Kamikaze

Question 1

‘A shaven head full of powerful incantations.’

Answer 1

-Soldiers are produced by conditioning ; high level of devotion needed.
- ‘Shaven head’ shows devotion to his mission - has an expectation that shows conformity and discipline. ( Shedding of his past identity)
- ‘Shaven head’ compared to ‘powerful incantations’ shows the physical vs mental state of the solider. ( Soldier is brainwashed )
- ‘Incantations’ represents being indoctrinated - intense training (patriotic)

Question 2

‘Gradually, we too learned to be silent.’

Answer 2

• ‘Gradually’, adverb; it took time to learn - importance of other roles like the duty of being a father took time to forget - shifts from innocence to silence.
• ‘We’, collective pronoun; first person narrative (volta) , induces emotion - this contrasts the mother, who rejected him straight away; the children are naïve and innocent.
• ‘Learned’, verb; they learned to navigate in a society that is disapproving of their father’s actions (father’s absence).

Question 3

‘She said, he must have wondered which had been the better way to die.’

Answer 3

At this point in the poem, all speech is becoming fragmented; this is one of the only lines without enjambment in the last 2 stanzas.
- Quality of death; in battle - fulfilling duty, symbol of honour and patriotism.
As an outcast - living in a society where he is outcast even by his family (juxtaposes the concept of family; family is meant to provide comfort, but in this case they reject the family).
- ‘Better way to die’ - hyperbolic statement for his rejection; ostracized by his family and by society for failing his duty.
- DAUGHTER IS LEFT WITHOUT A RESOLUTION.

Question 4

STRUCTURE

Answer 4

-6 lines per stanza - reflects idea of discipline and order ( military values )
- Shifts to free verse at times to show pilots thoughts and memories.

Question 5

CONTEXT

Answer 5

-Japanese culture is closely linked to bravery and honour. In Kamikaze, Garland explores nationalistic values of Japanese kamikaze pilots and how this may lead to family conflict.
- Garland challenges cultural values regarding patriotism by presenting the daughter and her siblings as powerless to defy their mother’s wishes of rejecting their father.