Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Norwegian Wood, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory, Nostalgia, and Regret
Sex and Love
Death, Suicide, Grief, and Existentialism
Truth, Lies, and Communication
Education
Summary
Analysis
Thirty-seven-year-old Toru Watanabe is on a plane to Germany. As the 747 touches town and cold November rain falls on the tarmac, the plane’s speakers begin playing an orchestral version of the Beatles hit “Norwegian Wood.” The song, which always sends a “shudder” through Toru’s body, hits him “harder than ever,” and he places his head in his hands. A flight attendant approaches him to ask if he’s all right, but he insists he’s just dizzy. The plane arrives at the gate, but as passengers stand from their seats and retrieve their bags, Toru remains motionless, caught up in memories of Autumn 1969—the fall of his 20th birthday.
The novel’s early lines introduce several important motifs. In addition to grounding its title in the song “Norwegian Wood” and its significance to its central character, the opening scene also establishes the importance of memory, nostalgia, and regret, and shows just how strong an effect Toru Watanabe’s past still has on him after all these years.
Themes
Toru looks back on a memory from 18 years ago—a fall day he spent in a meadow with a girl named Naoko. Though nearly two decades have passed, Toru can summon nearly every detail: the blue of the sky, the feeling of the wind, and two birds he and Naoko saw on their walk. “Memory is a funny thing,” Toru thinks; though he barely paid attention to his surroundings in the moment, the scenery has become impossibly vivid over the years. Toru knows he is growing more and more distant with each passing day from who he and Naoko used to be, and now, in Hamburg, feels compelled to write their story in order to fully understand it at last.
As Toru unpacks this vivid memory from his past, he’s confused and, in a way, delighted by the strange rules by which memories operate. The vividness of the scenery inspires both reverence and sadness within Toru—the emotions he feels about this memory in particular have blended together so that his true feelings are practically inscrutable.
Themes
Toru thinks back to the day in the meadow, remembering more and more details—such as when he and Naoko discussed a deep well that was rumored to be off the path at the edge of the field. Naoko contemplated aloud how horrible it would be to fall into the well, talking about the slow death one would surely die in its depths. Toru remembers telling Naoko that all she had to do to avoid the well was to stay close by his side. Naoko, he remembers, stated that it would be impossible “for one person to watch over another person for ever and ever.”
As Toru delves further and further into the memory, going beyond its sunny surface, it becomes clear that the memory is tinged with darkness, fear, and uncertainty. Naoko’s fear of falling into the “well” represents her fear of death, and yet her fascination with the well speaks to her fascination with death itself. This passage also introduces Toru’s deep sense of responsibility for Naoko—a feeling that will, in retrospect, be revealed as the driving force behind many of his choices in his young adulthood.
Themes
Toru assured Naoko that her problems would soon be over; one day, he said, she wouldn’t need someone with her round-the-clock. Naoko, however, insisted her problems ran deeper than Toru realized, and wondered aloud why he’d chosen to fall in love with her. After walking on in silence, Toru remembers, Naoko apologized for her cold words, then told how grateful she was that he’d come to visit her. Toru swore to Naoko he’d never forget her.
Toru’s loyalty to Naoko—and Naoko’s repeated insistence that Toru try to move on, forget her, or leave her be—represents a recurring emotional struggle between the two of them, a tense expression of their shared self-loathing that will come to define their relationship.
Themes
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As Toru writes, he feels full of dread and worries that he is remembering things incorrectly. Still, Toru concedes that wrangling even half-formed or imperfect memories is the only way he has of honoring his promise to Naoko. In fact, all the times he’s tried to write his and Naoko’s story before, the details have been too sharp and held him back. Now that things are slightly blurrier, he has found, he is able to understand Naoko better. He realizes that she asked him to remember her precisely because she knew his memories of her would fade one day. Toru is overcome with “unbearable sorrow” as he admits what he has known all along: that Naoko never truly loved him.
This passage demonstrates Toru’s reasons for returning to this part of his life and committing it to the page. He wants to understand it more deeply, to preserve it in time, and to confront, at long last, the truths he’s been avoiding articulating all his life. Toru doesn’t lie to himself or hide in half-remembered delusions any longer: he’s finally ready to face his past.
Themes
