Summary Of Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is comprised of three books which chronicle the odyssey of Toru Okada executed against the backdrop of modern Tokyo. Similar to other Murakami books, our protagonist is portrayed as a commonplace guy. Mary Ann Holthaus states in her paper, Novelist and Analyst Search the Japanese Psyche, “Murakami’s Wind-Up Bird Chronicle probes contemporary Japanese life through the consciousness of a seemingly ordinary, slyly humorous, and increasingly likable narrator, Toru Okada, affectionately called [by May Kasahara] “Mr. Wind-Up Bird.” This character-type has been recreated in other Murakami’s novels such as The Wild Sheep Chase, Kafta on the Shore, and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Stylishly, in the three different novels, a Murakamesque format emerges; the protagonist is reluctantly compelled to be taken on a journey/quest, has significant interaction with at least three main female characters, a battle with some sort of evil entity takes place, and ultimately finds some personal resolution and transformation. According to Susan Fisher’s An Allegory of Return: Murakami Haruki’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, “For the first time, Murakami has written a novel that deals explicitly with Japanese history and culture. Murakami’s work always has references to Western commercialism, jazz, and pop culture. This numerous account has been attributed to his immersion in western culture since childhood.

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