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
Oshima wakes Kafka up with an early morning phone call and tells him to gather his things. Oshima picks Kafka up in the Miata and, on the drive, explains that the police are intensifying their search, so he’s taking Kafka back to the cabin. They have traced the murder to an old man from Nakano, who traveled from there to Takamatsu. Oshima says it’s as if everything is converging on one point. He also thinks its best if Kafka and Miss Saeki spend some time apart—Oshima knows they’ve been sleeping together, and he is worried because he believes Miss Saeki has lost the will to live.
Oshima worries that Miss Saeki and Kafka have become too interdependent. He is worried that this codependence has only exacerbated Miss Saeki’s fixation on death and belief that she can bring about her own demise at the right moment. Meanwhile, the fact that the police are closing in suggests that Kafka’s attempt to remain a fiercely independent and self-sufficient runaway is beginning to break down.
Themes
