Mexican Paradise
Gabriel's home in Mexico is paradise to Rafaela Cortes. Rafaela has been needing some space to get away from her husband to reconsider her life and her priorities. They haven't been getting along. That is a strange place for paradise to be found, but while caring for Gabriel's estate, she finds she is continually in touch with herself, her thoughts, and nature. This paradise doesn't last, however, and before long, she realizes she is in mortal danger—she needs Bobby's help, and Bobby can't find her, but he's trying his hardest to save her. This is a picture of Bobby as a unknowing hero.
Immigrant life in America
Another type of imagery is evident in the details of Bobby's personal life. Although his life seems perfectly ordinary and American in some ways, there is one detail that changes that picture, the Chinese girl who moves to LA who might be his cousin. Because of what that Chinese heritage might mean, there is perhaps some sort of obligation to help her, but should he extend it if she is not his cousin? Together, these form a picture of the loyalty that immigrants feel toward each other. It is a picture of a potential family.
The imagery of the desert
The desert is offered as a strange space for human life, because that's what it symbolizes when people live in the desert. Perhaps the homeless are also part of that imagery, because the novel presents them as continual with nature, just as Murakami is continual with the efforts to fix the problem. These are mystic images of desert life and the beautiful balance of life and apocalypse. The desert is the setting of strange human experience.
Los Angeles
Most of the imagery is set in Los Angeles, which means a balanced state of natural paradise, because in Los Angeles, there is mountain, desert, and glorious beach, all within an hour of each other. This balance is offered also as a balance between America and Mexico, because of the fluid way the novelist depicts that border, and it is the setting of very verdant pictures of human life. The literary value of these pictures of Los Angeles suggest the idea of plethora or abundance.
