Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

What role does memory play in the formation of identity? How does the novel grapple with this question?

How does being confronted with his own mortality impact the narrator’s opinions about the nature of existence?

How is solipsism—the idea that the mind is the only thing that we know exists—demonstrated in the end of the world?

Birds are important symbols throughout the novel. How would you track the development of their symbolism in both the hard-boiled (odd-numbered) and end of the world (even-numbered) chapters?

How are allusions to other books used in Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World?

What role do allusions to movies play in the novel? How could they be compared and contrasted to allusions to books?

How would you compare and contrast the motifs of sound and music in the novel?

What causes the narrator to grapple with his masculinity? When does he feel most secure in his masculine identity?