionless tone of the story confuses…

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ethan Frome Vs Man

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A person has wants and needs, but usually dwells on the wants though it may be out of reach or unrealistic. By ignoring the obvious signs of the fated end and continuing to their goal, they get the results that has already laid out for them, instead of what they wanted. In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome and Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”, both Ethan Frome and the “Man” are striving to their goal even though there are obstacles in their way, which they ignore. Ethan and the “Man” fall harder in their disappointment of the outcome when they disregard the signs, causing disillusionment when it was too late.…

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    As with any great literary work, there must be a purpose behind the story. Kafka’s short story was written for a few main reasons. He wanted to exemplify the absurdity of life, show that there is often a disconnect between the mind and body, and that there are limits to society’s affection for its servants. I found that all points appeared to be both relevant and accurate while maintaining the fantastical appeal of the strangeness of Gregor’s sudden transformation. I believe this contributes to why “The Metamorphosis” has made a lasting impact across the globe.…

    • 95 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    For instance, in the story, the narrator becomes so obsessed with the way her bedroom furniture is arranged that she starts to find random signs that at first glance do not mean much to her, but that throughout the story she describes as impossible to live with, specially the yellow wallpaper. She says “The color is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing. You think you have mastered it, but just as you get well underway in following, it turns a back somersault and there you are. It…

    • 1464 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    A compare and contrast Analysis of Frank Kafka’s, The Metamorphosis and The Things They Carried.…

    • 1069 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The protagonist did not think about his actions, analyze what he was about to do, or plan his way through the woods thoroughly (Gonzalez 96). One example of these shortcomings is when he left the first fire he made prematurely (London 83). The protagonist is so focused on moving on that he does not…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    illustrate his view to the diseases and patients, besides to the patients’ relations with the…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    As a product of the Romantic era, the book clearly focuses more on feelings and sensibilities than on thought or reason. Yet there is an underlying sense that many of the disasters in the book can be laid to reason: people losing their mind, feelings overindulged, and a loss of balance between head and heart.…

    • 3265 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Critical Lens

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Restatement of thesis: In the end, we can see that Kafka’s point should be believed; the mariner’s suffering proved that art can change how we view nature and the wedding guest himself showed an example of how stories change…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The True Metamorphosis

    • 1356 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka offers much to be critiqued, including the reason why Gregor Samsa was transformed into a hideous beetle. The truth is Gregor had put himself into a position of demise long ago. Over the years, he had worked himself into both physical and mental exhaustion. Gregor was the sole provider, and eventually his family grew less appreciative of him. His relationship with his family had gone south. They were no longer as close, and it were as if he had become isolated. In Education for Tragedy, Walter H. Sokel elaborates on that point.…

    • 1356 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    John praised Richard for his rare gift of simplicity, straightforwardness and lucid utterance. “He is one of the few writers who are completely understandable...”(Bryce, 1987). He gives raw account of what happens in the sea to end those who are dreaming and have no knowledge or false fantasies by showing them the…

    • 1922 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Parallelism is a common theme Haruki Murakami includes in Kafka on the Shore. Arguably, the main protagonists can be connected to one another through commonalities. It is also falsifiable to say that duality is also present within each individual character. The dramatic change of character description from the beginning to the end of the novel indicates that within each character, dual identities are present. The most prominent characters in which this is displayed are Oshima, Nakata, and Kafka. The significance or doubles throughout the novel is displayed within some individual characters through the juxtaposition of opposing character identities, which implies that within a single person, multiple identities can be present.…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    one must interact with society in order to have a meaning in life. As for…

    • 2139 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics