Kamikaze

• The loose silver of whitebait and once tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous.
• Her father embarked at sunrise with a flask of water, a samurai sword
• He must have wondered which had been the better way to die
• Like a huge flag waved first one way then the other in a figure of eight
• Only we children still chattered and laughed until we too learned to be silent
• Her father embarked at sunrise with a flask of water, a samurai sword

  Sibilance- peace in death, also shows something sinister about method of death

  Water- purity, spiritual

  Embarked- get on boat- grandfather's boat persuading piolet to live
• Like a huge flag waved first one way and then the other in a figure of eight

  Simile- flag represents patriotism

  Figure of eight- infinity, cyclical structure of patriotism + imagining absence of life forever
• The loose silver of whitebait and once a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous

  'Loose silver'- biblical allusion- Judas betrays Jesus in return for silver, betrayal of country

  Act of not killing himself is a dangerous act
• Only we children still chattered and laughed until we too learned to be silent

  Gradually- unnatural, children affected by patriotism