Chapter summaries The City and Its Uncertain Walls Haruki Murakami

Chapter 52: The Boy's Determination to Enter the Walled Town

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

The boy repeats that he must go to the walled town. The narrator describes the grim reality there: brutal winters, starvation, threadbare clothes, no books or music, and the mandatory loss of shadow and eyesight. The boy nods without hesitation. The narrator sees him as a balloon floating above the earth, never truly rooted in this world. The boy points at the narrator and then at the distance, indicating that the narrator must guide him. The narrator admits he cannot recall how to reach the town—he was taken there by chance—and questions whether helping the boy is morally right. After the boy leaves silently, several days pass. The narrator stays at his desk; the boy reads thick books in the library. Unable to consult the ghost of Mr. Koyasu, the narrator asks Mrs. Soeda about the boy’s family. She reveals that the mother dotes on him but does not understand his gifts, the father is indifferent and embarrassed by him, and his two older brothers ignore him. The narrator concludes that the boy has no true place in this world and that his disappearance might be as natural as a kitten leaving its mother.

Key Events

  • The boy affirms his intention to enter the walled town despite warnings about losing his shadow, his eyesight, and the impossibility of return.
  • The narrator reflects on his own tenuous connections to reality (blueberry muffins, Paul Desmond’s saxophone, a stray cat).
  • The boy gestures that the narrator must take him there; the narrator doubts his own ability.
  • The boy leaves without a word; the narrator watches him depart.
  • Over the following week, the boy reads lengthy works (sagas, Wittgenstein, Izumi, a medical encyclopedia) in the library, and they have no contact.
  • The narrator struggles with the ethical dilemma of guiding a child away from his family.
  • He asks Mrs. Soeda about the boy’s home life, learning of the mother’s smothering yet ignorant love, the father’s neglect, and the brothers’ distance.
  • The narrator rationalizes that the boy’s departure may be for the best.

Character Development

  • The Narrator: Deepens his internal conflict. He once escaped the walled town himself but now must decide whether to enable another’s entry. His empathy grows as he learns about the boy’s family isolation, and he questions his own attachment to mundane comforts.
  • Yellow Submarine Boy: Remains stoic and resolute. His silent gestures and reading habits reveal a fiercely independent mind. His family’s failure to nurture him explains his willingness to leave.
  • Mrs. Soeda: Acts as a confidante, providing crucial insight into the boy’s home situation. She gently presses the narrator to consider the boy’s welfare.
  • Mr. Koyasu (ghost): Absent; the narrator notes that his death left a void. The boy once trusted him, and now the narrator feels compelled to fill that role.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

  • The Walled Town as Alternative Reality: The town is harsh, not a utopia. Yet the boy chooses it, subverting escapist fantasy and raising questions about what makes a world worth choosing.
  • Shadow and Self: Discarding the shadow symbolizes severing the self from reality. The narrator kept his shadow and returned; the boy must sacrifice his entirely.
  • Library as Sanctuary: Both characters find purpose among books. The library is a neutral space between the real world and the walled town, a place where the boy can read without interference.
  • Parental Failure: The mother’s possessive love and the father’s embarrassment create a home so unwelcoming that an impoverished walled town seems better.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter forms the ethical and emotional center of the novel’s second half. It forces the narrator to confront his own ambivalence about the walled town and to decide whether he is a guide or a gatekeeper. The detailed portrait of the boy’s family explains his motivation, making his choice tragic rather than whimsical. The chapter also reiterates the novel’s central question: is it better to live in a flawed reality or to embrace a certain, even bleaker, alternative world?

Study Questions and Answers

  1. Why does the narrator initially resist the boy’s request to be taken to the walled town?
    The narrator cannot recall the route—he was “taken” by chance. He also worries that helping the boy disappear would be unethical, especially because the boy’s mother would grieve. His own return was possible only because he kept his shadow; the boy would lose his permanently, erasing his existence from this world.

  2. What does Mrs. Soeda’s description of the boy’s family reveal about his motivation?
    She depicts a home where the mother’s love is possessive but blind to his abilities, the father is ashamed of him, and his two older brothers ignore him. The boy has no friends. The library is his only refuge. This explains why he is willing to leave a world where he has no meaningful connections.

  3. How does the narrator’s reflection on his own attachments to the real world contrast with the boy’s detachment?
    The narrator lists small pleasures—blueberry muffins, Paul Desmond’s saxophone, a stray cat—that tether him to reality. The boy, however, is like a “balloon temporarily tethered”; he has never put down roots. This contrast highlights that the narrator has something to lose, while the boy has nothing to keep him.

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