Investigating Kensuke's Kingdom - Understanding the major themes.

“One day American soldiers come. I hide. I not want to surrender, not honourable thing to do. I very afraid too. I hide in forest with orang-utans. Americans make fire on beach. They laugh in the night. I listen. I hear them. They say everyone dead in Nagasaki. They very happy about this. They laugh. I very sure now I stay on the island. Why go home? Soon Americans, they go away. My ship under water by now. They not find it. My ship still here. Under sand now, part of island now” (p 122).

investigating Kensuke's Kingdom - Morpugo's viewpoint - Defoe or Swift?

There are elements of both authors in Morpurgo’s text. The novel does praise the industriousness of Kensuke and Michael, and also his parents. There is a good reverse of Defoe’s character dynamic, with Michael meeting someone from another culture and teaching him English. However, Kensuke is the true king of the island, and Michael the apprentice. The teaching of English is part of a trade necessary to Michael’s survival, and not simply an imperialistic model.

The destruction and corruption of man is a theme in this novel as it is in Gulliver’s Travels, as Morpurgo looks at the repercussions of the Nagasaki bomb over fifty years since it was detonated, and indicates Kensuke’s horror at the Americans being happy at what they had done. There are also poachers, who kill the gibbons and upset the natural order of the island. However, Morpurgo also rejects elements of Swift’s ideas- it is a man who protects the orang-utans and stops them being killed as well, as a protective father figure.

Investigating Kensuke's Kingdom - Shipwreck narrative

In October 1704, Alexander Selkirk asked to leave his boat, which had stopped on an uninhabited island, fearing that it was unsafe. He was granted his wish, when he later changed his mind and called after the ship he was ignored. He lived alone on the island for over four years, twice hiding from crews who stopped on the island because they were Spanish. He was eventually rescued in February 1709, and by that time had learned to feed himself by catching goats, which he also used for milk and clothes. He built huts for himself, and didn’t need new shoes after his feet became hardened and calloused. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, published 1719, was based upon Selkirk’s story. In Defoe’s tale, Crusoe spends twenty eight years on an island near Venezuela. Crusoe comes across an escaped prisoner from a cannibal tribe, and makes him his servant, to whom he also teaches English and converts to Christianity. The book was a massive success, and prompted other shipwreck narratives, notably The Swiss Family Robinson, (1812), which is heavily based on Defoe’s text, in which a family are stranded and learn a series of lessons about natural history. Gulliver’s Travels (1726) is more of a parody of the genre and of Defoe’s text, in which humans are seen as destructive, and society as corrupt. The shipwreck theme is still popular, with the movie Cast Away and the TV series Lost.

Investigating Kensuke's Kingdom - Nakasaki

Nagasaki was the site of the second and final atomic bomb to be detonated in warfare. Truman allowed bombs to be used on Nagasaki and Hiroshima after the Japanese government ignored the Potsdam Declaration. However, there is debate as to whether the USA misinterpreted the Japanese response, as the word used by the Japanese press, and Kantaro Suzuki was “mokusatsu”. This word not only means ‘ignore’, but also to ‘treat with silent contempt’. Thus, the Japanese position may have simply been a disagreement with the conditions, but a silent acceptance of them as there were no alternatives.

After the Hiroshima bomb, ‘Little Boy’, was detonated on Monday 6^th August 1945, the Nagasaki bomb, nicknamed ‘Fat Man’, was detonated at 11:02 am, on Thursday 9^th August 1945. The Nagasaki bomb is less well-documented than the Hiroshima bomb, possibly because less people died (around 80,000 compared to 140,000 in Hiroshima by the end of the year). Around half of the total deaths occurred on the day of the bombs, while the deaths which occurred later came as a result of not only injuries, but also radiation sickness, cancer, and malnutrition. The bombs led to the surrender of Japan on 2^nd September 1945, and also to the country signing a declaration forbidding nuclear armament to ever occur in Japan. Nagasaki hadn’t really been bombed heavily at all until shortly before the nuclear attack, when a few bombs were dropped. This meant that some children were evacuated, reducing the death toll. Nagasaki was only a secondary target, and was attacked after the primary target of the second nuclear bomb, Kokura, was covered by cloud.

Useful Links

http://www.michaelmorpurgo.org - Michael Morpurgo's official website.

http://www.michaelmorpurgo.org/books_kites_flying.html - Morpurgo's latest novel - The Kites are Flying.

http://www.readingmatters.co.uk/book.php?id=57 - A review of the novel.

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=3013075 - Teaching resources from TES.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kensukes-Kingdom-Michael-Morpurgo/dp/1405221747 - Amazon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Morpurgo - Morpurgo on Wikipedia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpSkqC52bNw&feature=related - A video of Kensuke's biography.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncq_Wye43TM Gives an account of the bombing, along with the American justification

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/25/hiroshima-nagasaki-survivor-japan An article on Tsutomo Yamaguchi, the man who incredibly survived both the Hiroshima and the Nagasaki bombings

http://www.orangutans-sos.org/orangutans/crisis Information on the illegal poaching of orang-utans in South-East Asia

http://referaty.atlas.sk/cudzie-jazyky/anglictina/30257/?print=1 Information on the differing views expressed by Defoe and Swift in Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver’s Travels

Vocabulary Enricher - Specialist vocab

The novel contains a number of lists of specialist vocabulary. The main character, Michael, provides detailed descriptions of the boat and sailing, animals in the sea and on the island.

Peggy Sue and sailing.

• Galley.
• Yachtmaster's certificate.
• Skipper.
• Forty-two foot Bowman.
• Taking in sail, winching in, letting out.

Animals.

• Basking shark - 30 to 40 metres in length.
• Flying fish
• The forest was alive with creatures.
• A large, translucent white jellyfish.

Vocabulary Enricher - The boy speaking as a man.

Morpurgo has written this novel in the narrative voice of an adult telling the story of a passage of his childhood. Although it is told as if it is happening at the time of reading, there is use of more complex vocabulary. This shows more of a reflection of the first person narrator.

Examples.

• Thinking back there was a regularity, a sameness about my childhood.
• The cave house was sparsely furnished.
• I would charge back into the sea and frolic as noisily, as provocatively as I could.
• The old man, the mad man, my persecutor.
• I was always disappointed of course, often dejected, but not yet completely despondent.

Vocabulary Enricher - Kensuke's Language

Abunai.....................Danger!

Amerikajin.............An American.

Dameda...................Forbidden.

Eikokujin................An Englishman.

Gomenasai.............Sorry.

Kikanbo..................The name of a baby Orang-Utan.

Kimi........................Kensuke's wife.

Michiya...................Kensuke's son.

Oyasumi nasai.......Goodnight.

Sayonara................Goodbye.

Tomodachi............The name of a Orang-Utan.

Yamero..................Stop!

Summary of the novel

After Michael's father is made redundant, the family decide to leave the doom and gloom of England for a once in a life time, round the world yatch tour. With his mother as ships captain, and his trusty dog Stella Artois barking at the passing waves, they set off from Fareham.

Sailing south to Brazil and then across to South Africa before heading to Australia and the Pacific. But one stormy night, Michael has a mis-hap whilst alone on watch. Seemingly alone, washed up on a small island, Michael begins an unusual friendship, one that keeps him alive and eventually a familiar yatch comes sailing into view.

Written by Michael Morpurgo and illustrated by Michael Foreman, this is a tremendous young persons travel novel. Winner of the children's book award.