The Rice Bowl Incident Analysis

The rice bowl incident is a big question mark in the story. Evidently in this exact moment in the story Nakata loses the ability to speak and is in an unnatural state. Doctors are unable to find out the reason as to why only Nakata was affected and none of the other children and why he was under military supervision. To explore Nakata we must explore the rice bowl incident to find out why he became the Nakata we know for this is where his story starts.

Nakata has been compared to Kafka on several occasions, where he is assumed to be a human being. Well no human being can talk to cats and can make it rain fishes. So before comparing him to Kafka, we should really ask answer the question-Who is Nakata? Or rather what is Nakata? What’s his significance

Yet, the one I find to be most intriguing is the imminent connection between Kafka and Nakata. From the beginning of the novel it is clear that at some point these two will cross paths if not become entirely entangled in each other’s courses. The first potential connection in the book arises from the notion that part of Nakata’s soul was lost “on the other side” while in his comatose state. Since his coma, Nakata has never been the intelligent person he once was. Even his shadow was half as dark as the average person’s. Thus, it is obvious that Nakata is missing something: presence of mind and intellect. On the other hand, Kafka, our main character, is surprisingly mature for a fifteen year old boy. Considering he is only a high school student, a drop-out, Kafka is an exceedingly intelligent young man. Since Kafka and Nakata are apparently opposites, a link between the two is that Kafka is the other part of Nakata’s soul- the part that was caught “on the other side.” When we truly analyse this, it makes sense. Nakata is old and , Kafka is young and mature, so by putting the two together, we would create a complete