56 pages • 1 hour read
Haruki MurakamiA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
“The Wind-Up Bird and Tuesday’s Women”
“The Second Bakery Attack”
“The Kangaroo Communiqué”
“On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning”
“Sleep”
“The Fall of the Roman Empire, the 1881 Indian Uprising, Hitler’s Invasion of Poland, and the Realm of Raging Winds”
“Lederhosen”
“Barn Burning”
“The Little Green Monster”
“Family Affair”
“A Window”
“TV People”
“A Slow Boat to China”
“The Dancing Dwarf”
“The Last Lawn of the Afternoon”
“The Silence”
“The Elephant Vanishes”
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
The title of the collection (and of the collection’s titular story) foreshadows Murakami’s penchant for animal imagery and symbolism. Murakami often uses animals to add texture and nuance to his themes and characterizations. In “The Wind-Up Bird and Tuesday’s Women,” for example, the narrator uses the “wind-up bird” as a metaphor for the nature of reality (and a vehicle to reflect on his own existential dread). In “The Second Bakery Attack,” the narrator and his wife are described as “scanning the street like hungry eagles in search of prey” (44) as they search for a bakery to rob. Animals play a more central role in several stories, including “The Kangaroo Communiqué” (where the narrator thinks of the woman while watching kangaroos at the zoo). In “The Dancing Dwarf,” the narrator works at a factory that manufactures elephants, and “The Elephant Vanishes” recounts the mysterious disappearance of an elephant and his keeper from their town. In each case, Murakami uses animals as symbols of different aspects of human life and existence in the modern world.
By Haruki Murakami
1Q84
Haruki Murakami
After Dark
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A Wild Sheep Chase
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Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
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Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
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Kafka on the Shore
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South of the Border, West of the Sun
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