Kamikaze

Cards (14)

  • Kamakazi pilot
    • Left at sunrise
    • Took water and a samurai sword
    • Had a shaved head full of strong ideas
    • Only enough fuel to go to destination, not return
  • Pilot halfway through mission
    • Looked down at fishing boats and beauty of nature
    • Reminded him of his own childhood playing on the shore
  • Pilot turned the plane around

    Came back from his mission
  • Pilot's wife never spoke to him again or even looked at him</b>
    • Everyone treated the pilot as shameful
    • His children also eventually learned to be silent, to treat him as if he wasn't there
  • Pilot must have wondered
    Whether kamakazi death would have been better than this emotional death
  • The poem shows an inner conflict between the cultural military and national expectation that he would commit suicide as a kamakazi pilot and the pilot's own desire to return home
  • Poem structure
    • Tight structure of 7 stanzas with 6 lines each
    • Written in free verse with numerous examples of enjambment
  • Tight structure of stanzas
    Reflects tight control of military and national expectation
  • Free verse and enjambment
    Reflects the freedom and personal conviction the pilot wants to have
  • Tuna fish
    • Described as the 'Dark Prince', muscular and dangerous
  • Tuna fish
    Most powerful character in the poem
  • The poem suggests that true power belongs to nature, and humanity's efforts are futile
  • Realization of how minute and unimportant human life is
    Causes the pilot to turn around and return home