Kafka on the Shore

Determined to journey into the forest labyrinth, Kafka prepares himself for the expedition the next morning, Wednesday. He brings along a compass, a knife, food, a canteen, yellow spray paint, and a hatchet to make his trip safer. He reaches the clearing and pushes onward, heading north. As he walks, he feels that something is watching him. He imagines jazz music, John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner, as he walks, and this music, too, contains labyrinths for Kafka. He marks trees with the yellow spray paint as he goes, and occasionally hacks a notch in a tree trunk. As he walks he imagines what is happening at the same time in the library.

He thinks about the soldiers who got lost in this forest and expects to see them around the next tree. He thinks about Napoleon’s army invading Russia, and why people wage war. Kafka’s mind “wanders into the realm of dreams” (386). He relives the dream with Sakura from the previous night, and finds Crow walking with him through the forest. Crow chastises him for not listening to him and for believing that by fulfilling the prophecy he could end his father’s curse.