Kafka On the Shore Analysis

1) The novel has two distinctive plot lines, that involve Kafka Tamura, a young child around the age of fifteen who runs away at the time of his birthday. And Satoru Nakata who is an elderly, handicapped man who is running away looking for lost cats in his neighborhood. The two are actually connected spiritually but don't know it. Now Kafka's story is that he has left home escaping his emotionally distant father, and has taken homage in a Library where he falls in love with the head librarian and every night he falls asleep there he sees the head librarians 15 year old self, all while Nakata is for some reason bound to come towards the library for a spiritual purpose.
2)The theme(s) is to find oneself, and how love transcends borders, and the workings and interrelation of things.
3)The author's tone is sort of hard to put a finger on, it fluctuates, that maybe be the best way to answer this question, but it certainly is never fully happy nor is it sad, sort of mysterious.
4) (See) Kafka Literary Techniques


1) There is a part in Ch. 3 where Kafka is directly described as stone faced, and big and muscular for his age, and able to pass off as at least 18 or 19. Therefore indicating a much more mature youngster than he actually is. The second- Indirect Characterization, is in Chapter 9 where he's staying with His friend in the city and it explains his raging hormones which also is indicative of his age. The lasting approach was the indirect because it made me imagine more and think more about the character. Nakata however was almost always described always indirectly.
2) The Syntax and Diction DEFINITELY changes from character to character, or more specifically, Chapter to Chapter, when Kafka is the main focus the diction is much more sophisticated with using different and more complex word usage, on the contrary when Nakata is speaking, it's more in the third person and more simplistic indicating his mental handicap.
3) Kafka is definitely Dynamic and changes a full 180 from the beginning of the book, to the end, while Nakata is static, and definitely static at one point because-- He's dead.
4) I didn't really feel like I had really met a person but, just you know read a character in a book to be honest it wasn't all that exciting but a little interesting.