Kamikaze Flashcards
“Her father embarked at sunrise with a flask of water, a samurai sword” sibilance meaning
The sibilance here is a sign of peace; it reflects the peace that he is supposed to find in death. It also symbolises the sunrise. The sun symbolises both the country of japan like the symbol of their flag and it also symbolises divinity.
“Her father embarked at sunrise with a flask of water, a samurai sword” purpose of the water
The “water” is always a symbol of purity and so he is purifying himself spiritually this way and also for christian audience it also signifies baptism. He’s dying in order to enter a new life as a hero.
“Her father embarked at sunrise with a flask of water, a samurai sword” significance of the word embarked
The verb “embarked” means to get on a boat. This is being used because it is the site of the grandfather’s boat that reminds him what it is like to be at sea and what it’s like to be a fisherman and persuades him not to kill other sailors. This ultimately leads to the father realising that the enemy is just like him and his fathers boat will remind him of the family he is losing and therefore he chooses not to die.
“Her father embarked at sunrise with a flask of water, a samurai sword” is an ironic allusion how
This is an ironic allusion since sunrise signifies the start of life but here it signifies the end of his life.
“Powerful incantations”
Garland phrases it this way to suggest that incantations are ridiculous and superstitious, perhaps hinting at the idea like the brainwashing of a Japanese pilot into his life in this way an unnatural act which perhaps she disapproves of.
The adjective “powerful” is almost hyperbolic and in a sense sarcastic in that way.
“History”
People were often persuaded that their names would live forever; it’s almost like a form of brainwashing to get people to sacrifice themselves in this way.
“Like bunting”
Bunting is normally a triangular shape. This triangular shape exactly mimics the shape of the sails of the boats of the fishing boats that he would have seen on high and there’s a huge irony of course that Bunting is a massive celebration and these pilots are being asked to celebrate their own deaths. The idea of the pilots dying with a smile on their face in their letters is all part of the Japanese propaganda that this is a noble and happy death.
“Arcing”
The boats are described as arching just as a sword would arch. So in the pilot’s head there is this honourable idea of the soldiers dying for his master.
“Like a huge flag waves first waves first one way then the other in a figure of eight”
The first stanza are the facts of his journey or the beginning of his journey and now this line break here shows us the thoughts of the daughter as she reimagines what was going through her fathers head so even though her father has become dead to her she has still formed this amazing intellectual bond with him. She imagines him looking down on fish and those fish themselves are obviously symbols of life and this is the life he doesn’t want to commit suicide now the simile she uses is revealing the fish are like a huge flag waved first one way and the the other in a figure of 8 this flag of course represents patriotism and the patriotic sacrifice that he is suppose to make. This is then contrasted when the fish’s bellies swivel towards the sun again a symbol of patriotism, the sun and the flag and it makes him question whether he should actually be dying for his country.
“Like a huge flag waves first waves first one way then the other in a figure of eight” figure of 8 meaning
The figure of 8 is the infinity symbol on its side. So the moment he’s imagining his death and presumably living forever as a hero but at the same time infinitely in eternal death and the absence of life. We can also say the figure of 8 returns on itself so this could be a physical representation of how he’s going to fly out to commit suicide and changes his mind because perhaps it is more important to live.
“Yes, grandfather’s boat” implies what
implies that the relationship between the pilot and his daughter has completely changed since she refers to him as grandfather as he has become deserving of that title from his grandchildren.
“Like a huge flag waves first waves first one way then the other in a figure of eight”
Simile used about fishies
There is a simile where the fish are like a huge wave underwater now one hand the flag may convey their patriotic instinct of the pilot but also when you wave a flag one way and another on the battlefield it’s a flag of surrender you don’t wave your own flag so at that very moment he’s thinking of his country he may be thinking of surrendering and giving up the idea of him killing himself.
“Pearl-grey pebbles”
The allusion here is that there are pearls and pebbles here pearls being absolutely precious and these are pebbles being worthless and he is torn in the balance here as if his life is being given away as though it weren’t precious and so in this symbolism the mother of the speaker is remembering her husband and thinking you know these are the things that he saw these are the memories that must have persuaded him not to kill himself.
“Cloud-marked mackerel”
Garland makes this phrase up because the cloud obviously brings us back to the sky and the pilots ask himself is this a natural way to die in the same way that you don’t expect sea creatures’ mackerel to be touched by clouds. This idea is further emphasised when Garland describes the prawns as “feathery”. The cloud and feathery remind us of the sky and his flight that is going to kill him.
“The loose silver of whitebait and once a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous”
The adjective “loose” gives the reader an allusion of a biblical description in the west silver has always represented the idea of betrayal; one such example is of Judas Iscariot one of the twelve disciples of Jesus betrayed Jesus for 30 silver pieces. So the whitebait symbolises the betrayal of his country just as Judas betrayed Jesus now.
Her father does a subversive act by not killing himself so his protest against throwing away his life pointlessly turns out to be a dark and princely act. It’s a positive way of looking at what he’s done and he’s punished by society because what he’s done is dangerous but it’s not a weak decision but a muscular one it’s a strong one this interpretation only works if the daughter accepts her father back into the family.
“Till gradually we too learned to be silent” this is a volta. The adjective gradually shows us how unnatural it was for the children to disown their father. They could not do it suddenly so this suggests that the Japanese culture at the time was painful and wrong.
