Essay Questions

Is Empire of the Sun better classified as a historical account or a coming-of-age story? Support your answer.

The novel has equal elements of both historical accounts as well as a coming-of-age story. There are several narratives of historical events but told through the eyes of a young boy as he experiences World War II. These historical events in turn shape his young mind and his decisions in the future. It is also a deeply personal account of a young boy’s rather forced maturation as he is exposed to the horrors of war. The dreadfulness of war acting almost like a terrible catalyst for his growth as a person.

What do airplanes symbolize in the novel?

Jim copes with the isolation of having been placed in a POW camp by fantasizing about being a Japanese fighter pilot. Using this line of thinking airplanes can represent several ideas. It can symbolize freedom for young Jim who is effectively a child-prisoner at a camp; despite being a harbinger of war--another possible idea that they symbolize--to Jim’s young mind airplanes are fantastic machines that are not bound by the laws of gravity. They also symbolize power, a matter that Jim greatly respects and to a certain extent, identifies with having seen the Japanese fighter planes in action. Airplanes can also symbolize hope of war’s end, as they are the vanguard of the American forces.

Would you consider Jim as an unreliable narrator? Support your answer.

Jim is a young boy when the novel starts and although there is an innocence and a certain degree a naiveté in his pronouncements and observations it does not make him an unreliable narrator. In fact, it is his lack of bias and socio-political inclination that makes him the exact opposite. He narrates events with a matter-of-fact tone, not clouded by prejudice, thus allowing him to tell a story without inserting any extraneous emotions that might sway the opinion of the reader.