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Kafka on the Shore Essay

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How does Murakami explores the concept of identity in the novel “Kafka on the shore”?
It is challenging to convey what defines someone’s identity, who we are, what we do, but most importantly what we think. It’s inside our heads, in our unconsciousness when we actually allow ourselves to ponder on our true identity. When it comes to literature, authors explore their characters´ true selves differently depending on the intention they have. In the novel “Kafka on the shore” Murakami uses several unusual resources in his novel such as themes and intertextuality in order to explore the concept of identity within his writing. The author through the presentation of the relationship between dreams and reality and the concept of destiny linked …show more content…

Moreover, religion defines Japanese identity more than spirituality; it’s a way of living and thinking. Such freedom and individuality of thought is what enables the events in the novel to be conceivable, what allows the author to distort dreams and reality, and what’s real against what’s possible. Furthermore the inception of that liberal Japanese way of thinking empowers the reader to make a free interpretation of what’s going on in the novel, acknowledging that being involved in the postmodernist movement there is never an absolute truth to it. Murakami plays with the readers’ mind as they are certainly expecting to find absolute answers and end up being more confused trying to seek for them.
In the specific extract of Miss Saeki’s and Kafka’s intercourse she is fulfilling her unconscious desire of sleeping with him. In fact the scene itself is presented in a way in which as readers we are not sure whether it is actually happening or not. The author uses a mesmeric tone and changes the narrative voice to third person to create a dream like atmosphere “Before you know it, her dream has wrapped itself around your mind. Gently, warmly, like amniotic fluid.” In this quote the use of the third person is evidenced and the expression “wrapped around your mind” is what produces the mesmerizing tone

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