THE QUEST AND Introduction RECONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY IN HARUKI Identity seems to be one among various issues tackled in ’s MURAKAMI’S KAFKA ON works. In his Kafka on the Shore, 1 THE SHORE Murakami points out how individual identity is constructed through the domain Kanya Wattanagun2 of signs. These signs are not merely 3 limited to such simple products as a Suradech Chotiudompant baseball cap or an aloha shirt, but also include narrative and memory. Through Abstract them, a sense of coherence is bestowed on an individual’s existence. In addition to This essay aims to explore the issue of identity the reliance upon such aspects, identity quest of various characters in Haruki construction also takes place in the inner Murakami’s “Kafka on the Shore.” While world, another dimension that is more Hoshino is portrayed as an alienated city- personal in the borderline between the dweller, whose identity formation depends psychological and the social. Through the on superficial signs produced in consumer portrayal of the protagonist’s identity society, Satoru Nakata’s identity is noted construction initiating in his inner realm, for its marginalized position as he is Murakami suggests the ways in which one unable to make sense of capitalist logic. can negotiate with the regime of signs, His viewpoint reveals a hidden side of redefining them and thereby weaving capitalist society that glorifies such meaningful stories which would become superficial consumption of empty signs in the solid ground for his precarious identity. the process of identity construction. In contrast to Hoshino and Nakata, Identity quest in capitalist society Murakami’s portrayal of Kafka Tamura suggests a solution to identity quest when Kafka on the Shore relates the story of a Kafka is able to stabilize his shattered fifteen-year-old boy who names himself identity through redefinition of memories after . The Oedipal relationship and reflections. between him and his father resolves into mutual hatred and drives the boy away 1 This essay was developed from the MA thesis from home. His journey could be regarded titled “Magical Realism and Intertextuality in as an allegory of empty self in search of Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore” under stable identity. Encountering many bizarre the sponsorship of the Ninetieth Anniversary incidents as well as experiencing emotional of Chulalongkorn University Scholarship of attachment, Kafka gradually develops a the Ratchadapiseksompot Fund. whole, stable identity. Hoshino and Nakata 2 Lecturer, Department of Western Languages play supporting roles that significantly and Literature, Ubon Ratchathani University, reveal how individual identity is constructed Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand via symbolic consumption, and how it can 3 Lecturer, Department of Comparative Literature, Chulalongkorn University, lead to alienation. While Hoshino represents Bangkok, Thailand a person residing within capitalist society, leading his life conforming to its ideology, Nakata personifies a marginal viewpoint,

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the subversive quality of which exposes us had an accident. If Mr. Nakata’s to the hidden ‘unreal’ side of capitalism. empty, that makes me worse than empty! Nakata is a dumb old man who can neither (Murakami 2005: 338) read nor write. After stabbing Kafka’s father to death, Nakata leaves Tokyo and In this case, what Hoshino consumes to runs into Hoshino, a truck driver who construct his identity is his allegiance to agrees to give the old man a lift. The novel the Chunichi Dragons baseball team. relates Hoshino’s obsession with aloha Declaring himself to be a fan of the team shirts: and indulging in it as if ‘the team was some extension’ of himself, it becomes a He decided it was about time for a concrete sphere to which Hoshino feels new aloha shirt and scoured a few attached, implanting in his mind an shops looking for one. ... Summer awareness that he is a member of a group or winter alike he always wore which has its own goal and mission. For aloha shirts, but that didn’t mean Hoshino, the Chunichi Dragons baseball any aloha shirt would do … team cap functions as a signifier that helps (Murakami 2005: 337). with his identity formation. In capitalist society where it is difficult to find the In addition to the shirts, a Chunichi Dragons essence of one’s existence, undermined as baseball team cap and comics also function it was by the consumption of empty signs as signs giving a sense of coherence to his and the ceaselessly provoked desire to identity. This argument is sustained by consume, a person needs to construct and Hoshino’s confusion while pondering his reiterate his identity through the signs he identity. Such an empty man he is that selects. Nevertheless, what is acquired Hoshino clings to these inanimate objects: from these signs are mere images, turning identity into an unstable body. In this light, Sunk back in his soft chair, … a objects actively mediate in the process of number of thoughts crossed his identity construction as they project various mind–mostly having to do with images onto a rather passive body. himself. But the more he thought about himself, the less his This may be the reason why Hoshino still existence seemed to have. He feels empty even though he is equipped with began to feel like some meaningless many objects which, brought together, appendages sitting there. I’ve always become a unique combination distinguishing been a great fan of the Chunichi him from others. Hoshino’s feeble identity Dragons … but what are the can perhaps be regarded as one of the Dragons to me, anyway? … So main conditions to which people are why the heck have I spent all this subject when they are so accustomed to time getting worked up like the team consuming empty signs. Japanese scholar was some extension of myself? Otsuka Eiji describes this condition as Mr. Nakata said he’s empty. Maybe follows: he is, for all I know. But what does that make me? He said an The Japanese are no longer the accident when he was little made producers. Our existence consists him that way–empty. But I never solely of the distribution and

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consumption of “things” brought apparent when he says to Nakata that us from elsewhere, “things” with Japan has never been occupied by America: which we play. Nor are these “things” actually tangible, but are “Japan was occupied by the instead only sign without any Americans back then. direct utility in life. None of what The seashore at Enoshima was we typically purchase would, were filled with American soldiers.” we deprived of it, be a matter of “You gotta be kidding.” life or death. These “things” are “No, I’m not kidding.” continually converted into signs “Come on,” Hoshino said “Japan without substance, signs such as was never occupied by information, stocks, or land. What America.” (Murakami 2005: 227) name are we to give this life of ours today? Hoshino’s ignorance of such a crucial (Otsuka cited in Treat 1993: 353) incident in Japanese history emphasizes his distance from collective memory. His Within the regime of empty signs, lack of this historical knowledge may be alienation originates from the contradiction construed as a sense of non-belonging: between ideology and the real condition in that he is not related to, or is not a part of which one lives. To be more precise, his community. Such rootlessness contributes capitalist ideology implants on people’s to Hoshino’s empty identity, as he does mind that the possession of materials– not possess stories from the past, in this such as a big house or a car of the latest case those that have something to do with model–indicates a ‘good’ life. However, his own country. after pursuing this normative quest for material wealth, some people might discover Hoshino’s self is remedied after his persistent that it leads to nothing except a hoarding encounters with magical incidents. In this of material signs that signify achievement. respect, magic functions as a rupture They may then recognize that what hidden beneath capitalist norms. While life capitalist ideology promises to offer to in capitalist society which is supposed to those subjected to its norms are not as ideal be something ‘real’ paradoxically contributes as they are supposed to be. Hoshino’s case to alienation, life amidst bizarre incidents is a good example of how a person is turns to be something meaningful, motivating disillusioned and begins to realize the full a person to reflect on his existence. The picture of capitalist ideology. first quote displays how Hoshino contemplates his life before meeting Alienation conjured up by capitalism is Nakata and the second depicts his not the sole reason for Hoshino’s empty transformed viewpoint after experiencing self. His detachment from both individual magical phenomena: and collective memories is another prominent factor restraining his development of I. solid identity. Without stories or memories Hoshino was drawn back to his which he can use to describe who he is or childhood. He used to go to the where he comes from, there is no stable river every day to catch fish. ground for Hoshino’s identity to be Nothing to worry about back then, shaped. His lack of collective memory is he reminisced. … As long as I was

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alive, I was something. That was refreshing and rejuvenating. In this light, just how it was. But somewhere what heals Hoshino’s alienated self is along the line it all changed. actually his transformed viewpoint Living turned me into nothing. triggered by his friendship with Nakata Weird…. People are born in order and ‘a lot of bizarre stuff’ he has to live, right? But the longer I’ve encountered. Murakami possibly suggests lived, the more I’ve lost what’s that, in face of such a capitalist reality, inside me–and ended up empty. what we need is a critical perspective that And I bet the longer I live, the enables us to view this reality differently emptier, the more worthless, I’ll and more profoundly. become. (Murakami 2005: 341) By contrast, Satoru Nakata is explicitly II. marginalized due to his inability to make “These past ten days there’s been sense of capitalist logic. Whereas Hoshino’s a lot of bizarre stuff going on. emptiness is conjured up by his constant Leeches falling from the sky, consumption of empty signs, Nakata’s popping up out of alienated self is generated from his thin air, hot sex with this drop- incapacity to understand language and dead-gorgeous philosophy major, familiar concepts generally accepted as swiping the entrance stone from unalterable facts. The difference in the that shrine … A lifetime of weird nature of their alienation means that their stuff packed into ten days. … The subversive roles function differently. most amazing thing of all has been While Hoshino’s case draws the reader’s you, Mr. Nakata. You changed my attention to the negative side of capitalism, life. These past ten days, I don’t of how those living under its norms know–things look different to me develop fragmented identity and feel now. Stuff I never would’ve given empty inside, Nakata’s case reveals the a second glance before seems unreal aspect of this establishment which different. … It’s been one of the becomes prominent through his marginal most meaningful times I’ve ever but acute viewpoint. had in my life. (Murakami 2005: 426) Nakata is an old man labeled as a ‘dumb’ due to his illiteracy. Despite his deficiency Magical occurrences highlight another in language, he is equipped with magical side of reality hidden by capitalist powers. His mindset is influenced by a ideology. Magic in Kafka on the Shore logical system that differs from that of thus conveys a hopeful message. Apart capitalism. Nakata can see through familiar from reminding readers of the oppressive images people generally think of capitalism aspects of reality created by capitalism, the and regard them in a different light. emergence of such occurrences implies Nevertheless, his inability to comprehend that though we cannot totally turn our language hints that he never perceives backs from this reality in which we live, himself as an individual with a unique we can at least gain an awareness of how identity. This assumption is supported by oppressive it can be and how another the fact that while conversing with others, dimension of such a reality can be found– Nakata initially addresses himself by the an alternative view that can be both name ‘Nakata’ instead of using ‘I’:

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taking out a ‘loan’ involved. He “Nakata’s quite hungry” lived in a world circumscribed by (Murakami 2005: 315). a very limited vocabulary. “Nakata has a favor to ask you, Mr. Hoshino.” Only amounts up to fifty dollars (Murakami 2005: 322) also had any meaning to him. Anything above that–a thousand His inability to capture the meaning of ‘I’ dollars, ten thousand–was all the is not only related to his illiteracy, but can same to him. A lot of money, also be considered in light of the (post-) that’s all it meant. He might have structuralist theory that language is the savings, but he’d never seen it. primary source through which a person They just told him ‘this is how becomes familiar with the concept of much you have in your account’ differentiation. According to Jacques and told him an amount, which to Lacan (1981), an infant initially perceives him was an abstract concept. So itself as a partial organism unified with its when it all vanished he never had mother. This consciousness is altered in the sense that he’d actually lost the mirror stage when the infant sees its something real. (Murakami 2005: reflection in the mother’s eyes and 225) recognizes itself as a whole being separated from her. Then during the symbolic stage, Through Nakata’s incompetence to capture this realization is reinforced when the the value of familiar artifacts such as infant learns language through which it money and bank accounts, Murakami becomes acquainted with the concept of indicates that these items sought after by differentiation and begins to distinguish people in the capitalist world are actually itself from others. In this paradigm, simulacra which are nothing more than Nakata’s incapacity to make sense of the empty signifiers. In this light, money is linguistic sign of ‘I’ can be related to his simply an imaginary item, whose value is inability to differentiate between himself derived from the arbitrary presumption of and others. a group of people. It is not surprising then that Nakata can only comprehend the Because of a magical event that happened value of a small sum of money that he can to him when he was young, Nakata’s memory really exchange for something he needs, has been entirely erased, diminishing his but cannot imagine the meaning of those ability to consider general matters based figures printed in his account book. This is on capitalist logic. He has no conceptual not because of his ‘dumbness’ which framework that enables him to divide the prevents him from accessing their meaning ‘poor’ from the ‘rich’. He cannot figure given in the capitalist world, but because out how a great amount of money in his these items never possess any ‘real’ bank account can be more important than a meaning for him from the start. few coins in his pocket. Nakata’s confusion is clearly depicted in the text: Despite their differences, Nakata’s and Hoshino’s roles share a common feature: Nakata had no idea what a resort they both function as a rupture within condo was, or what ‘investing’ consensus reality. In addition, Nakata and meant, nor did he understand what Hoshino represent two different types of

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alienated identity in face of capitalism. portrayal of the identity quest. Bizarre The first one, demonstrated through incidents Kafka encounters during his Hoshino’s role, is the feeble identity journey gradually lead him back to the derived from the consumption of empty core of his shattered self. signs. Alienation therefore emerges from an awareness that one does not fit in with One of the main factors indispensable for the norms to which the majority of people the remedy of Kafka’s identity is magic, as conform. The second one, represented by it motivates the boy to attach himself Nakata’s role, is the alienation forced upon emotionally with certain places, memories, a person by others due to his different stories, and people. Magical events outlook or practice. In sum, both Nakata happening to Kafka are comparatively and Hoshino symbolize identities which different from those Hoshino encounters. are oppressed under the totalitarian system In Hoshino’s case, magic inspires him to of capitalism. employ a different perspective that enables him to reconsider his life and position in A journey back to the inner capitalist society. However, the magic that world: the reconstruction of Kafka confronts plays a part by evoking shattered identity his suppressed emotions. Provided that individual identity partially develops from

a tendency to relate one’s self to the group, Kafka Tamura’s problematic identity is Kafka, who deliberately secludes himself manifest from the very first chapter. In the from society, therefore has no object with scene where he converses with his which to identify himself. Magic, which alienated self, sometimes appearing in the enables him to have emotional investment, form of another teenage boy and at other links him back to the outside world, thus times a black crow, it becomes apparent beginning the process of identity formation. that Kafka possesses a split identity.

However, his alienated side ‘the boy –– In the scene where Kafka confronts a named Crow’––does not seem to harm him. ‘living spirit’,4 the reader may sense the On the contrary, it functions as his nostalgic, sad feeling overwhelming the conscience when the protagonist is protagonist. The atmosphere created by overcome by dark wild passion. However, Kafka’s shattered self is not as much the result of capitalism as in the cases of 4 According to the belief during the Heian Hoshino and Nakata. Instead, it develops period (794–1185 A.D.), a person from the perverted relationship between overwhelmed by negative emotions would him, his father and a woman who is become a living spirit at night in order to fulfill supposed to be his mother. Abandoned by the deed he could not openly commit during mother and psychologically abused by the daytime due to guilt and shame. This supernatural phenomenon is mentioned in The father, his identity takes its form among Tale of Genji, an ancient Japanese literary various antagonistic currents. Torn between work written by Murasaki Shikibu. In the the hatred for his father and the unfulfilled episode named ‘Aoi’, the living spirit of Lady yearning for his mother, Kafka develops Rokujo–one of Prince Genji’s lovers–takes self-hatred which is the basis of his identity possession of Lady Aoi, who is Genji’s consort formation. In this light, his departure from pregnant with his child. Overcome by jealousy, home can be considered a symbolic Rokujo’s spirit departs from her body and tortures Aoi to death.

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this incident is considerably different from bring about the dramatic transformation the scene of Hoshino’s encounter with within the protagonist’s inner world. Colonel Sanders (Murakami 2005: 296), in Through Kafka, Murakami suggests which the narrator relates the character’s another way of identity construction, the reaction to magical incidents in a humorous one that is different from what Hoshino way. employs. Instead of consuming empty signs to absorb their images and defining She’s sitting at the desk, chin them as one’s identity, Kafka uses his resting in her hands, staring at the feelings as a vehicle to form a different wall and thinking about something. perspective and redefine things around Nothing too complex, I’d say. It him, including the essence of his looks more like she’s lost in some existence. During the era when individual pleasant, warm memory of not so perception is controlled by many devices long ago. Every once in a while a in various manners, the emotional domain hint of a smile gathers at the may be a site where he can to some extent corners of her mouth. … maintain his agency. These feelings, which instinctively and naturally well up She’s got to be a ghost. First of all unrestrained by reason or other influential she’s just too beautiful. Her factors, inspire Kafka to redefine what has features are gorgeous, but it’s not already been designated by society, only that. She’s so perfect I know especially his existence. she can’t be real. She’s like a person who stepped right out of a Kafka’s transformed internal world is only dream. The purity of her beauty the first step to identity construction. What gives me a feeling close to sadness is derived from this initial progress is the –a very natural feeling, though concern on Kafka’s part to see things one that only something extraordinary around him differently, replacing the could produce. (Murakami 2005: numb feeling arising from an empty life he 228) has lived. Another device subsequently in use is the memory from which the Having neither beautiful memories to protagonist fabricates his story. Despite nurture, nor intimate relationships to his lack of ‘good old days’ to be converted maintain, nor emotional attachment with into the positive ‘site of memory’,5 he is certain objects to which to bind himself, still able to form a new identity again in Kafka is psychologically shut out from potential channels that would have enabled 5 him to restore his shattered identity. The According to Gaston Bachelard (cited in emergence of living spirit, stirring the sad, Wilson 1995: 216), memory connects to space as it is usually conjured up by the presence of a nostalgic feeling within him, links the boy specific place related to the event or to one of these channels. The powerful experience a person memorizes. Saeki’s living feeling will stimulate Kafka to view his spirit repeatedly occurring in the same place at life and the outside world from different the same time may exemplify this notion. In eyes. In this light, bizarre incidents this light, Kafka’s bedroom in Komura occurring in his life then play the role of Monumental Library, where Saeki and her tragedy with their cathartic ability to lover once spent their time together, is ‘the site trigger powerful sensations and thereby of memory’ where what happened in the past repeats itself.

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the end of the story. Kafka adopts two “I think you’re trying to make up objects of desire to substitute what he lacks for lost time.” in reality. Miss Saeki and Komura … “You may be right,” Monumental Library are what Kafka uses ... But how do you know to satisfy his unfulfilled desire: the former that?” for the absent mother and the latter for the “Because I’m doing the same site of memory. thing.” “Making up for lost time?” Miss Saeki is the manager of Komura “Yes,” … “A lot of things were Monumental Library, where Kafka stays stolen from my childhood. Lots of during his departure from home. Her important things. And now I have memory is frozen in a specific time when to get them back.” “In order to keep Saeki and her lover were bound tightly on living.” together. However, this complete union …“I have to. People need a was abruptly shattered when her boyfriend place they can go back to. There’s moved to Tokyo and was murdered there. still time to make it, I think. For Unable to overcome this loss, Saeki rejects me and for you.” the present time she deems inauthentic and … “Who are you?” … “And nurtures her existence by the memory of why do you know so much about the time she once shared with her lover. everything?” The text represents Saeki’s nostalgia You tell her she must know who through the magical mode. Her living you are. I’m Kafka on the Shore, spirit departs from her body every night in you say. Your lover–and your order to return to the room once owned by son. The boy named Crow. And her lover and gaze at his portrait on the the two of us can’t be free. wall. The emergence of Saeki’s living (Murakami 2005: 332) spirit is seen by Kafka. When he beholds Saeki’s living spirit, feeling that “[i]t looks Kafka’s effort to ‘make up for lost time’ is more like she’s lost in some pleasant, achieved through the narrative he warm memory of not so long ago”, this fabricates in order to bind himself with hints at a sense of nostalgia stirred up Saeki. Collecting some information of within Kafka. However, this does not stem Saeki’s past beforehand, Kafka fills the from the occurrence he perceives, but mysterious space in her story with his rather from the manner Kafka interprets presence. The duration between Saeki’s this situation. Briefly, Kafka is preoccupied disappearance after her lover has passed by the desire to immerse himself in a away and her resettlement in Takamatsu is certain time, a memory he can return to an ambiguous period of time open for and have his alienated self healed. The various interpretations. For Kafka, he living spirit is the object on which Kafka selects to decipher this mystery in the way projects his unfulfilled desire as well as that suits his desire for the absent mother, the medium launching Kafka into Saeki’s as he clings to the conjecture that Saeki is past which is subsequently appropriated as the mother who left him. Named by Kafka his own. A conversation between Kafka as his mother, Saeki immediately becomes and Saeki reveals that he ‘borrows’ her the object of desire substituting the boy’s memory to satisfy his desire: real mother. Through this substitution, which in this case is achieved via sexual

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intercourse,6 Kafka is able to form a new The acquirement of the object of desire is identity freed from the haunted past. not the only medium through which Kafka fulfills his desire. Similar to the manner Kafka craves for mother, he demands 6 Sexual intercourse in this case denotes a mother to long for him in return. In other sacred act mother and son perform together in words, what he requires is not merely the order to have their inner worlds linked and reunion with mother but his wish to be her thereby ‘achieve’ what they need from each object of desire. These ambivalent roles other’s presence. In this remarkable scene, sexual intercourse may symbolize the are accomplished through another liaison protagonist’s return into his mother’s womb to Kafka has with Saeki’s story. In addition the original state when an infant perceives to the make-believe claim that she is his itself as an organism united with the mother mother, Kafka identifies himself as and impenetrable by the symbolic rule or the Saeki’s lover, who returns to her to ‘make rule of Father. up for the lost time’. Through this new role, Kafka marks his position within And you’re sucked into the time warp. Saeki’s story and begins to reshape his Before you know it, her dream has self-awareness in a new light. The wrapped itself around your mind. fabricated narrative of selfhood links the Gently, warmly, like amniotic fluid … you’re trying to find the direction protagonist with the ‘feign’ memory of the flow, struggling to hold on to the functioning as the substitute for the real, axis of time. But you can’t locate the meaningful story Kafka lacks. borderline separating dream and reality. Or even the boundary With the memory as the basis of identity between what’s real and what’s formation, the final step Kafka takes in possible. … Little by little you’re order to fulfill the whole procedure is the sucked down into the warm mud. The return to the core of his being, signified by whole world turns warm, wet, his journey to the magical village in the indistinct, and all that exists is your midst of a dense forest. In most of rigid, glistening cock. You close your eyes and your own dream begins. It’s Murakami’s works, the protagonist’s hard to tell how much time is passing. The tide comes in, the moon rises. and substituted by the identification with a And soon you come. (Murakami certain organ–in this case, his ‘rigid, glistening 2005: 293) cock’. According to Lacan, the phallus is an identification object with which a male infant In this narrative there are many signs identifies itself during the onset of identity symbolizing the condition in the womb. construction. This feature is different from that Amniotic fluid, the tide and the moon are all of a female infant whose genital ‘furnishes symbols related to femininity. Kafka’s only an absence’ (Lacan 1981: 198–199) and helplessness as symbolized by his inability to therefore develops the penis envy not because draw the distinct line between dream and of its subjection to phallocentricity but of its reality hints that the boy is regressing to the longing for an identification object. Kafka’s presymbolic stage when the infant has no recognition of his existence via his erected concept of differentiation. Additionally, while phallus implies that he is regressing to the having sexual intercourse both Saeki and presymbolic stage when he and mother are Kafka do not utter a word, this feature implies one. In sum, sexual intercourse brings the that they are back to the realm where both the protagonist back to the desirable stage unable symbols and the symbolic rule are not present. to be retrieved in reality and thereby appeases Kafka’s awareness of the self is totally erased his yearning for the absent mother.

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crossing beyond the boundaries into a mysterious world stands for the return to My mind wanders back to my house the core of one’s self in order to meet ‘the on the day my mother left, taking my internal Other’ residing in one’s own sister with her. I’m sitting alone on unconscious.7 For Kafka, this journey is the porch, staring out at the garden. indispensable for the formation of a new … I’m alone in the house. I don’t identity because the main impetus of the know why. But I already knew I was abandoned. I understood even then boy’s shattered self is his love-hate how this would change my world relationship with the absent mother. On forever. Nobody told me this–I just one hand, the moment the mother turns knew it. The house is empty, deserted away and leaves the boy alone becomes and abandoned lookout post on some the trauma chiselled in Kafka’s memory, far-off frontier. I’m watching the sun alienating the boy’s self.8 On the other setting in the west, shadow stealing over the world. In a world of time, nothing can go back to the way it was. 7 According to Matthew C. Strecher, the The shadows’ feelers steadily grotesque realms protagonists are magically advance, eroding away one point after lured into signify the journey back to the another along the ground, until my unconscious world or ‘the core of identity’. mother’s face, there until a moment Strecher cites as examples the protagonists in ago, is swallowed up in this dark cold Murakami’s two Dance Dance Dance realm. That hardened face, turned and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. He presents away from me, is automatically the argument as follows: snatched away, deleted from my memory. … The protagonist of Dansu dansu I try to feel what she felt then and get dansu discovers a musty, dust-filled closer to her viewpoint. It isn’t easy. room in a deep corner of his mind, I’m the one who was abandoned, after again, dark, gloomy, and filled with all, she was the one who did the dust-covered memories that he cannot abandoning. But after a while I take make sense of. Another room is filled leave to myself. My soul sloughs off with dusty skeletons, literally the the stiff clothes of the self and turns skeletons of his past. And in into a black crow that sits there on a Nejimakidori kuronikuru, his branch high up in a pine tree in the unconscious is presented as an garden, gazing down at the four-year- enormous, maze-like hotel, in which old boy on the porch. “Room 208” is the core, the centre of I turn into a theorizing black crow. his whole being. It is this centre, the (Murakami 2005: 417-418) location of the core identity, that concerns us here. (Strecher 1999: This incident has profoundly traumatized 270) Kafka. Kafka’s psychological domain conducts a self-defense mechanism in the form of an 8 In this scene, when the mother turns her face alter ego who is free from emotional burden. away from four-year-old Kafka, who is sitting This implies that the pain from being on the porch, the boy narrates how a part of abandoned is too intense for a young boy to him slips away and transforms into a black endure. Therefore, he has to imagine himself crow. The crow flies to a tree from where it as a black crow devoid of human emotion. stares down to the boy, unaffected by the Besides, the manner Kafka’s consciousness emotional crisis the boy is confronting. This deletes the image of mother’s face from his incident is related as follows: memory is similar to the psychological

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hand, Kafka’s unfulfilled desire for the and others I can’t describe. I have absent mother jeopardizes his inner world no idea what these mean, since preventing him from developing the solid there’s no knowing what they are. ground for identity construction. Even Sometimes they sound far away, though this desire is to some extent sometimes right near by–the sense satisfied through his reimagining of Saeki, of distance expanding and considered as the mother figure, the contracting. Bird wings echo above fulfillment is only temporary since desire me, sounding louder, more is appeased through a substitute which exaggerated, than they should. cannot completely capture the entire extent Every time I hear this I stop and of what it represents. Therefore, rather listen intently, holding my breath, than immersing in Saeki’s presence and waiting for something to happen. his relationship with her which can only Nothing does, and I walk on. … satisfy the superficial layer of desire, Still, as I walk along I get the Kafka needs to overcome his lack and feeling something, somewhere, is learn to live with absence. watching me, listening to me, holding its breath, blending into Kafka’s liberation from trauma and the background, watching my unfulfilled desire is manifest when the boy every move. Somewhere far off, ventures into the dense forest and later something’s listening to all the discovers a village in the midst of it. The sounds I make, trying to guess impact of the surroundings on his where I’m headed and why. I try psychology hints that Kafka is losing not to think about it. The more himself in the labyrinth of his unconscious you think about illusions, the more affected by trauma and negative they will swell up and take on memories. Kafka’s venture through the form. And no longer be an illusion. dense forest may then symbolize his (Murakami 2005: 400–401) penetration into and reformation of his inner self. The circumstance surrounding It seems there is an unidentified creature Kafka symbolically represents his state of following Kafka. However, we cannot mind haunted by traumatic memory. specifically indicate whether it really exists. Kafka senses some sounds and Occasionally there’s some weird gazes but he is unable to figure out where sound. A thud like something they come from. This ambiguous state is hitting the ground, a creak like relevant to the nature of trauma, as it is a floorboards groaning under weight, negative experience deleted from memory, pushed to the state of absence unreachable by the conscious. However, its impact is reaction against traumatic experience. Because of its negative impact on an individual’s too intense to be entirely erased so it mentality, traumatic experience is immediately comes back to haunt a person through the deleted and this obliteration leaves the vacant vacant space within his memory. In other space within the memory. Via this vacant words, the presence of trauma is space, trauma repeats itself and comes back to emphasized via the absent memory haunt its victim. In Kafka’s case, the obscure reminding that there once happened a image of his mother’s face seems to remind traumatic incident but it negatively affects him of her existence as well as repetitiously one’s psyche so profoundly that the launches him to the past behind its obscurity.

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conscious rejects to remember. In Kafka’s desire and therefore unable to form a new case, his psychological realm materializes identity. In order to break away from this the nature of his trauma in the form of circle, Kafka needs to learn to negotiate uncanny sound and haunting feeling of with unfulfilled desire. His acceptance of being gazed at. Besides, Kafka’s inability this is demonstrated by his return to the to put his nervousness into words, real world without Saeki. addressing this disturbing state by the unspecified third pronoun, manifests the In the scene where Kafka meets Saeki in nature of trauma which recurs in the form the village, Saeki’s thoughts and reflections of fragmented experience beyond the free the boy from painful memory caused conscious realm. One of the steps Kafka by his experience of being abandoned. Her has to take in reconstructing his identity is narrative and Kafka’s reaction are to confront and revise this haunting illustrated as follows: experience. “A long time ago I abandoned This redefinition occurs when Kafka someone I shouldn’t have. … reaches a village located in the midst of Someone I loved more than the forest where he meets Saeki and her anything else. I was afraid someday alter ego. Both she and her double I’d lose this person. So I had to let represent two forms of desire dwelling in go myself. If he was going to be Kafka’s unconscious. The fifty-year-old stolen from me, or I was going to Saeki is considered the mother figure that lose him by accident, I decided it enacts the emotional abuse Kafka’s absent was better to discard him myself. mother forced on her son. This role Saeki … It was someone I should never performs is different from that of her alter have abandoned.” ego. The fifteen-year-old Saeki Kafka meets as a living spirit is the object of “You were discarded by the one desire with which Kafka attaches himself person who never should have and through which he inserts his presence done that” … “Kafka–do you into Saeki’s past. Precisely, the young forgive me?” Saeki is the liaison connecting Kafka with … “Miss Saeki, if I really do the old Saeki. However, the fulfillment have the right to, then yes–I do conducted via the substitute cannot get to forgive you,” I tell her. the real essence of it; this is similar to how a sign cannot completely capture the Mother, you say. I forgive you. essence of what it signifies. On the other And with those words, audibly, hand, the more one tries to make the the frozen part of your heart substitution with an attempt to subdue his crumbles. (Murakami 2005: 462) desire through the substitute, the farther one is swept away from the real extent of The real nature of the relationship between his desire and thus has to repeatedly Kafka and Saeki still maintains its consume the substitute. Hence, the boy’s ambiguity to the end. Even in this event, contact with Saeki temporarily fulfills his the text does not explicitly point out desire and simultaneously adds another whether they are real mother and son. This distorted layer to its essence. Struggling in ambiguity corresponds with the function this vicious circle, Kafka is in the grip of Saeki’s narrative fulfills; that is to say,

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Kafka uses Saeki’s utterance as the constant consumption of empty signs. explanation to justify his mother’s departure. Amidst capitalist society where an attempt In other words, through Saeki’s reflection, to signify one’s identity involves the the protagonist approaches traumatic association with an object or an image, experience from his mother’s standpoint Hoshino immerses himself in this chain of and thereby has it revised in a more signification and becomes alienated. positive light. Nakata’s identity manifests another critical With the trauma redefined, the successful implication. Nakata’s ‘empty’ self defined formation of Kafka’s new identity is by capitalist ideology questions the norms hinted at by his decision to return to established by this system. Through the society. His separation from Saeki implies role Nakata performs, Murakami raises an the departure from the chain of substitution acute question: is the old man labeled as and Kafka’s self-adjustment. Kafka’s new dumb and empty due to his real physical identity is assured in the final scene when limitations or due to social discrimination? the boy catches an express train back to Nakata’s empty self functions as an Tokyo and then falls asleep. Crow’s words apparatus Murakami employs to reveal addressed to Kafka suggest that, after the oppressive capitalist norms. long quest, the protagonist succeeds in having his identity reconstructed. In Kafka on the Shore, readers might recognize the portrayal of reciprocal “You’d better get some sleep,” relationship between individual and … “when you wake up, you’ll be society. On the surface, we might see how part of a brand new world.” Nakata’s and Hoshino’s identities are determined in a social framework. You finally fall asleep. And when Whereas the former is defined as a person you wake up, it’s true. without identity owing to his practical and ideological departure from capitalist You are a part of a brand-new norms, the latter fabricates his identity world. (Murakami 2005: 462) from images offered to him via consumable products. However, this The complete process of identity formation portrayal alters when the identities of the is assured in this final scene. In Kafka’s characters are analyzed. Nakata’s and case, forming new identity is a personal Hoshino’s ‘problematic’ identities as depicted task fulfilled through the reworking over in the text reflects Murakami’s outlook traumatic memories and reintegration into toward ‘problematic’ reality he recognizes society. in his society. The inflation of mere signs without meanings, people’s indulgence in Conclusion: individual identity consumerism and capitalism, and the amidst social transformation alienation experienced by those who in one way or another turn against established norms, are its negative sides. Via the three characters in Kafka on the Without Hoshino’s inexplicable unease or Shore, Murakami depicts his outlook Nakata’s emptiness, the rupture hidden concerning individual identity in various beneath what seems to be a homogenous ways. Hoshino’s case is the portrayal of society might not become apparent. problematic identity originating from the

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Amidst consumerist society where one’s identity is signified through consumable artifacts, a way to escape from this chain of signification and to develop a more solid identity is self-exploration occurring when a person ventures into his inner world and from there approaches the external world in a different manner. This seems to be the solution Murakami proposes through the development of Kafka, who delves deep down into his inner realm and has his identity reconstructed through the appropriation and redefinition of others’ stories and memories.

References

Lacan, Jacques. 1981. Le Séminaire de Jacques Lacan. In Les Psychoses, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, vol 3: 198–99. Paris.

Murakami, Haruki. 2005. Kafka on the Shore. New York: Vintage International.

Strecher, Matthew C. 1999. Magical Realism and the Search for Identity in the Fiction of Murakami Haruki. Journal of Japanese Studies 25.2: 263–298.

Treat, John Whitter. 1993. Yoshimoto Banana Writes Home: ‘Shojo’ Culture and Nostalgic Subject. Journal of Japanese Studies 19.2: 353–387.

Wilson, Rawdon. 1995 The Metamorphoses of Fictional Space: Magical Realism. In Magical Realism: Theory, History,Community. edited by Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris, pp. 209–233. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

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