Kafka on the Shore

“Sometimes fate is like a sandstorm that keeps changing directions…” 

The boy called Crow tells Kafka that the sandstorm of fate will brutalize him, and he will have to endure his fate while time and events act upon him. When at the mercy of fate, Kafka never knows where the next event will take him, or what will happen to him next. He will survive, but he will suffer greatly. Fate overshadows his life because he has been cursed by his father, and he runs away from home in an attempt to subvert the fate his father prophecies for him.

“I’m the lonely voyager standing on deck, and she’s the sea. The sky is a blanket of gray, merging with the gray sea off on the horizon. It’s hard to tell the difference between the sea and sky. Between voyager and the sea. Between reality and the workings of the heart”

Here Kafka rides on the bus to Takamatsu with Sakura’s sleeping head resting on his shoulder. His thoughts here symbolize and foreshadow his entire journey: he’s on a quest to understand his reality and the workings of his heart. Right now both reality and his heart are confused and difficult to make out. By equating Sakura with the sea, he indicates that she is a mysterious entity to him, but also tied to him in an as yet unexplored and unknown way. She is part of his journey; a voyager cannot travel on a boat without the sea.