Previous
Foreshadowing
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis:
Norwegian Wood is told through a frame story. The novel begins with Toru as a grown man on a plane. As his plane lands in Chapter 1, his memory is sparked:
Once the plane was on the ground, soft music began to flow from the ceiling speakers: a sweet orchestral cover version of the Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood.” The melody never failed to send a shudder through me, but this time it hit me harder than ever [...] I straightened up and looked out the plane window at the dark clouds hanging over the North Sea, thinking of what I had lost in the course of my life: times gone forever, friends who had died or disappeared, feelings I would never know again.
From here—from this place of remembering “times gone forever”—Toru begins to narrate the primary plot, which occurred 20 years in the past. As a result, it feels as if the future of the primary plot has already been written, and the characters are powerless to stop it. Readers know that Toru “would never know” these feelings again. By the time Toru is narrating the story, the deaths that occur in the novel—Naoko and Midori’s father—have already occurred. While readers do not know who will die from the start of the novel, they do know that Toru is remembering “friends who had died or disappeared” and “feelings I would never know again.” The frame story structure adds to the sense that these characters are engaged in a powerless and fruitless struggle against death.
Related Themes:
