DETERMINISM VERSUS FREE WILL

A COMPARISON OF LIBERATARIAN FREE WILL AND

DETERMINISM THROUGH THE TEXTS OF HARUKI MURAKAMI

DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO AMITY SCHOOL OF LIBRAL ARTS IN PARTIAL

FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF BA ENGLISH (H)

SUBMITTED BY: SUPERVISED BY:

NAME: AASHIMA KUMAR PROF. SUNIL MISHRA

E. No.: A50606116053

BATCH NO. 2016-2019 AMITY SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS

AMITY SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS

AMITY UNIVERSITY HARYANA, GURGRAM (2016-2019)
 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this research paper titled “Determinism versus Free Will- A study
that questions both the ideas of libertarian free will as well as deterministic
governance of events through the texts of Haruki Murakami” is the outcome of my
own work under the supervision of Dr. Sunil Mishra, Amity School of Liberal Arts,
Amity University Haryana.
I further declare that to the best of my knowledge this dissertation does not contain
any part of any work which has been submitted for the award of any degree either in
this University or any other University without proper citation.

Date: Aashima Kumar

Place: Gurgaon A50606116053
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Words are limited to express my earnest and heartiest thanks to my respected supervisor Dr.
Sunil Mishra, Amity School of Liberal Arts, Amity University Haryana, who provided me with
encouragement, valuable guidance, perspective advice and constructive criticism on the
manuscript whenever any hurdle came in my way for the completion of this work .

I am deeply thankful to my parents for their moral support, uninterrupted assistance and
patience during my study. I am equally thankful to my colleagues who helped me carry out this
dissertation and provided me with their valuable inputs and insights regarding my research.

-Aashima Kumar
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION…………………………………………………………………………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……………………………………………………………….

ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………..

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE…………………………………………..

CHAPTER 3: KAFKA ON THE SHORE- ENCAPSULATION …………………….

CHAPTER 4: LIBERTARIAN FREE WILL…………………………………………..

CHAPTER 5: DETERMINISM………………………………………………………...

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………
 ABSTRACT
Humans are believed to be the most rational creations of God. We like to think, analyze, believe
and enact. We humans like to be free in whatever we do. Ever since the creation of mankind,
the fabrication of varied religious beliefs, ever since the existence of question of good and evil,
right and wrong, black and white we have been intrigued and fascinated by the idea of fate and
free will. This is something that determines our actions and to a great extent influences the
choices we make on day to day basis in our lives. All individuals are born free but does this
statement actually justify itself? We know that everything we do has consequences, the after
effects that influence the results or outcomes of our deeds- these consequences are like ripples
in a pond, they are like a part of puzzle – the big picture. There have been philosophers who
have tried to study the truth of fate and free will thus resulting in the concepts like determinism,
libertarianism and compatibilism. According to the theory of determinism every event is caused
by a previous event. It states that all events, including moral choices, are completely determined
by previously existing causes. Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach a renowned French
philosopher who was well-known for his theories on atheism stated that libertarian free will is
impossible to achieve. While determinism focuses on the chain of events that influence the
future, libertarianism enforces that every human is given full freedom to make decisions without
any external influence over it.
 INTRODUCTION

Background: Although it is said that we all have a predestined and unique purpose in life, our
life is not entirely governed by fate. It is our choices that make us who we are. Fate and free will
has been a very debatable topic from a long while. Haruki Murakami, an Asian writer, who
through his novels like Kafka on the Shore and 1Q84 has influenced many readers to question
the reality, now unfolds the theme of fate and free-will. Kafka on the shore is one of the recent
works written by Murakami to address aggregate injury in Japanese history. References to the
waiting memory of World War II and the consequent American occupation fill in as one of the
novel's significant repeating themes. A few characters, as Nakata, are still profoundly influenced
by their wartime encounters. In flashbacks to the war time frame delineated in letters and armed
force administrative work, Murakami addresses parts of rustic life amid the war, including
apprehension of natural or synthetic assault and the need of searching for sustenance as a
result of wartime deficiencies. In spite of the fact that Murakami was brought into the world after
the end of World War II, as a kid Murakami heard accounts of wartime from his dad, and has
said that he sees those recollections as a "legacy." Kafka on the Shore likewise addresses the
act of Shinto, a customary Japanese religion fixated on custom and associations with the past .
While Murakami connects the novel with after effects of the war he also recreates the oedipal
complex and through its surrealism and supernaturalism forces the reader to think through the
questions of fate and free. The reader is introduced to compelling characters who will thus
fulfilling the motive of my study.

Objective of Study: This research thesis aims at comparing determinism and free will through
the text of Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. Through this thesis I will focus on giving an in
depth knowledge of how each thing that exists in nature is connected with the other thus giving
the deterministic view towards the governance of our actions. This paper will help us study how
threads of events and incidents that take place in different time frames at different places have a
great influence in our lives.

Scope of study:
The study mainly focuses on comparing fate and free-will through the text Kafka on the Shore. It
aims at analyzing the characters of the novel under the theories of determinism, libertarian free-
will and compatibilism thus giving a valid proof for the theory of determinism.

Significance of the study:

While free-will is a very debatable topic we know that life is a set of opportunities, circumstances
and our responses to them. The knowledge of determinism and libertarian free-will is required
for us to make better decisions by weighing our choices properly. Through this thesis a clear
knowledge the patterns and laws governing our day to day actions will be studied intricately.
This thesis helps in proving the theory of determinism valid.

Methodology:
The method applied in this study is content analysis and the primary source of the same is the
novel Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. The data collected is through a closer reading of
the novel; its narrative, characters, dialogues and events that are relevant for the study. The
secondary sources include videos and documentaries on Holy Scriptures from different
religions, texts from epics like Mahabharata, critical essays, research papers and prerequisites
of the theories. After the data collection it is analyzed to meet the set objective by using
descriptive analysis and explanations to the study of deterministic and libertarian view of the
novel.
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

In the three months after Kafka on the Shore was published in Japan, Murakami received over
8,000 queries from readers about the book. He responded to over 1,200 of them. Kafka on the
shore is read all over the world because of its surrealistic and supernatural content. Many
researches have been done on the same so as to unfold the mysteries it has. Few of them are:

Liminality as an Artistic Resistance to Fixity: Understanding the Liminality of Existence and

Expression in Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore by Shyam Mukherjee:

The exploration draws in with the idea of liminality as an imaginative protection from
overwhelming, domineering developments that proliferate peculiarity of presence and
articulation. The setting for the investigation is restricted to the possibility of worlding (a
procedure that can be locked in with by possessing a liminal position) contrary to the fixed
thoughts of globalization and custom. The essential content that the exploration subjects to a
subjective literary investigation is Kafka on the Shore.

Time(s) and Space(s) in Haruki Murakami's "Kafka on the shore" by Michele Eduarda Brasil
Department of Foreign Languages and Translation University of Bras’lia, Brazil

This paper attempts to study space and time relations in Haruki Murakami's novel "Kafka on the
shore". Once such a brief study is unable to deeply encompass the possibilities of analyzing this
relation, the focus of this paper is to comment the elements in the painting that the young
protagonist Kafka Tamura finds in the Komura library, where he starts working . In "Kafka on the
shore", the protagonist, a fifteen-year-old boy named Kafka Tamura, experiences a deep
metamorphosis which serves as the basis for a method of portraying the whole of an individual’s
life in its more important moments of crisis: for showing how an individual becomes other than
what he was. This thesis tries to find the We are offered various sharply differing images of one
and the same individual, images that are united in him as various epochs and stages in the
course of his life. There is no evolution in the strict sense of the word; what we get, rather, is
crisis and rebirth.
 KAFKA ON THE SHORE

Kafka Tamura sits in his dad's examination. Kafka has concluded that he will flee from his home
in Tokyo on his fifteenth birthday celebration. Crow (an envisioned persona whom Kafka
counsels for exhortation when he ends up in upsetting circumstances) encourages Kafka to be
intense and solid. Feeling as though he is planning for an adventure that will change him
always, Kafka packs a blade, some cash, and an image of himself and his more established
sister on the shoreline from when Kafka was youthful. The two his more seasoned sister and his
mom left the family when Kafka was only four, so this is the main memory he has of them. Kafka
has invested years developing his physical and mental quality, preparing to have the capacity to
get away from his coldblooded father and get by as a runaway. In any case, he fears that
regardless of how far he runs, he will never have the capacity to get away from a dull sign that
tails him all over.

With just a knapsack of assets, Kafka jumps on a transport headed for Shikoku in Western
Japan. At a lay stop on the adventure, Kafka meets a young lady named Sakura, who is a
couple of years more established than him. He is pulled towards her; however he stresses, as
he does with all ladies of Sakura's age, that she could be his departed sister. The two of them
concur that opportunity experiences are significant, and potentially even the consequence of
destiny. When they touch base in the town of Takamatsu, Sakura gives Kafka her telephone
number. Kafka, uncertain of what to do, visits the Komura Memorial library, where he meets
Oshima, a sharp looking youthful curator, and Miss Saeki, an incredibly exquisite, moderately
aged lady who runs the library. Kafka is struck by the prospect that she could be his mom.
Throughout the following week, Kafka falls into a desolate daily schedule, spending mornings at
the rec center and evenings perusing in the library. He and Oshima strike up a fellowship.

In the interim, a progression of declassified U.S. Armed force reports from World War II recount
to the narrative of a secretive occurrence. Setsuko Okamochi, a primary teacher in the
farmland, took a gathering of youngsters to search for mushrooms on a slope. Abruptly, every
one of the kids fallen. The kids were oblivious, yet their eyes moved forward and backward
quickly, as though their psyches were encountering something autonomously of their bodies.
Setsuko raced to get help, however a neighborhood specialist got himself totally at a misfortune.
Before long, the kids started to wake up alone, clearly fine and with no memory of the
occurrence. Every one of the kids woke up aside from one: Satoru Nakata, a studious young
man who had been cleared from Tokyo, stayed in a state of extreme lethargy for a considerable
length of time. Meetings with specialists and clinicians demonstrate that Nakata's case
perplexed them. At long last, Nakata, as well, woke up alone, however not at all like different
youngsters; he had lost his memory totally. He had even lost the capacity to peruse or
compose, aptitudes he never recovered. In spite of the fact that the official record finishes there,
numerous years after the fact, Setsuko wrote in a letter that she trusted she was in charge of
the occurrence.

In the present day, Nakata, presently an elderly person, sits in an empty part in Tokyo talking
with a dark feline. Despite the fact that he lost his memory and proficiency in the youth
occurrence, Nakata picked up the unique capacity to converse with felines, an aptitude he
currently influences in his low maintenance work hunting down lost house felines. At the present
time, he's on the chase for a feline named Goma. A marginally befuddled feline named
Kawamura and a refined Siamese feline named Mimi help Nakata follow Goma to the verdant
part where she was most recently seen, and Nakata holds up there, trusting she will return.
Different felines caution him that an insidious man has been appearing there. A little while later,
a major, furious canine appears at the parcel. Nakata pursues the puppy to the home of Johnnie
Walker—a puzzling man who dresses like the logo for Johnnie Walker brand whisky. Johnnie
Walker reveals to Nakata that he can enable him to discover Goma, however just if Nakata will
support him, also—by murdering him. Johnnie Walker uncovers that he murders felines so as to
gather their spirits, which he is utilizing to fabricate a magical woodwind. Except if Nakata
murders Johnnie Walker, he will slaughter Goma and Mimi. With mounting frightfulness, Nakata
looks as Johnnie Walker dismantles three different felines before he can never again stand it .
He cuts Johnnie Walker with a kitchen blade and gets together Goma and Mimi, whom Johnnie
Walker was going to murder. Nakata returns Goma to her family and attempts to hand himself
over to the police, who think he is insane. He leaves Tokyo the following day.

Back in Takamatsu, Kafka awakens outside with blood on his shirt and no memory of the
previous couple of hours. Froze, he calls Sakura and goes to her loft, where he enlightens her
regarding his family. He goes through the night there, and she makes him climax while they talk
about his sister. The following day, Kafka heads to the library and discloses to Oshima that he
needs some place to remain. Oshima says that he will inquire as to whether Kafka can remain
in the library, and, meanwhile, takes him to a remote lodge in the forested areas. On the drive,
Oshima uncovers that he experiences hemophilia and accordingly frequently ponders his own
demise, utilizing music as a diversion. Kafka spends the following couple of days wandering into
the maze like woods around the lodge, chatting with Crow, and making harmony with the
staggering isolation of the woodland. On the drive back to the library, Oshima informs Kafka
regarding Miss Saeki's past. Her youth sweetheart kicked the bucket when they were both
youthful, and as far back as then Miss Saeki has been far off and drowsy. She won't tune in to
"Kafka on the Shore," a melody she composed for her beau when they were youthful. The
following day, two ladies visit the library and gripe that it isn't happy for female visitors, blaming
Oshima for sexism. He uncovers that he is a gay, transgender man.

In the meantime, Nakata bums a ride west, getting a progression of rides on various trucks . In
the end, he meets Hoshino, a young fellow who travels through life searching out just transient
connections and new Hawaiian shirts at regular intervals. Hoshino ends up attracted to Nakata
and takes a couple of vacation days work to enable him to get to Takamatsu—an area Hoshino
feels attracted to, however he isn't sure why. Nakata says they should discover the "entrance
stone," a puzzling white stone with mystical properties that just Nakata thinks about . After days
seeking in library books and vacationer destinations without much of any result, Hoshino is
drawn closer by an elderly person who calls himself (and dresses like) Colonel Sanders.
Colonel Sanders takes Hoshino to a Shinto place of worship, where he finds the passageway
stone. He at that point drags the stone back to Nakata. They invest some energy endeavoring
to figure out what to do, and afterward Nakata says they should flip the stone over so as to open
a passage to a different universe. With colossal exertion—the stone has turned out to be
extraordinarily substantial—Hoshino does as such. Before long, he chooses that his association
with Nakata could really compare to coming back to work .
At the library, Oshima indicates Kafka an article saying that an acclaimed stone worker—Kafka's
dad—has been cut to death. In spite of the fact that he was far away at the season of the
homicide, Kafka feels he was dependable. He educates Oshima concerning the sign that
pushed him far from home: resounding the oedipal fantasy, Kafka's dad prophesized that Kafka
would slaughter him and lay down with his mom and sister. Throughout the following couple of
evenings, an apparition taking after a teenaged form of Miss Saeki shows up in Kafka's room.
Interested, he tunes in to the melody "Kafka on the Shore" and starts to trust he and Miss Saeki
are being drawn together. He likewise starts to speculate all the more emphatically that Miss
Saeki is his mom, in spite of the fact that she denies it. Before long, Kafka and the genuine Miss
Saeki start to have intercourse. She feels as though she is compensating for the time she lost
with her sweetheart, while he needs to compensate for his harmed adolescence.

As the police strengthen their look for Kafka's dad's executioner, Hoshino and Nakata migrate to
a loft given by Colonel Sanders. They start driving around the city as they attempt to figure out
what to do straightaway. Oshima, likewise careful about the increasing hunt (and the connection
among Kafka and Miss Saeki), takes Kafka back to the lodge. Kafka has a fantasy about
assaulting Sakura which fills him with blame. Kafka is strongly forlorn and feels caught by his
dad's prescience. Planning to get away, or face passing, he wanders into the dim woods.
Inevitably, he happens upon two officers in World War II outfits who state they will take Kafka to
a baffling passage. He tails them to a precarious gorge with an accumulation of little lodges,
much like Oshima's lodge, in a clearing at the base. The warriors abandon him in one of the
houses.

Following quite a while of heedless driving, Nakata and Hoshino discover the Komura
commemoration library, and Nakata feels destroyed to head inside. There, he chats with Miss
Saeki. They feel a prompt association. She reveals to him that she feels caught inside
recollections of her past, while he says that he feels similarly caught by his absence of memory.
Miss Saeki entrusts Nakata with a pile of records in which she has thought of her biography. At
her solicitation, Hoshino and Nakata consume the documents without understanding them. At
the point when Oshima goes to Miss Saeki's office by the day's end, he discovers her face down
around her work area, dead. Whenever Hoshino and Nakata come back to the condo, Nakata,
as well, passes on in his rest, leaving Hoshino to consider how to manage the passage stone.
Following two or three days, a dark feline arrives and reveals to Hoshino that he should kill
something that will endeavor to traverse the passageway. Beyond any doubt enough, a long,
pale, wind like animal rises up out of Nakata's dead body and starts to advance toward the
stone. Hoshino attempts fruitlessly to slaughter it and acknowledges he should close the
passageway by flipping the stone over. By and by, it takes almost the entirety of his quality, yet
he is fruitful. He is then ready to slaughter the animal. Vowing to clutch Nakata's memory,
Hoshino takes off of the loft.

In a concise interval, Crow, as a strict crow, circles the backwoods. He recognizes a man
wearing a red track suit and dark silk cap. The man reveals to Crow that he makes woodwinds
out of the spirits of felines, and he's making a trip to where he can make the greatest woodwind
of all. He says that the timberland where they are presently resembles limbo: the man has
kicked the bucket and is currently a spirit on the move. It's inconceivable for Crow to hurt him,
he says, yet welcomes Crow to attempt. Crow pecks out the man's eyes, however the man just
giggles. Crow tears out his tongue, and he keeps on giggling, presently soundlessly. The
wheezing sounds practically like a woodwind.

In the lodge in the gorge, the youthful variant of Miss Saeki seems to prepare Kafka's dinners .
He is thrilled to see her, however before long understands that she has no recollections of the
past—and that, on the off chance that he doesn't leave soon, he also will lose his recollections.
Toward the evening, the moderately aged Miss Saeki arrives and discloses to Kafka that he
should leave the valley. He asks, once more, if she's his mom. Miss Saeki reacts just that she
once relinquished somebody she shouldn't have, and inquires as to whether Kafka can pardon
her. He pardons her, and, in his mind, excuses his mom, and feels as though a solidified piece
of his heart has disintegrated. Miss Saeki pricks her arm with a clasp and gives Kafka a chance
to drink a portion of her blood, and after that leaves the lodge and lurches back through the
forested areas to Oshima's lodge. Oshima's sibling drives Kafka back to the library, where he
reveals to Oshima he has chosen to come back to class in Tokyo. They part, encouraging to
meet again sometime in the future. On the telephone, Kafka additionally bids a fond farewell to
Sakura, affectionately calling her his sister. Pondering every one of that has transpired, Kafka
jumps on the train to return home.
 WHAT IS LIBERTARIAN FREE-WILL?

Libertarian choice implies that our decisions are free from the assurance or limitations of human
instinct and free from any divine interventions. All "through and through freedom theists" hold
that libertarian opportunity is fundamental for good duty, for if our decision is resolved or brought
about by anything, including our very own wants, they reason, it can't appropriately be known as
a free decision. Libertarian opportunity is, in this manner, the opportunity to act in opposition to
one's inclination, inclination and most noteworthy wants. Duty, in this view, free-will implies that
one could have done something else. It implies that one has freedom to choose regardless of
the events or influences previously happened.

The German philosopger Immanuel Kant (1724– 1804), one of the most punctual supporters of
libertarianism, endeavored to beat the understandability protest, and along these lines to
account for good obligation, by proposing a sort of dualism in human instinct. In his Critique of
Practical Reason (1788), Kant guaranteed that people are free when their activities are
represented by reason. Reason (what he now and then called the "noumenal self") is in some
sense autonomous of the remainder of the operator, enabling him to pick ethically. Kant's
hypothesis necessitates that reason be detached from the causal request so as to be fit for
picking or following up on its own and, while, it be associated with the causal request so as to
be an essential determinant of human activities. The subtleties of Kant's view have been the
subject of much discussion, and it stays misty whether it is rational.

Libertarianism is helpless against what is known as the "comprehensibility" complaint. This

complaint calls attention to that an individual can have no more command over an absolutely
arbitrary activity than he has over an activity that is deterministically unavoidable; in neither one
of the cases does choice enter the image. Thus, if human activities are indeterministic,
unrestrained choice does not exist.
 WHAT IS DETERMINISM?

Determinism is the philosophy that all events, whether involving inanimate matter or conscious
beings like humans, are completely determined by previous events. In other words,
determinism claims that if you knew the physical state of the universe completely at any given
moment, and all physical laws, you could (in principle) predict the future perfectly —including
the so-called “free” actions of human beings. Therefore, a lot of people think that determinism
necessarily denies “free will” (although see section three). This sort of determinism, the kind
most discussed, likewise called 'causal determinism' or 'physical determinism' is a major
presumption of normal science. The most focal thought in this determinism is causality
(circumstances and logical results); if the universe is absolutely physical and every single
physical occasion is caused as indicated by regular laws, at that point no doubt determinism
must be valid.

HISTORY

Maybe the soonest convictions about determinism can be found in the old routine with regards
to divination ('fortune telling') which accept that what's to come is predictable—nonetheless,
powerfully so. It is hard to think about a culture which has not occupied with some type of
divination, for example, perusing creature insides, tea leaves, tarot cards, or palms.

A standout amongst the most insightfully modern types of divination was the antiquated Chinese
I Ching, a statement of Taoist theory, whose sources are lost in pre-history. Despite the fact that
the I Ching is most outstanding as a type of fortune advising, it is likewise an arrangement of
reasoning concerning circumstances and logical results and the 'hypothesis of yin and yang.'
The I Ching is a framework for dissecting the examples of circumstances and logical results on
the planet, expecting that they can be comprehended as far as the between changes (the
'changes') of yin and yang, which are the two corresponding and inverse parts of all things
(up/down, in/out, dynamic/uninvolved, and so forth.).

A great many people a large number of years prior trusted that occasions were controlled by
spirits or divine beings, however Taoists are skeptics, trusting that yin and yang essentially
depict the idea of all things. The I Ching is most likely the main book to display an apt
hypothesis of regular determinism. The Maya individuals of Central America give another case
of old determinism. In antiquated Mayan culture, science, particularly cosmology, was
altogether mixed with religion. Furthermore, both were intensely worried about anticipating
significant common and social occasions, which were believed to be dictated by cycles of time.
The Maya monitored various cosmic cycles, and a few cycles with no known normal sources.
They composed books—chronological registries—in which they determined when cosmic
occasions would happen, (for example, shrouds) and furthermore how they should run their
lives—regardless of whether a specific day in a cycle was a decent day for planting, or getting
hitched, and so forth. The Maya trusted that the 'fortune' for a specific day was dictated by its
place in these deterministic cycles of time.
Another antiquated determinism is 'karma,' initially a component of Hinduism, acquired by
Buddhism, and after that at long last spread all through the western world by radicals and new
age masterminds! Karma may appear to be a powerful and superstitious conviction, or a sane
and logical one, contingent upon how you translate it. In the otherworldly translations, karma is
a profound law of nature — that your activities in this life figure out the end result for you after
death, regardless of whether you resurrect as a worm, or a rich individual without any stresses.
In any case, karma can likewise be deciphered as a characteristic law simply saying that
whatever you do has results (that will in general return to you). In this way, this is another sort of
determinism, not one which denies unrestrained choice, and one which could conceivably be
good with science.

The most punctual western idea of determinism originates from the Greek Stoics who had
confidence in physical causal determinism; this brought about the principal known discussions
over determinism versus unrestrained choice, underway of Alexander of Aphrodisias, in the first
third hundreds of years C.E.
Science and rationality after the dim ages rapidly went to the 'Newtonian' world-see, named
after Isaac Newton, who did not design the world-see, yet bolstered it maybe superior to any
past researcher, in which every regular occasion are physical and represented by totally
deterministic laws of circumstances and logical results. This world-see has held incredible
influence over logic and science since Newton's time since it has demonstrated valid in a great
many experiments, and has empowered individuals to find and adventure characteristic law in
surprising ways in the course of the last couple of hundred years. Newtonian determinism
appeared to be certain to most researchers until the disclosure of quantum mechanics, and the
vast majority who aren't mindful of quantum mechanics still hold the Newtonian world-see.
There are several instances from the novel which can be stated to determine the presence of
destiny:
There are instances in the novel that determine and prove the theory of determinism to be right:

Kafka the protagonist of the story is a runaway. He runs from his house due to his father’s dark
prophecy about Kafka being his murderer. He also says that Kafka will have intercourse with his
mother and sister. This prophecy pollutes Kafka’s mind and is a sort of recreation of the
Oedipus Rex. In order to prevent the prophecy from becoming true which it eventually does
Kafka runs away from home. When we talk about the deterministic view we must take into
account the theory of causality. According to the deterministic view our actions are governed by
three things:
Desires, temperaments, beliefs
When Kafka runs away his decision is something influenced by not his irrational want but a set
of predicted circumstances that he wishes to prevent. He runs not because he wants to but
because he finds no other way to escape it. This is when Kafka says and I quote:

Sometimes fate is like a sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change directions but
the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this
out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t
something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is
you.

As the novel proceeds we see Kafka stuck in a series of misfortunate events which begin after
he has run away from his house and is searching for a place to hide in. While in the bus he
meets Sakura with who he feels extreme closeness to as they talk

“‘Even chance meetings’… how does the rest of that go?”

“‘Are the result of karma.’”

“Right, right,” she says. “But what does it mean?”

“That things in life are fated by our previous lives. That even in the smallest events there’s no
such thing as coincidence.

We see the elements of determinism when Oshima the librarian and Kafka talk about soul and
world which helps them develop a deeper bond of friendship with each other. Their conversation
goes like:
“In ancient times, people weren’t just male or female, but one of three types: male/male,
male/female, or female/female. In other words, each person was made out of the components of
two people. Everyone was happy with this arrangement and never really gave it much thought.
But then God took a knife and cut everybody in half, right down the middle. So after that the
world was divided just into male and female, the upshot being that people spend their time
running around trying to locate their missing other half.”
Oshima and Kafka have just met for the first time. Oshima engages Kafka in a surprisingly deep
conversation about the nature of the soul. Indeed, this quote reveals much about Oshima’s
worldview, and foreshadows later conversations he will have with Kafka, as their friendship
develops, about his own gender identity. Oshima’s story helps to explain why many characters
in the novel feel as if they are being drawn towards each other by forces outside of their control
or knowledge, as well as why characters feel so comfortable with each other so soon after
meeting: perhaps they are actually two halves of the same soul, reunited at last. However,
another side to that theory is that soulmates are codependent—and, until they meet, are less
than complete. One possible danger of a belief in soulmates is that it suggests that someone
who has not found their soul mate is less than whole, and therefore cannot possibly have a
fulfilling life. Finally, Oshima’s story relates to his gender identity, something that he keeps
private from Kafka until later. Oshima identifies as a gay transgender man, but because he
faces prejudice from others who don’t know about his identity or perceive him as female,
Oshima often feels conflicted about his gender, making him another example of the ways in
which the novel deals with the split between the mind (or the self) and the body.

There is one more instance in the novel where Kafka is very deeply attracted towards a middle
aged lady named Miss Saeki- the owner of the library where Kafka is staying. She has a
background of being famous when she was in her twenties for a song that she wrote. This song
describes her longing for her long lost lover. Attracted to the longing and feeling of emptiness
Kafka listens to the composition which is also named on his name. This is the conversation he
has with Miss Saeki which shows the influence of outer forces like destiny for their meeting. The
part from their conversation is quoted below:

The drowning girl’s fingers

Search for the entrance stone, and more.

Lifting the hem of her azure dress,

She gazes—

at Kafka on the shore.

The lyrics to “Kafka on the Shore” speak deeply to Kafka, serving as one of many pieces of real
or imagined evidence convincing him that he is being drawn to Miss Saeki by fate. Indeed, there
are many references in the song tying different elements of the book together, adding a note of
surrealism and coincidence that helps explain why characters like Kafka might believe so
strongly in fate. The most obvious instance of this is the connection to Kafka’s name, which
seems especially powerful because he chose the name “Kafka” for himself. The reference to the
“search for the entrance stone” connects Miss Saeki and Kafka’s story to that of Hoshino and
Nakata, reinforcing the suspicion of many characters in the book that their lives are on
predetermined paths.
 CONCLUSION

In the dreamlike universe of Kafka on the Shore, characters may experience serious difficulties
understanding not just peculiar marvels and experiences on the planet, yet in addition their own
inward encounters and conduct. A few characters, and particularly Kafka, feel as though the
world and their very own fates must be represented by inevitable predictions. In the interim,
different characters feel that they are bound to complete uncommon missions, or become
hopelessly enamored or bite the dust at explicit minutes. The likelihood of a predetermined way
may offer comfort, yet it can likewise be inauspicious. Regardless of whether "destiny"
genuinely exists, confidence in destiny drives the characters in Kafka in the Shore to carry on in
such ways that render the inquiry superfluous, as they at last satisfy their very own envisioned
predictions. Along these lines, Murakami demonstrates that faith in destiny is the thing that
makes destiny genuine, and predictions inevitable.

Kafka is driven, to the point of fixation, by a "prescience" conveyed by his dad: that Kafka will kill
his dad, and engage in sexual relations with his mom and more seasoned sister. Kafka is
tormented by the prediction, and trusts himself to battle or satisfying it at pretty much every turn.
Kafka's own "prescience" parallels a renowned prediction from the fantasy of Oedipus, in which
a prophet accurately predicts that Oedipus will slaughter his dad and wed his mom. Kafka much
of the time references the narrative of Oedipus, transforming the legend into a sort of guide
controlling his very own life. At the point when the news comes that Kafka's dad has bafflingly
been killed, Kafka firmly feels that he is dependable, despite the fact that he has no memory of
submitting the homicide and was several miles away at the time. Kafka is persuaded that the
sheer intensity he had always wanted and wants makes him in charge of his dad's demise. In a
further indication of the prescience's control over Kafka's idea, Kafka envisions that Sakura, a
young lady he met on a train, is his sister, in spite of little proof (and the way that she has an
alternate name from Kafka's sister). Thus, he is befuddled by their short sexual experience and
tormented by sensual dreams and the conviction that he will assault Sakura. In this manner,
Kafka's association with Sakura is tinged with blame and anguish in light of his extraordinary
faith in destiny and prescience. Kafka's second and unmistakably increasingly extraordinary
relationship in the book is with Miss Saeki, a moderately aged lady whom he accepts to be his
mom—once more, regardless of the way that he has no genuine proof to help this hypothesis.
Kafka falls frantically infatuated with Miss Saeki and starts a serious issue with her, giving her a
role as the two his sweetheart and his mom. Kafka gives his conviction access the Oedipal
prediction manage him into connections that he accepts aren't right, since he believes he has
no capacity to stand up to.
Aside from Kafka's fixation on his family prescience, numerous different characters feel that they
are bound to be with sure others. Accordingly, they attribute unique criticalness to the outsiders
they meet, and enable new connections to thoroughly modify their arrangements. For instance,
Kafka doles out profound noteworthiness to new kinships, to some degree since he is looking
for his lost family. When he meets Sakura by some coincidence, he winds up persuaded that
they share an uncommon association. Much as Kafka throws new colleagues in the jobs of his
lost relatives, Hoshino is attracted to Nakata on the grounds that Nakata helps him to remember
his adored perished granddad. This nonexistent relationship is strong to the point that Hoshino
surrenders his everyday life so as to help Nakata on his strange mission, even as it becomes
progressively dreamlike. At long last, Miss Saeki trusts that she and her youth sweetheart were
bound to be as one—to such an extent that she was never ready to recoup from his unexpected
passing. She is attracted to Kafka since he appears to her to be a resurrection of her beau, and
starts an association with him along these lines. All through the novel, characters are drawn into
unintelligible, some of the time unfortunate, connections, and onto weird new ways due to their
convictions in destined connections.

A genuine faith in destiny can lead characters to figure they can anticipate the future—and, in
Murakami's surrealist vision, this is in some cases genuine. This fortifies the dream that the
world is administered by destiny and life's results foreordained. Be that as it may, dependence
on this confidence in fate likewise makes characters hazardously absent to the capricious idea
of life, and the likelihood of abrupt demise. Nakata, for example, starts to foresee peculiar
climate occasions, for example, tempests of fish and parasites tumbling from the sky, or
constant lightning strikes. At the point when these forecasts work out, Nakata gains certainty
that his mission will be effective. This firm conviction is undermined when Nakata kicks the
bucket abruptly, before the mission can be finished. Nakata's demise exhibits that, even in our
current reality where unique forces of forecast exist, it is really unimaginable for people to know
what's to come. Miss Saeki and Oshima both trust that they know precisely when they will kick
the bucket. This conviction drives them to live valiantly amid their allocated time and deal with
significant issues immediately. Be that as it may, all the more significantly, the two characters
are foolhardy and go out on a limb since they trust they can know the subtleties of their own
demises. In this manner, confidence in destiny blinds characters to the eccentric idea of life, yet
in addition to the likelihood of sudden passing.

Since the characters in this novel are fixated by destiny and forecast, they let their convictions
about the future administer their life decisions and connections in mindful and unconscious
ways. This twisted feeling of reality drives characters to place themselves in hazardous
circumstances or troubled connections since they trust they are compelled to by a foreordained
destiny. Murakami demonstrates that dependence on faith in destiny keeps individuals from
settling on discerning decisions, and in reality can lead them to feel caught in circumstances
where they really do have a decision. Thus the theory of determinism is proved valid through the
text Kafka on the Shore.
 REFRENCES

http://devdutt.com/articles/indian-mythology/playing-with-fate-and-free-will.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESM43eA9u6o

https://www.britannica.com/topic/determinism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_d%27Holbach

https://www.britannica.com/topic/problem-of-moral-responsibility#ref284013

https://philosophyterms.com/determinism/?answer_to_question_1=2&answer_to_question_2=1
&answer_to_question_3=3&answer_to_question_4=3&quiz_submitted=Enter#lesson_quiz

https://www.theopedia.com/libertarian-free-will

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/freewill/

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