The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

“The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle”: An In-Depth Look

Throughout the novel “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” by Haruki Murakami, the main character Toru is portrayed as someone who is rather unreliable; not so much in how he carries out tasks, but in how he thinks and reacts to certain situations. This becomes more apparent as Toru goes on the search to find his wife. During his journey Toru encounters many different people. Some of these characters look to help find Toru’s wife, while others try to make it hard for him. The characters that have Toru’s interests at heart share with him advice as to how to handle his situation. By doing so, they intend to instill hope that his wife will come back. Because Toru is labeled an unreliable person it changes his position in the search for his wife. In the beginning Toru was the head of the search, but he soon becomes somewhat of a follower because he is always taking other people’s advice. As Toru leads his search for his lost wife he becomes influenced by different people that offer up several ways Toru must act in order for his wife to come back.

Through the meetings with Mr. Honda, Toru was given his first look at some advice that would serve him well when times were tough. At the time that these meetings were held it might not have been implicit about how it would serve him, but they paved a path for teaching some life lessons. During one of their meetings, Mr. Honda shared with Toru some advice on how to handle the flow of things by explaining that “when you’re supposed to go up, find the highest tower and climb to the top” and goes on to say that “when you’re supposed to go down, find the deepest well and go down to the bottom” (51). By including this in their conversation, Murakami is expressing that for one to experience ultimate high’s and be thankful for what they have they need to experience the lowest of low’s.

Another similar teaching as the one Mr. Honda gave Toru was when Toru met Lt. Mamiya. At some point in Lt....