Here are possible paper topics--your assignment over the break is to finish reading Kafka on the Shore
Then complete a blog--due Sunday night, May 1. (I need to be able to read them before Tuesday class.) This blog is beginning of your essay on Kafka on the Shore. It will be graded!
Choose one of the topics below (or create one) and write a paragraph about it that we can critique in class Tuesday. Answer the question in the prompt and provide 2-3 examples from the novel, ideally with a quote or two!
1. Kafka talks about time expanding in Chapter 21--this is important! Examine scenes where time has expanded to include something new, like the young Miss Saeki. What does this new item provide Kafka? How does it enlarge his mind, heart; begin to heal him?
2. What is interesting about Nakata? Do a little character sketch. What are his main qualities? Why is his response to things so fresh and charming? How is he smarter than he thinks? What does Nakata make us think about in human relationships? Why does Murakami develop this kind of character?
3. Analyse the idea of isolation in the novel. Kafka, Oshima, Nakata, Miss Saeki are all isolated. How and why? Is isolation necessary for knowledge? Explain how each character is learning something important (choose 2).
4. "Anyone who falls in love is searching for the missing pieces of themselves" (297). A number of characters are seeking their other halves, or they are on a quest even if they don't know what for. Examine how two characters find their other half--through another--or through a metaphorical struggle of some kind. What exactly is the "other half"? What knowledge does the other half supply?*
5. Note that in Chapter 37, Oshima explains to Kafka, "Things outside you are projections of things inside you." Do a reading of the novel in which you "explain" what happens as Kafka's dream or an exploration of Kafka's subconscious.
6. Focus an essay around what happens to Kafka when he goes into the woods a second time (Chapter 41). What are the woods exactly? Who is there, literally or metaphorically? What is the central drama enacted here? What gets resolved?
7. Focus an essay on the idea of the library. There is the original library in Kafka's father's study, a library in the cabin in the woods, the library where Oshima works and Nakata in Chapter 32 speaks of how he is a library without books! What are libraries metaphorically? Why are they important?
8. Build an essay around the idea of the guide: How does Oshima guide Kafka--select key passages and define his role, his wisdom. Sometimes he takes Kafka to the "door" (e.g. of forest) but does not enter himself. Look up what guides do! See Joseph Campbell.
9. Examine how time works in this novel by zeroing in on Miss Saeki (all versions) and her life story as it intersects with Kafka's. How does the novel cut into time, show characters evading the boundaries of time in order to fulfill their needs, complete their journeys?
10. There is a lot of wisdom in this novel. Pick your favorite passage and think about how it represents an important theme. Explain the theme and connect the passage you have chosen to a character or other important moments in the novel.
*A simple example of finding your other half would be Hoshino and Nakata. See Chapter 35. Hoshino reflects on what Nakata has given him.
