Kamikaze Flashcards
Form
- The stanza is written in free verse, with no rhyme, it is though as if it feels like a monologue as the poem progresses almost like a story she is telling with a moral at the end of it, which is that we shouldn’t kill
members of our family instead we should give them life and protection. - The poem also has no form which reflects how the family did not give the father his true form as a father. The poem is attempting to develop a form with the 6 line stanzas, which could reflect how is she is trying to give a new form for her father, a new hope as a father figure, by establishing him as a grandfather to her children
Structure and context
- Beatrice makes this chronology who’s talking to who extremely complex to try to show how culture can be very complex and how damaging it can be through the generations. BUT is it also a message of hope, how do countries recover from a war? it is the next generation who rebuild that country with a different view. It was the only country which was bombed 2 times (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) in 1945 however by the 1970s japan had become an economic superpowwer
First quote
“Her farther embarked at sunrise with a flask of water, a samurai sword”
First quote analysis
SIBILANCE: This gives it a sign of peace, that peace reflects the peace at which he is meant to articulate during his kamikaze and his death, which is also symbolised with “sunrise”
SYBMOLISM: “sunrise” symbolises the country of Japan as it is on the flag but also is symbolising the meeting of god after death
SYMBOLISM: “Water” is a symbol is purity, he is purifying himself spiritually to get prepared for war, but also for the Christian audience that he getting baptised, he is dying to enter a new life as a hero.
Second quote
“like a huge flag waved first one way then the other in a figure of eight”
Second Quote analysis
SYMBOLISM: He is looking down from his plane and is looking at fish, and these fish in the sea are a symbol of life and is one which he doesn’t want to give up which is why he gives it such detailed and thoughtful descriptions, which is in order to show the life he doesn’t want to give up is a life which he finds amazing.
SIMILIE: The flag represents patriotism one the one hand these fish represent life but these fish also represent the sacrifice that he must make for his country for the flag
SYMBOLISM: The “figure of eight” symbolises infinity which symbolises that the solider believes that he will live internally as a hero in everyone’s mind, but also it symbolises eternal death, he is also imagining the absence of life forever, the figure of eight returns on it’s, which foreshadows his actions later in the poem when he returns
SIMILIE: The figure of eight and the flags which are waving could be a way to represent the people from his country waving the flag, as a way of encouragement to remind him that he is dying for patriotism and honour of his country, but also that the flag which is waved in a figure of eight is also a description of an ending of a race, possibly alluding to the face that this soldier believes that it the end of his life and he reached the end his life
Third quote
“the loose silver whitebait and once a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous”
Third quote analysis
BIBLICAL ALLUSION: In the west, silver has always represented betrayal, Judas Iscariot was one of the 12 disciples who betrayed Jesus to the Romans for 30 pieces of silver, which is referenced in “loose”, which is loose morality but also loose coins, she invites us to imagine these loose coins at the same time as she describes the colour and movement of the fish being released on the boats deck. the “bait” symbolises his betrayal of his country just like Judas betrayed Jesus.
SYMBOLISM: Could symbolise the Japanese royal family, who are condemning these men to go to their deaths, so sacrifice them selves for their country and their emperor, but equally it may symbolise the subversive act that her farther committed, his protest by not killing himself is a dark and princely act, its a positive way at looking at what he’s done, he is punished by society because what he’s done is “dangerous”, but it is a strong decision emphasised by “muscular”.
Fourth quote
“Only we children still chattered and laughed till gradually we too learned to be silent”
Fourth quote analysis
VOLTA: She has brought her farther back into the family and that’s why they chattered and laughed which is the natural human reaction to seeing someone which is part of your family. Adverb “gradually” shows how unnatural this was for the children to disown their father they couldn’t go it naturally, it is something painful and wrong they have to adjust to it. This invites to imagine as the chid grows up the child begins to realise that the decision was wrong.
Fifth quote
“And sometimes, she said, he must have wondered which had been the better way to die”
Fifth quote analysis
- The daughter has never spoken to her farther about his decision even though he’s lived many years afterwards because the memory is too painful for him
- The last line suggests that he has died emotionally within the family, which is problematic as it suggests he has never been accepted back into the family, the family have permanently ostracized him.
- But as we’ve seen, she says to her children “yes, grandfather’s boat” which cant work because her children’s grandfather is her father, so therefore the last line doesn’t mean he has an ultimate death excluded by his family that death only lasted while his own wife was alive, perhaps the other children have not accepted but the storyteller, the daughter has, because she is retelling the story
- Just as Japan didn’t die after the 2 atomic bombs in 1945, so the father did not actually die. This is actually a poem about hope and that cultures can change and they don’t have to be locked into the old way of doing things, we could argue that losing the war has enabled he change and becoming much better than before
