Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Reality and Subjective Experience
Free Will
Desire and Irrationality
The Personal Impact of War
Social Alienation
Summary
Analysis
Toru’s attempts to access more documents from “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” are denied, and he cannot explore further. He starts to suspect that the chronicle is a collection of stories that Cinnamon created. Recognizing that Nutmeg couldn’t have known all the details about her father’s experiences, Toru concludes that the stories are partially fictional.
Note that just so happened to Toru click on the only file that he could actually open on his first try. Again, this could simply be good luck—one in sixteen are far from impossible odds—but it is yet another detail on an already long list of evidence that suggests that there is some larger force controlling Toru’s behavior—and the entire world.
Themes
Toru wonders why Cinnamon wrote these stories and why he chose to name them a “chronicle.” Toru knows that Cinnamon is unaware of Toru’s nickname, Mr. Wind-Up Bird; nevertheless, he feels connected to the chronicle. He wonders if Cinnamon meant for him to find it. Given Cinnamon’s skill with computers, Toru decides this must be the case.
Toru thinks about the striking similarities between himself and Nutmeg’s father in chronicle eight. Both characters bear a mark on their faces, have encountered or witnessed the violent swing of a baseball bat, and have heard the cry of the wind-up bird. Moreover, the lieutenant’s presence in the story reminds Toru of Lieutenant Mamiya, who was also in the Kwantung Army Headquarters in Hsin-ching in 1945. Contemplating these parallels, Toru questions whether these details are genuine connections or if Cinnamon inserted elements from his own life into these historical narratives.
One would have to overlook many similarities between the chronicle’s events and Toru’s own life to conclude that they are not connected in some way. However, beyond that, it is difficult to say anything definitively. The only other explanation is that Toru’s experience with the wind-up bird chronicle is another one of his dreams. After all, like many surreal parts of the novel, it occurs in the middle of the night.
Themes
