Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Kafka on the Shore, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Mind vs. The Body
Fate and Prophecy
The Virtues of Self-Sufficiency
Music and Introspection
Summary
Analysis
Colonel Sanders leads Hoshino to a large Shinto shrine. There, they meet a young woman who takes Hoshino to a nearby love hotel. As they’re having sex, she talks to him about the philosopher Hegel (she explains that she’s a philosophy student making extra money). They return to the shrine, and Colonel Sanders promises to take Hoshino to the entrance stone.
In Murakami’s world, many characters are preoccupied with psychology, philosophy, and metaphysics, bringing up their theories in day-to-day life or at unexpected times. The prostitute Hoshino meets is one such character. The fact that seemingly everyone in the world of this novel has complicated theories about the mind emphasizes the importance of this theme and the extent to which it is an undercurrent of most conversations.
Themes
