kamikaze

Question 1

“dark shoals of fishes flashing”

Answer 1

• juxtaposition
• emphasises contrast / light and shade
• emphasises a metaphor for life

Question 2

“her father embarked at sunrise with a flask of water, a samurai sword”

Answer 2

• repeated “s” sound, sibilance, gives the phrase a sense of peace which is reflected by the peace the father is supposed to find in death
• “sunrise” symbolises the country of japan and divinity
• “water”, symbol of purity, he is purifying himself by sacrificing his life

Question 3

“embarked”

Answer 3

• it references the site of the boat that the grandfather’s boat that reminds him of what its like to be a fisherman, and persuades him not to kill other sailors on the sea
• the child wants to realise that the enemy is just like him

Question 4

“like a huge flag waved first one way then the other in a figure of 8”

Answer 4

• “flag” represents patriotism and the sacrifice the father must make for his country
• “first one way then the other”, shows the father’s internal conflict
• “figure of 8”, shows the father’s never ending internal confliction

Question 5

“loose silver of whitebait”

Answer 5

• “loose silver” biblical allusion to the betrayal of judas for 30 pieces of silver through the representation of silver in the west as betrayal
• shows the father’s betrayal of his country

Question 6

“the dark prince, muscular, dangerous”

Answer 6

• “dark prince”, represents the Japanese royal family who are condemning these men to sacrifice themselves
• symbolises the subversive act that the father has done by not killing himself
• he is punished by society because what he has done is “dangerous”, but his decision was “muscular”

Question 7

“only we children still chattered and laughed”

Answer 7

• showed they still remembered and loved their father
• line break from positive to negative emphasises the change in emotion

Question 8

“till gradually, we too learned to be silent”

Answer 8

• “gradually”, shows how unnatural it was for the children to disown their father
• “learned”, suggests it was totally unnatural

Question 9

“and sometimes, she said, he must have wondered which had been the better way to die”

Answer 9

• “must have wondered” suggests she has never spoken to her father about his decision despite him living many years afterwards
• “which had been the better way to die”, metaphorical, suggests he had emotionally died within the family