Kamikaze

Question 1

her father embarked at sunrise

Answer 1

3rd person/ reported speech

Imagery- Japan was also known as the land of the rising sun, linking the character to his culture and duty

Question 2

but half way there, she thought recounting it later to her children,

Answer 2

what the daughter imagines the pilot’s thinking / speculating- probing for answers
telling the story to her children– so it’s being passed on to a 3rd generation (the pilot’s grandchildren)

Question 3

strung out like bunting on a green-blue translucent sea

Answer 3

‘bunting’ is seen as a positive thing/ a simile

gives the feeling of light, natural, beauty

Question 4

in a figure of eight, the dark shoals of fishes flashing silver as their bellies swivelled towards the sun

Answer 4

symbolic figure of eight, the infinity symbol, repetitive cycle and feeling trapped by his destiny
The fish represent the aircraft, the ‘flash of silver’ is a metaphor for their honour and glory

Question 5

built cairns of pearl-grey pebbles

Answer 5

symbolic of death and remembrance

Question 6

the turbulent inrush of breakers bringing their father’s boat safe

Answer 6

represents inner turmoil and conflict, questioning the strength to defy fate and the pressure on him to do his duty.

Question 7

-yes, grandfather’s boat-

Answer 7

1st person – changes font to suggest the daughter, speaking to the children, emphasise individuals/ personal account of history, at odds with our views of these nameless pitots.

Question 8

shore, salt-shodden,

Answer 8

sibilance-ocean waves sounds. symbolic of the tide, which like him, returns.

Question 9

awash with cloud-marked mackerel, black crabs, feathery prawns,

Answer 9

listing of the catch on the boat connotes the childhood joys and innocence which are darkened by the events of the pilot’s life
The inclusion of the tuna and the metaphor forebodes the darker end to the poem

Question 10

till gradually we too learned to be silent,

Answer 10

learned implies the behaviour is not natural and was forced upon her, that she now realises and regrets this

Question 11

this was no longer the father we loved.

Answer 11

There is dramatic emphasis on the ‘loved’ and creates empathy from the reader

Question 12

And sometimes, she said, he must have wondered which had been the better way to die.

Answer 12

Highlights conflict, emphasis that he died in the eyes of his family. There is a tone of regret and sympathy at his situation, he had no way out .