The Fall of the Roman Empire The 1881 Indian Uprising, Hitler's Invasion of Poland, and The Realm of Raging Winds- 10/17/08.

"So until the hot pot was ready, I decided to pull together a few brief notes on the day's events so I could write them up in my diary next week.  This is what I jotted down:

~Fall of Roman Empire

~1881 Indian Uprising

~Hitler's Invasion of Poland

Just this, and even next week I'd be able to reconstruct what went on today.  Precisely because of this meticulous system of mine, I have managed to keep a diary for twenty-two years without missing a day.  To every meaningful act, its own system.  Whether the wind blows or not, that's the way I live."

The author uses syntax to characterize the protagonist of this short story.  The bullet points show a very organized and almost anal character and this is supported by diction like "meticulous," "system," and "precisely" that suggest organization or attention to detail.  The use of numbers could also go under the author's measured diction.  Throughout the story the protagonist is always using numbers most frequently to tell time.  The use of numbers is another way to portray the protagonist's need to record things as well as a motif when it is used to tell time. 

The reader can gather that time is a motif because of the frequency with which it is mentioned, as well as the presence of clocks, a logged journal, and the mention of various historic events. I think that time holds a role in this story similar to the one in Murakami's other short story, "The Wind-Up Bird and Tuesday's Women".  It symbolizes the limited span of human life.  Maybe it is because the protagonist knows this that he lives this way and continues "to keep a diary for twenty-two years" "whether the wind blows or not."  He wants everything recorded the way the mentioned historic events had been recorded.  These events are in chronological order; they support the time motif, and they also add the idea of our present becoming our past.  The title of this story is the list of historic events mentioned followed by "and the realm of raging winds."  Murakami adds this last event to suggest that this holds just as much significance as the other events do to his protagonist, it is symbolic of the protagonist's life becoming history through the protagonist's journal entries. 

The added "realm of raging winds" as well as the dominating presence of wind in the story intimates that wind is also an important motif.  Wind is most definitely a symbol, but I can't be sure what it is symbolic of.  Maybe it symbolizes time passing in a physical kind of sense, or maybe it is there to draw a connection in the events in the title, as wind is a constant in all of them as well as in all of the rest of history.  The same winds have been blowing around the same world forever.  This is realized when the protagonist is talking to his girlfriend, she guesses that the wind will soon stop at his house because it has stopped at her house not too far away.