Murakami's The Second Bakery Attack opens with the narrator looking back and reflecting whether or not it was "the right choice when [he] told [his] wife about the bakery attack." The story opens not with the events of the story, but rather the narrator reflecting on the inciting incident of the story. Thus, the story is set not as something that is currently happening, but rather something that already happened. However, the narrative switches to focus purely on the chronological events of the plot. For the reader, or at least me, this almost makes me forget that the story is being told in the past. The same thing can be seen happening in Murakami's Norwegian Wood. Norwegian Wood begins with Watanabe as a middle age man in an airport reflecting on his experience in college. After the first chapter, Watanabe as a middle age man is not mentioned again. I believe Murakami introduced context to his story because it allows him to be introspective.
The Second Bakery Attack begins as follows, "I'm still not sure I made the right choice when I told my wife about the bakery attack. But then, it might not have been a question of right and wrong. Which is to say that wrong choices can produce right results, and vice versa. I myself have adopted the position that, in fact, we never choose anything at all. Things happen. Or not."
This quote sets the tone and overall theme of what this work is going to be. The Second Bakery Attack is riddled with this sense of lack of autonomy. They can't choose what to eat, they can't attack a bakery because they're all closed, they can't go to a restaurant, they simply have to follow what is happening. They don't choose anything at all, they're just doing what they have to do. Murakami introducing this concept at the beginning of the story, cements its importance to the reader and makes them pay attention to traces of that theme in the story. However, he would not have been able to do this if he directly told the story. The introspection would feel off. It would feel just like an unnatural author injection, since the narrator doesn't know what has happened yet. However, since this has already happened to the narrator, he can be introspective because he knows what happened and how it affected him.
Now, I would like to mention a similarity I saw between The Second Bakery Attack and A Small, Good One. As mentioned, the first paragraph of The Second Bakery Attack lays out the theme of the story. "... we never choose anything at all. Things happen. Or not." I believe this is the same theme that is present in A Small, Good One. After the Baker and Ann/Howard finally meet, the Baker realizes how he had been essentially terrorizing this couple going grieving the lost of their child. He says, "Now, I'm just a baker. That don't excuse my doing what I did, I know. But I'm deeply sorry. I'm sorry for your son, and sorry for my part in this... I'm not an evil man, I don't think. Not evil, like you said on the phone. You got to understand what it comes down to is I don't know how to act anymore, it would seem. Please, let me ask you if you can find it in your hearts to forgive me?" The Baker can't control that their child died. The Baker can't take back his stand-offish nature on the phone, he was just doing his job of making sure a client got their product. All he can do is deal with what is happening now. He feels morally obligated to apologize and make the situation right, he didn't necessarily have a conscious choice in it. Murakami saw this theme in A Small, Good One and seemingly build The Second Bakery Attack around it, drowning their character's in a lack of choice and regret.
- Cam Hoff
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