Characters The City and Its Uncertain Walls Haruki Murakami

The Gatekeeper: Guardian of the Walled Town

Overview

The Gatekeeper is the warden of the walled town’s single gate, a position he executes with ritualistic precision. He possesses a shaved head and face, a large sturdy build, and an unchanging devotion to his duties. He controls the unicorn‑beasts by blowing a horn made from a unicorn’s horn, separates shadows from people who enter, and enforces the town’s laws without question. More than a simple guardian, he embodies the town’s will—its need for order, its rejection of curiosity, and its cold pragmatism toward life and death.

Plot Role

The Gatekeeper appears at critical junctures in the protagonist’s journey. He is the first authority figure the narrator encounters after crossing into the walled town. In Chapter 9 the Gatekeeper forcibly separates the narrator from his shadow, explaining that once inside the narrator can never leave and that he will become the Dream Reader with “special eyes.” He also regulates the beasts’ cycle: at twilight he blows the horn (one long note, three short ones), freezing the beasts before they march through the gate to a walled pasture. During the spring mating week he locks the gate to protect townspeople from the violent beasts.

Later, the Gatekeeper burns the bodies of beasts that die in winter, a task he performs with practiced detachment (Chapter 14). He also houses the narrator’s shadow in a special enclosure and provides warnings—for instance, dismissing the shadow’s advice as self‑serving and calling the soul “a worthless thing.” When the narrator escapes with his shadow, the Gatekeeper pursues, and the narrator’s shadow uses the stolen horn to delay him by triggering the beasts’ procession (Chapter 24). The Gatekeeper ultimately retrieves the horn, but the narrator and shadow reach the southern pool.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

The Gatekeeper’s actions reveal a character who finds meaning in strict routine and distrusts anything that threatens the town’s equilibrium. He has no curiosity about the town’s shape; when the narrator asks, he responds with suspicion: “How does knowing the shape of the town serve any purpose?” (Chapter 12). His warning to the narrator—“When you have a plate on top of your head it’s best not to look up at the sky”—indicates a belief that questioning the given order brings misfortune.

His treatment of the beasts is mechanical. He burns the dead without sentiment and uses the horn as a tool of control, not a symbol of reverence. He shaves his head and face every morning with a large razor, suggesting a fastidiousness that borders on obsessive. His dismissal of the soul (“a mere dirty hovel”) and his admission that he sometimes wishes to burn souls along with bodies show a deep nihilism. Yet he is not malevolent; he follows the town’s rules reliably, even when those rules inconvenience him (such as having to open the gate when the horn is blown).

Chronological Arc

The Gatekeeper is introduced in Chapter 3 as the one who blows the horn and opens the gate. His backstory is not given; his age is unclear. In Chapter 9 he performs the shadow‑separation ritual. In Chapter 12 he dismisses the narrator’s topographical curiosity and delivers his “plate on the head” warning. During the narrator’s fever (Chapter 13), the Gatekeeper advises the narrator not to believe his shadow—though this advice is filtered through the narrator’s memory. In Chapter 14 he burns winter‑killed beasts and warns the narrator about snow. In Chapter 24 he pursues the escaping narrator and shadow; his horn is stolen and used to create a diversion. After the narrator returns to the outside world, the Gatekeeper is no longer directly present, but his presence lingers in memory (Chapter 27).

Relationships

  • With the narrator: The Gatekeeper is a figure of authority and suspicion. He distrusts the narrator’s curiosity and warns him not to listen to his shadow. The narrator, in turn, sees the Gatekeeper as an obstacle to understanding the town.

  • With the narrator’s shadow: The Gatekeeper confines the shadow in an enclosure and regards it with contempt, calling it “glib” and advising that it will say anything to survive. He represents the town’s hostility toward shadows—exiled, dying parts of people.

  • With the beasts: He is their caretaker and executioner. He controls their movement, locks them out during mating season, and burns their corpses. The beasts are tools of the town’s equilibrium, and the Gatekeeper is the mechanism.

  • With the girl (the librarian): They interact indirectly; the Gatekeeper gives apples to the narrator, which the girl later uses to make a sweet dish. But the Gatekeeper is never shown in direct conversation with her, reinforcing his isolation from the town’s social life.

Key Decisions and Consequences

  1. Separation of the narrator from his shadow: This decision allows the narrator to enter the town but condemns his shadow to a slow death. The shadow’s later urgency to escape drives the climax.

  2. Dismissing the shadow’s warnings: His advice not to believe the shadow nearly prevents the narrator from attempting escape. The consequence is that the narrator initially stays in the town longer than he might have.

  3. Burning the beasts: The routine of burning deaths creates the smoke that the narrator witnesses and that spurs his shadow to propose escape. It also reinforces the town’s cycle of sacrifice and order.

  4. Pursuing the escapees: The chase leads to the narrator’s decision to send his shadow away alone, while the narrator remains in the town. The Gatekeeper’s role as enforcer nearly prevents the shadow’s survival.

  5. The stolen horn: The Gatekeeper’s failure to secure the horn allows the shadow to blow it and delay pursuit. This small flaw in the town’s perfection enables the escape.

Theme and Symbol Connections

  • Authority and control: The Gatekeeper represents the town’s rigid, unquestioning order. He asks no “why,” only “how” to perform his duties.

  • Sacrifice and death: He burns the beasts without sentiment, embodying the town’s willingness to sacrifice life for stability. The beasts’ deaths are a “sacrifice for the people here” (as the shadow says).

  • Memory and forgetting: His lack of curiosity mirrors the town’s erasure of history. He does not recall the town’s past; he only maintains the present.

  • Reality vs. illusion: The Gatekeeper’s claim that the soul is worthless contrasts with the shadow’s insistence that the outside world is real. He upholds the town’s illusion as the only reality.

  • Identity and the shadow: His function as shadow‑taker literalizes the theme that entering the walled town requires surrendering part of oneself.

Five Book‑Specific Questions and Answers

1. Why does the Gatekeeper warn the narrator not to believe his shadow?
The Gatekeeper distrusts shadows because he believes they are manipulative and only act out of self‑preservation. He tells the narrator that shadows “are pretty glib” and that the narrator should “keep your guard up.” This reflects the town’s doctrine that shadows are harmful remnants.

2. What does the Gatekeeper’s horn‑blowing ritual reveal about the town’s order?
The ritual—one long note followed by three short ones at twilight—demonstrates the town’s reliance on precise, unchanging routines. The beasts freeze, march, and exit through the single gate, all under the Gatekeeper’s control. The sound has “seeped into the gaps in the stone walls,” suggesting a near‑eternal, inflexible cycle.

3. How does the Gatekeeper react to the narrator’s curiosity about the town’s shape?
He is suspicious and baffled. He asks, “How does knowing the shape of the town serve any purpose?” and later issues the cryptic warning about a plate on the head, implying that looking upward (questioning authority) invites trouble. This shows the town’s hostility to inquiry.

4. What is the Gatekeeper’s attitude toward death and the soul?
He is pragmatic and cynical. He describes the body as “no temple, but a mere dirty hovel” and says he sometimes wishes to burn souls along with bodies. He finds the soul a “worthless thing whose only role is to live and suffer.” This aligns with the town’s view that shadows and emotions are dangerous.

5. Does the Gatekeeper ever show vulnerability or failure?
Yes, in Chapter 24 his failure to guard the horn allows the narrator’s shadow to steal it and blow it, buying the pair time. The Gatekeeper must then follow the beast‑processing rules, which slows his pursuit. This reveals that the town’s rigid system can be exploited.