4 - Murakami

With all the motifs/themes running through A Wild Sheep Chase, Murakami seems to pull them together with an allusion to Conrad. Not only does the narrator of Heart of Darkness, Marlowe, constantly refer to time as "standing still" and "stagnant" in the jungles of Africa, you also get the feeling that he feels that the "Heart of Darkness" is the beginning of time itself; when man was alone, solitary; when no rules applied whatsoever. Boku goes through this same struggle. Time is wiped away. The only idea of time he has is the grandfather clock in the living room, but it is him who has to restart that clock. It is as if he is being reborn, time is starting anew. Much like Marlowe's character has to adapt to his floating consciousness in the dark jungle, Boku has to reorient himself with some mode of tracking his actions, his memories. He comes to find that his lucidity doesn't necessarily exist when there is no one there to confirm it, and Marlowe went through much the same problem. It wasn't until he saw how withdrawn Kurts had become that he controlled his disorientation. In the end, Boku seems to come to terms with his as well.