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Chapter 44
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Kafka on the Shore, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Mind vs. The Body
Fate and Prophecy
The Virtues of Self-Sufficiency
Music and Introspection
Summary
Analysis
Kafka follows the soldiers down an increasingly dark and overgrown forest path. The soldiers commend Kafka for keeping up. Eventually, they get to a steep ridge, and begin to descend. At the bottom is a small basin, with a handful of buildings and a couple of roads built on it. The soldiers take Kafka to one of the houses, which is the same size and shape as Oshima’s cabin. Inside, however, this cabin has electricity. The soldiers tell Kafka that he’ll wait here for a while, to get settled in. Someone will come in the evening to make him dinner.
In a somewhat unsettling parallel, Kafka’s final destination in the mysterious woods closely resembles the point where he started, Oshima’s cabin. However, unlike Oshima’s cabin, where Kafka lived in complete isolation slowly coming to terms with his independence, this cabin has more amenities, and Kafka will not be alone. The self-discovery that he undergoes here will be of a different nature.
Themes
Alone in the cabin, Kafka falls asleep. When he awakens, it’s evening and he hears someone cooking in the kitchen. He realizes that it’s the fifteen-year-old Miss Saeki, and that she can see him. She sits down with him as he eats the meal she’s prepared. She also says that she doesn’t have a name, and she doesn’t remember the library. She doesn’t remember meeting him before. Kafka explains that he thinks he’s there to meet her, and one other woman. As she leaves, night descends.
The arrival of the young Miss Saeki and Kafka’s assertion that he is there specifically to meet her and someone else confirm that Kafka will need to open himself up to others at this cabin, rather than keeping himself isolated.
Themes
