53 pages • 1 hour read
Mieko Kawakami, Transl. Sam Bett, Transl. David BoydBreasts and Eggs
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Natsuko “Natsu” Natsume
Content Warning: This section of the guide references suicidal ideation and child sexual abuse, which feature in the source text.
Natsu Natsume is the novel’s protagonist. The novel spans a decade of her life, from 30 to her early 40s. Natsu is a single, childless, and asexual woman who works a minimum-wage job. In Breasts, Natsu grapples with her failure to fulfill the traditional expectations of womanhood prescribed by Japanese society. She suffers from loneliness, anxiety, and feelings of alienation, exacerbated by her grief at the premature deaths of her mother and grandmother, Komi. Natsu experiences intense dreams and hallucinatory interludes in which the past converges on the present.
In Eggs, Natsu has achieved material success but still feels unfulfilled. She decides that she wants to have a child, which puts her at odds with a society that discourages single motherhood. Natsu questions the validity of her wish because she has no desire to have sex or get married. As she looks into artificial insemination, she encounters the philosophy of anti-natalism, which forces her to consider whether she or anyone has a right to children. Along the way, Natsu falls in love with Jun Aizawa, but her desire for a relationship is complicated by her own perception of self.
Natsu develops a stronger sense of self throughout the narrative, exploring the question of what womanhood means to her outside of prescribed conventions. Her perspective on gender and motherhood develops through her friendships with other women and her relationship to her sister, Makiko, as well as her memories of her mother and Komi. Despite multiple setbacks, Natsu fulfills her desire to become a mother by conceiving a child with Jun Aizawa. The novel ends with her giving birth to a daughter, whom she plans to raise on her own.
In Natsu, Kawakami depicts the full and nuanced life of a woman whose story diverges from traditional narratives. Natsu finds happiness and success on her own terms, becoming a successful author and a single mother by choice. By the end of Breasts and Eggs, she has accepted herself and forged her own version of womanhood.
Midoriko
Midoriko is Natsu’s niece. She is 12 years old in Breasts and 20 by the end of Eggs. Midoriko has a strained relationship with her mother, Makiko, which is further complicated by their poverty. In Breasts, Midoriko refuses to speak to her mother out of fear that they will never stop fighting. She struggles to accept the changes that come with puberty and the confusing ordeal of existence. Midoriko sees how hard and limiting life can be for women in Japan. She resents the expectation that she act a certain way just because of her gender. Midoriko also introduces fledging anti-natalist sentiments to the narrative, which Kawakami develops through other characters in Eggs. Breasts ends with Midoriko breaking her silence and embracing her mother.
In Eggs, Midoriko is attending university. She is in a happy relationship with a man named Haruyama and has seemingly moved past her intense angst about womanhood. Midoriko has mended her relationship with Makiko and supports Natsu during her solo fertility journey.
Midoriko’s character captures the turmoil of growing up and forming an identity in a patriarchal society. Her questioning of gender roles that others take for granted also shows how Japan’s younger generation can challenge sexist traditions.
Makiko
Makiko is Natsu’s older sister by nine years. She is a proud and self-assured woman with an optimistic outlook on life. Makiko has worked to support herself and her loved ones since her mother and grandmother’s deaths. She married and divorced young and has raised Midoriko on her own. Makiko is a devoted sister and mother. She sacrifices her own comfort first for Natsu, then for Midoriko. Natsu has fond memories of Makiko finding ways to brighten her impoverished childhood with homemade activities and stories.
In her late 30s through her late 40s, Makiko works at a hostess bar. She has insecurities about her body that are exacerbated by the pressure to be seen as youthful and desirable in the workplace. In Breasts, Makiko is fixated on the idea of getting breast implants and lightening her nipples, but in Eggs she seems to have dropped this goal.
Having experienced the trials and stigma of single motherhood firsthand, Makiko initially rejects Natsu’s choice to have a baby on her own, but eventually comes around to supporting Natsu.
Like Natsu, Makiko fails to live up to the mainstream standard of womanhood. Yet she is an energetic, optimistic, and self-assured character who ultimately derives joy and fulfillment out of life. Her character provides another example of a woman living a full life beyond conventional gendered expectations.
Rika Yusa
Rika Yusa is a popular novelist who befriends Natsu at a literary afterparty. Known for her eccentric style, Rika is an opinionated woman who is raising her daughter alone. Rika has a distaste for men, believing that they cannot truly understand women. She is happy with her life and becomes one of Natsu’s biggest supporters on her solo fertility journey. Rika’s character provides representation for a happy and economically successful single-mother household.
Jun Aizawa
The only significant male character in Breasts and Eggs, Jun Aizawa is Natsu’s friend and eventual romantic interest. Aizawa was conceived via sperm donation, a fact he only learns in his 30s, after the death of his non-biological father. He is ostracized by his ex-fiancée and her family after they learn about the circumstances of his conception and attempts suicide in the resulting depression.
Natsu and Aizawa connect over their shared feelings of alienation from society and eventually decide to have a child together. Though they ultimately choose not to pursue a romantic relationship, they remain on good terms.
Yuriko Zen
Yuriko Zen is Aizawa’s girlfriend for most of the novel. She was born through donor conception into an abusive family and was sexually assaulted by her non-biological father. Yuriko subverts the idea that all women desire motherhood; she wishes that she had never been born and views the act of procreation as immoral. Yuriko’s views force Natsu to interrogate her desire to have a child.
Ryoko Sengawa
Ryoko Sengawa is Natsu’s editor, a driven and successful woman in her late 40s. Childless by choice, Sengawa looks down on mothers. Sengawa encourages Natsu’s creative ambitions, but balks at her decision to have a child. She views career and motherhood as two branching paths and believes that Natsu will be squandering her talent if she becomes a mother. Sengawa dies of metastatic lung cancer late in the novel. Her arc touches on the way that women are socialized to perpetuate the patriarchy.
