This paper investigated the operations of Lacan’s Real, Symbolic, and Imaginary orders in the Sophoclean bildungsroman novel Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. It utilized Lacanian psychoanalysis to analyze the novel’s literary elements–the plot, the theme, and the character’s actions and motivations. This paper explored the characters’ actions and unconscious desires, the themes of incest, rape, murder, and abandonment, and the author’s use of magic realism to explain how they all fit into Lacan’s psychoanalytic framework.

Keywords: Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami, Lacan, Psychoanalysis, Real, Symbolic, Imaginary, Literature.

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