Empire Of The Sun

953 Words2 Pages

Loss of identity, loyalty, determination, maturity, survival, death. Empire of the sun is a book written by J.G ballard that is slow paced and its plot distilled to convey out the most potent moments of Ballard’s childhood. The ideas manifested in Ballard’s story teaches us that friendship can often have a greater significance than the matter of our own well-being. As readers, we can relate to the story at a personal level because we live in a society today where our eyes and focus is devoted to the screens of our mobile phones and selfishness dominates our lives and our perspective towards others and our relationship with each other. In Ballard’s book, we see that Jim’s desire for love and human relationship is expressed through kindness …show more content…

At the start of the war, Jim is too young to comprehend what is happening. However, as his mind and body grows, he began to plan his future and envision himself to be one of the japanese fighters, eventually forgetting his parents. ‘Reminding Jim that he had once been a child as Jim had been before the war’ suggests that Jim considers himself as a man and a self dependant person. This book shows well the resilience and the determination of a young child to survive and find his parents that he will be able to see again after years of trying. Jim is not a lucky man, his patience and effort made who he was after the war; his dedication to his mission eventually brought him his victorious outcome. He is a person I would like my friends and the generation that only strives after profit to be introduced to. Ballard’s writing that told us about Jim made the book …show more content…

They had once ‘supplied Jim’s only protection in shanghai’ and he had once befriended a japanese soldier called kimura who Jim grieves upon his death. To Jim's eyes, the japanese must consist of friends and allies. His determination to find his parents have dwindled, and Jim thinks that he himself is Japanese. Jim saw his ‘official’ enemies as allies and friends when the japanese probably saw him as anything but. Hungry Jim looked to the eyes of the japanese and got food, lonely Jim looked up to the eyes of the japanese and found a friend, frightened Jim looked up to the eyes of the japanese and found safety. Young Jim looked to the eyes of the soldiers and found comfort he once found within his lost father. Jim only had the Japanese as a role model, his hero. Ballard’s book and the character he expresses, his own reflection, shows us well that the environment that we place ourselves affects our worldview and how we see ourselves and others around

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