kamikaze Flashcards
1
Q
what happens in the poem
A
- a nameless women’s farther left on a kamikaze mission when she was a girl but he returned home after he changed his mind about going through with the mission.
- the women explains why he may have returned. by describing the fishing boats and his childhood.
- when he had returned home the pilot was ostracized, his wife didn’t speak to him, nor did the neighbors. eventually the children stopped talking to him to.
2
Q
for, structure and context
A
- thepoem has no set rhyme schem and is written in seven, six line stanzas.
- the poem is comprised of only three sentences. the first the cockpit, the second switches to the daughter, speaking in her own words. and the third contains the surprising news that the pilot had abandoned his mission.
- society in post war japan was extremely rigid. social exchanges were governed by an intricate and often startling set of rules and regulation. shame played a big role in social interactions. so pilots who had returned from kamikaze missions were shunned and ostracized.
3
Q
key quotes
A
- head full of powerful incantations
- a one way journey into history.
- little fishing boats … strung out bunting
- green blue translucent sea
- remembered how he and his brothers
- a tuna, a dark prince, muscular, dangerous
- mother never spoke again in his presence
- they treated him as though he no longer existed
- we too learnt to be silent
- wondered which had been the better way to die.
4
Q
language and themes
A
- the patriotic language used contrasts with the theme of shame which accompanies the pilot on his return
- the pilots daughter does feel a sense of regret and loss that her farther has been ostracized
- the image of the sea , teeming with life and hope acts as a direct contrast to the cairn signifying a burial mound.
5
Q
what poems could you compare it with memory, identity and the power of nature in
A
- the prelude
- poppies
- checking out me history
