kamikaze

• the dark shoals of fishes flashing silver as their bellies swivelled towards the sun


  bellies - yellow belly, coward, animals show bellies when they give up in a fight

  sibilance - sound of sea, emphasises beauty of nature and how much he'd miss it (metaphor for family?)
• her father embarked at sunrise


  symbolism - japan = land of the rising sun,

  start of day = start of journey/ new reality
• with a flask of water, a samurai sword


  sibilance - sense of peace, reflects peace he's supposed to find in death

  water - symbol of purity (baptism, purifying himself spiritually)
• like a huge flag waved first one way then the other in a figure of eight


  flag - patriotism, fish represent life & sacrifice supposed to make 4 country

  figure of eight - symbol of infinity

  eternal death/living forever as a hero

  moment he begins to change his mind
• the loose silver of whitebait and once a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous


  loose silver - biblical ref (Judus betrayed jesus - 23 pieces of silver), his 'betrayal' of his country

  dark prince - japanese royal family (kamikaze)
• only we children still chattered and laughed (volta/line break)till gradually we too learned to be silent


  'gradually''learned' - unnatural for children to disown father
• and sometimes, she said, he must have wondered which had been the better way to die


  died emotionally within family - permanently ostracized him

  'have wondered' - never spoken about it with him (disowned him)
• context


  reflects immense social pressure brought to bear on the pilot's to carry out these missions

  WW2 kamikaze - japanese fighter pilots sent on suicide missions (very honourable)
• structure


  6 line stanzas - tight and controlled, reflects military

  3 sentences:

  1 = 3rd person, more distance

  2 = 1st person, more intimate & emotional

  3 = back to more distant, reflects father's status as an outcast

  (can't express his own POV)

  free verse & enjambment - lack of control, reflects pilot's conflict of thoughts/inner conflict