The Narrator’s Identity Unravels in Greece

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

The narrator’s flight from Japan becomes an effort to discard his identity, culminating in panic aboard a plane and a later collapse beneath the moon.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

A Life Left Behind A Life Left Behind from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". Choosing Exile Rupture at home The narrator’s wife leaves with their son after the affair comes to light. Izumi also loses her marriage.

A Life Left Behind from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". Choosing Exile Rupture at home The narrator’s wife leaves with their son after the affair comes to light. Izumi also loses her marriage.

Choosing Exile Rupture at home The narrator’s wife leaves with their son after the affair comes to light. Izumi also loses her marriage. A radical alternative They decide to use their savings to leave Japan for Greece. The plan promises distance from consequences but does not resolve what either has lost.

The Suitcase Panic The Suitcase Panic from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". The Fear of Being Replaced A mistaken-bag possibility The narrator imagines that his blue suitcase has been taken by someone else.

The Suitcase Panic from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". The Fear of Being Replaced A mistaken-bag possibility The narrator imagines that his blue suitcase has been taken by someone else.

The Fear of Being Replaced A mistaken-bag possibility The narrator imagines that his blue suitcase has been taken by someone else. Without it, he feels he would have no link to his former life. The body turns provisional He feels that he occupies a plaster body rather than his own. Izumi holds his hand until the shaking passes.

A Life with Nothing to Do A Life with Nothing to Do from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". Exile’s Quiet Promise A peaceful routine The couple walk, paint, study Greek, and make love without hiding from spouses or catching trains.

A Life with Nothing to Do from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". Exile’s Quiet Promise A peaceful routine The couple walk, paint, study Greek, and make love without hiding from spouses or catching trains.

Exile’s Quiet Promise A peaceful routine The couple walk, paint, study Greek, and make love without hiding from spouses or catching trains. The narrator calls this the most peaceful time of his life. Fragility beneath calm Their isolation also removes work, reading, and familiar attachments. The life they have built depends on savings and on an assumption that they will remain together.

The Cat Voice The Cat Voice from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". A Thought Becomes an Accusation A search toward music The narrator leaves the apartment to find Izumi and follows distant music toward a hill.

The Cat Voice from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". A Thought Becomes an Accusation A search toward music The narrator leaves the apartment to find Izumi and follows distant music toward a hill.

A Thought Becomes an Accusation A search toward music The narrator leaves the apartment to find Izumi and follows distant music toward a hill. His sense of self begins to dissolve again. An imagined explanation He hears an inner voice say cats have eaten the real him. The newspaper story and childhood cat return as a single, frightening account.

The Empty Summit The Empty Summit from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". No Proof of the Festival A destination without evidence The narrator reaches the village, but there is no sign that a wedding celebration occurred.

The Empty Summit from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". No Proof of the Festival A destination without evidence The narrator reaches the village, but there is no sign that a wedding celebration occurred.

No Proof of the Festival A destination without evidence The narrator reaches the village, but there is no sign that a wedding celebration occurred. The music may have stopped or may never have existed. A self left in question He returns alone and imagines the cats consuming his mind. The story ends without restoring the person who fled Japan or explaining Izumi’s absence.

After the affair is exposed

Over Egypt on the flight to Greece

The first months on the island

On the moonlit night Izumi disappears

Near one o’clock that night