Kafka on the Shore

Kafka is cursed by his father and runs away from home to escape the curse and to search for his mother and sister. Kafka’s story echoes familiar themes from the ancient Greek tragedy, Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles. Kafka’s father casts a curse on Kafka that he will kill his father and sleep with his mother and his sister; the same curse that is cast on Oedipus, who kills his father and marries hi mother. The battle between Kafka’s fate, in the form of his father’s curse, and Kafka’s desire to live his life on his own terms forms the central action of this novel.

Throughout the novel, Kafka demonstrates his self-determination: a 15-year-old on his own, he carefully prepares for his journey and plans to be self-sufficient. Yet, on his first bus ride away from home, he runs into a woman who could be his sister. They both claim that it was “fated” that they would meet and seem to instantly recognize each other. At this point, it seems that rather than running away from his fate, Kafka is running straight for it. This theme is further underlined when he is drawn to the Komura Memorial Library where