The Narrator (Protagonist) in The City and Its Uncertain Walls

Overview

The unnamed first-person protagonist of The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a man who spends decades seeking a girl he loved as a teenager, only to discover that the walled town she described is real—and that entering it requires giving up his shadow. The narrator’s arc moves from a love-struck adolescent scribe to a Dream Reader inside the town, then to a middle-aged librarian in the real world. His journey is anchored by a single promise: to find the girl’s true self, even at the cost of memory and identity. This analysis draws on the novel’s chapter outline and key scenes, distinguishing what is explicitly stated from interpretive readings.

Plot Role

The narrator is the sole point of view, driving every major plot turn. In Part One, he recalls the summer when a sixteen-year-old girl describes a walled town and reveals that her “real self” lives there as a librarian. She warns that in the town she will not remember him. His quest is to enter that town and become a Dream Reader—someone who reads ancient dreams in the town’s library. In Part Two, he succeeds: he crosses into the walled city, loses his shadow, and works as the Dream Reader, spending evenings walking along the river with the girl’s true self. In Part Three, he returns to the real world, resigns from his job, and becomes the head librarian of a small real-world library, where he attempts to reconcile his two lives. Without his relentless curiosity and devotion, the story would have no momentum.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

The narrator’s primary motivation is love for the girl—a love that persists for decades. As a teenager, he writes down every detail of her imaginary town in a special notebook, acting as a “faithful scribe.” After she vanishes without explanation, he spends years in a daze, but eventually forces himself back to normal life by attending classes, swimming, and making friends, all while reserving a part of his heart for her. His curiosity is another strong trait: once inside the walled town, he spends two weeks mapping the wall’s shape, despite the Gatekeeper’s warning, “When you have a plate on top of your head it’s best not to look up at the sky.” The narrator’s curiosity leads him to investigate the town’s abandoned outskirts, even after falling ill with a fever. He is also deeply introspective, often questioning his own reality and the nature of the wall. His resilience is evident when, after returning to the real world, he quits his stable job to become a librarian, following a vague inner conviction.

Chronological Arc

The narrator’s life unfolds in three parts:

• Adolescence (age 17–18): Meets the girl; they talk every few weeks at a botanical garden café; she describes the walled town; he writes it all down; she disappears after sending a final letter. The narrator recalls feeling “mercilessly excluded from a world of warmth.”

• Young adulthood to middle age (age 20–40): He drifts through college, fails classes, then forces himself to recover. He graduates after five years, works at a book distribution company, dates several women but never builds lasting trust, always keeping the girl in his heart. At forty, his life feels unfulfilling.

• Entry into the walled town: He somehow crosses the threshold (the novel never fully explains the mechanism). He loses his shadow, becomes the Dream Reader, and spends his evenings walking with the girl’s true self. He eventually decides to leave, saying “Farewell” instead of “See you tomorrow.”

• Return and new life: He wakes up in the real world with his shadow restored, quits his job, and takes a position as head librarian. He contemplates the possibility that another version of him still remains in the walled town.

This arc mirrors the novel’s themes of reality vs illusion and memory and forgetting.

Relationships

The Girl

The narrator’s relationship with the girl is the emotional core. In the real world, they share deep conversations but avoid physical intimacy, preserving a bond of trust. She is the one who introduces the walled town, and he becomes her scribe. After she disappears, he waits years for her return. Inside the town, her true self does not remember him, yet they walk together every night. On the final night, he notices her features changing—a sign that his own heart is transforming. He speculates she might vanish once he leaves.

The Coffee Shop Woman

In Part Three, the narrator meets a thirtysomething woman who runs a coffee shop. He feels a diffuse, sensible affection for her, in contrast to the laser‑like intensity of his teenage love. He recognizes that he is “not seeking all of her,” only the gentle warmth beneath her defensive wall. Their relationship remains incomplete, mirroring the novel’s themes of isolation and connection.

Yellow Submarine Boy

A boy in yellow submarine‑themed clothing who appears in the narrator’s unconscious. He guides the narrator during the dream‑reading sessions and advises him before the final departure: “Believe in the existence of your other self. That’s my lifeline.” The narrator trusts him implicitly, though the boy admits he cannot feel sadness.

The Gatekeeper

The Gatekeeper of the walled town is suspicious of the narrator’s curiosity. He delivers cryptic warnings, such as the admonition about the plate on the head. He represents the town’s resistance to questioning.

Mr. Koyasu

A deceased figure whose empty grave the narrator visits. Through Mrs. Soeda, the narrator learns Koyasu’s backstory: he wanted to be a writer but failed, returned to his family’s sake brewery, and fell in love late in life. Koyasu’s story echoes the narrator’s own longing and regret.

Key Decisions and Consequences

1. Choosing to enter the walled town. Consequence: He loses his shadow and gains the role of Dream Reader. This decision fulfills his teenage promise but traps him in a sealed, memory‑erasing world.

2. Mapping the wall’s shape. Consequence: He falls ill with a fever for a week, learning that the wall resists systematic understanding. The wall “seemed not to worry about my little experiment.”

3. Saying “Farewell” instead of “See you tomorrow.” Consequence: The girl’s features change, and he acknowledges that his own heart is transforming. This leads to his departure from the town.

4. Resigning from the book distribution company. Consequence: He leaves a stable career to become a librarian, seeking a life more aligned with his inner world.

5. Believing in his other self. Consequence: He accepts that a version of him may still exist in the walled town, allowing him to move forward without erasing his past.

Theme and Symbol Connections

The narrator embodies several of the novel’s central themes:

• Love and Loss: His decades‑long devotion to the girl illustrates how love can persist beyond reason and reality. The girl’s disappearance is the catalyst for his entire journey. (See love and loss page.)

• Identity and the Shadow: By losing his shadow in the walled town, the narrator becomes incomplete. The shadow symbolizes his connection to the real world and his own wholeness. When he regains it, he feels relieved to be “literally one flesh.” The identity and the shadow theme is central to his character arc.

• Memory and Forgetting: Inside the town, the narrator reads old dreams, accessing memories that are not his own. The town’s residents lack curiosity about history—the narrator’s memory work defies this erasure. See memory and forgetting.

• Reality vs Illusion: The narrator often questions whether he truly entered the town or merely dreamed it. The wall itself is “uncertain,” transforming like a living being. This theme pervades his perception of both worlds. Link to reality vs illusion.

• Isolation and Connection: Throughout his life, the narrator struggles with loneliness. He builds few lasting relationships. His bond with the girl and later with the coffee shop woman represents tentative attempts at connection. Explore isolation and connection.

Five Book‑Specific Questions and Answers

Q1: Why does the narrator decide to leave the walled town after he finally reaches it?

A: The narrator realizes that his presence in the town is transient. On the final night, he says “Farewell” instead of his usual “See you tomorrow,” observing that his own heart is changing and that the girl’s features are shifting. He feels he does not belong there anymore and must move to the next stage. Yellow Submarine Boy confirms the decision, advising him to believe in his other self.

Q2: What is the significance of the narrator mapping the wall’s shape?

A: The narrator’s attempt to map the wall reflects his curiosity and desire to understand the town on his own terms. The wall’s resistance—causing him a fever and mocking him in dreams—shows that the town does not tolerate systematic analysis. This episode underscores the theme of uncertain boundaries and the limits of knowledge.

Q3: How does the narrator’s relationship with the girl differ in the real world versus the walled town?

A: In the real world, the girl is a vibrant presence—they talk constantly, hug and kiss, and co-create the town’s details. She remembers him. In the walled town, her true self does not remember him, and their interactions are silent walks along the river. The narrator feels the loss of recognition, which deepens his sense of isolation.

Q4: Why does the narrator quit his job at the book distribution company and become a librarian?

A: After returning from the walled town, the narrator finds his corporate life meaningless—he is “nothing more than a cog.” He feels compelled to remove himself from that track, even without a clear alternative. Taking the librarian position allows him to reclaim a role similar to the Dream Reader, perhaps hoping to reconnect with the past.

Q5: Does the narrator ever reunite with the girl in the real world?

A: The novel leaves this ambiguous. In the afterword, Murakami suggests that the story is a revision of an earlier novella, but within the narrative there is no explicit reunion. The narrator’s final speculation that “another me” still remains in the town implies that the two selves may never fully merge. The ending is open to interpretation, as discussed on the ending explained page.

For further discussion on the narrator’s ambiguous fate and the novel’s central puzzles, see the questions and answers page.