Archetypes In Kafka On The Shore

Kafka on the Shore’s Archetypal Connections Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore uses various archetypal patterns, symbols and characters to create a novel that is relatable and enjoyable to the reader. Without these archetypes, the novel would be unable to endear itself in the mind of the reader. The novel’s usage of archetypal patterns, especially the monomyth cycle, helps develop the plot to fruition and serves as a backbone for the main characters’ stories. In the story, there are a wide variety of archetypal symbols and images that occur repeatedly for each of the characters. As well, the characters follow various character patterns that are recognized in any culture. Kafka on the Shore contains many recognizable archetypes and makes

This is especially true with Kafka, one of the two main characters in Kafka on the Shore. His story follows the pattern of many Greek myths, in particular the tragic tale of Oedipus. Kafka’s call to adventure is when “[his] mother left, she didn’t take [Kafka], but took your sister” (83) and when his father prophesized that Kafka would “kill his father and be with [his] mother and sister” (187). Both of these events happened at a young age and this spurred him to run away from home to find the truth. In ancient Greek myths, while finding the truth may not have been their goal, the heroes in those tales were often called to action by some sort of tragedy that affected them, like Kafka. Later in the novel, Kafka crosses a physical threshold by crossing the “huge new bridge across the Inland Sea” (30). This represents Kafka crossing the threshold by crossing a body of water. Crossing water is often how mythical heroes cross their own thresholds like Theseus crossing the Aegean Sea to slay the Minotaur. After heroes cross a threshold, they have a revelation. Kafka’s revelation is when he encounters a beautiful female ghost, with whom he falls in love with. He feels that “[the ghost is] just too beautiful. … She’s so perfect I know she can’t be real” (201). The ghost represents both Kafka’s descent into the supernatural and serves as his ultimate ordeal. Kafka is split between whether or not to love the ghost as he realizes the ghost is a younger version of Miss Saeki, the head librarian at Komura Memorial Library. The current Miss Saeki also agrees to this relationship as she makes love to Kafka later in the novel. This internal struggle is reminiscent of when the Greek hero Oedipus married his mother by accident or the concept of forbidden love in stories like Romeo and Juliet in which the lovers realize that their love for each other is strong but would be viewed negatively in