Kamikaze Flashcards
Summarise ‘Kamikaze’ in one sentence
Kamikaze by Beatrice Garland portrays the internal conflict of a Japanese pilot who is asked to die for his country from the perspective of the pilot himself and his daughter.
Analyse this key quote
’Her father embarked at sunrise with a flask of water, a samurai sword’
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The poem is told from a daughter’s point of view. This narrative perspective conveys the impact on family members, creating distance between the daughter and father.
‘water’ is a symbol of purity and so he is purifying himself spiritually this way. It also signifies baptism as he is dying in order to enter new life as a hero.
The sibilance of the ‘samurai sword’ portrays a sense of peace. That sense reflects the peace is he supposed to find through death.
Analyse this key quote
’like a huge flag waved first one way then the other in a figure of eight’
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He is looking down on schools of fish. The fish themselves represent life and the life he would be missing out on if he commuted suicide.
The simile shows that on one hand the fish are symbolic of life but on the other, they represent the sacrifice he is supposed to make for his country.
The ‘figure of eight’ creates an image of the infinity symbol. This acts as a physical representation of the path he took in the plane also depicting a turning point in his decision. Alternatively, this could symbolises how he will live forever immortally as a hero.
Analyse this key quote
’And sometimes, she said, he must have wondered which has been the better way to die’
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The poem’s powerful final lines suggest the pilot’s unresolved torment over whether sacrificing his life or his family was the greater tragedy.
The pilot finds himself metaphorically dead and so he ponders wether a literal death as a Kamikaze might have been better than the emotional death he is experiencing since he has returned.
What is the structure of Kamikaze and what does it suggest?
Kamikaze is a narrative poem and structurally it it made up of 7 stanzas all of equal length. This controlled structure symbolises being controlled by cultural and societal expectations.
