Noboru Wataya stands for the duplicity of the society. He is an academician, a well- respected economist and a rising star in politics. Noboru is Murakami’s alter-ego of Toru such that he is highly successful in the eyes of the society. Noboru Wataya – Noboru Wataya is the nemesis of Toru Okada and also happens to be his brother-in-law. We can even speculate that they are two sides of the same coin and that Noboru Wataya is a darker but highly successful version of Toru Okada. As Toru is the protagonist, the antagonist is Noboru Wataya, an ambitious and malevolent man. He is a loner, not in control of the elements of his life and destined for unconditional doom.

As a protagonist, he is anything but the conventional successful hero accepted by the norms of the society. Rather than jumping on to the next job, he waits for it to be clear to him what profession to undertake. Although unemployed, he uses his spare time in thinking deeply about anything ranging from music to relationships and also performing domestic chores. He does not measure success in terms of a great job or immeasurable wealth. Toru Okada – Toru is an easy-going young man who enjoys his domestic life. Here is my key to unwind The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle with which I could segregate my thoughts and put some semblance of order into this brilliant yet chaotic narration. For me, at certain points, the book remained frustrating due to the lack of clarity as a reader yet on finishing it I became preoccupied to understand the mystery beneath the words. With each turning page, the mystery deepens and the haze intensifies. For a staunch Murakami fan, the disparateness will be nothing new but what can prove exhausting is the duration of these enigmas. Unwinding the Wind-Up Bird – Decoding the Murakami MasterpieceĪs I mentioned in my previous blog post, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle can have different effects on the readers – it can either amaze you with its sheer brilliance or exhaust you with its seemingly unconnected tales.

The wind up bird chronicle pages