No One Is an Island

At the beginning of the novel, Kafka converses with Crow, his alter ego, and psyches himself up for his impending departure. He has worked out for years and studied extensively to prepare himself for being on his own. His goal, as articulated by Crow, is to be the world's toughest fifteen-year-old.

As a result, Kafka spends much of his time rejecting offers of assistance from people who care about him like Sakura and Oshima. He cloisters himself off at the gym and in the reading room of the Komura Library, and little by little, his desires and his insecurities assault him. These manifest themselves in visions and dreams, most vividly the spirit of a teenage Ms. Saeki with whom Kafka falls in love. When the real Ms. Saeki wonders aloud why he walls himself off against the world, he responds:

The strength I'm looking...