Ordinary Care in Extraordinary Worlds: Murakami and Decentered Care in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Abstract

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a magical realist novel by renown Japanese novelist, Haruki Murakami. The structures of the novel are integral to Murakami’s canon as they are found throughout his works. The novel’s focus on gender explores not only violence that women experience but also poses women in significant powerful roles. The relationships between men and women are framed as being struggles of power. This paper analyzes the protagonist, Toru Okada, and his relationship with his wife, Kumiko Okada, as a negotiation of care theory. Using Joan Tronto’s exploration of care as a societal motivator, I will examine how the care within the novel subverts traditional ideas of care. Toru and Kumiko have a relationship in which Kumiko is in control of their welfare, and her abandonment of Toru results with him struggling with guilt over whether he properly cared for Kumiko. The essay contends that The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle demonstrates a version of care that is subversive. The care between Toru and Kumiko up-ends gendered views of care and posits care as something that is liberatory. Care is forceful, and it is that forcefulness which binds Toru and Kumiko together.