Grade 9 poetry comparison essay

Identity in 'Kamikaze' and 'Checking Out Me History'

This is a model essay I wrote for my KS3 group class recently. Last term we studied poetry and the course culminated with this GCSE essay style question.

Compare how both poets present identity in Checking Out Me History and Kamikaze.

In terms of structure, I use the OTTER method which you can learn about here.

It isn’t of realistic length for an exam at 1600+ words, but it will give you an idea of how you can structure a comparative essay and lots of ideas on the theme of identity.

Let me know if you find this helpful and I’ll post another–maybe one of realistic length written under strict timed conditions.

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Grade 9 essay

Both poets present how an individual’s identity is affected by society. In Checking Out Me History, the speaker’s sense of identity is affected by their education, what he is and is not taught; whereas in Kamikaze, the father, who is the subject of the poem, is publicly shamed and shunned because of his actions in war: he decides not to complete his suicide mission and return home, essentially deserting his country. Both poems explore the importance of national identity and being rooted to place. However, ‘Checking Out Me History’ is an empowering poem about reconnecting and shaping one’s own identity against a backdrop of colonial rule and oppression, and ‘Kamikaze’ is a poem about failing to meet societal expectations and the repercussions of failing one’s country. 

‘Checking Out Me History’ begins with the anaphora of ‘Dem tell me’ and this immediately evokes a tone of defiance, presenting the poem as a protest poem. The anonymised ‘dem’ probably refers to the British government or the education board who wrote the speaker’s curriculum. The plosive consonance evokes a tone of indignation as if to suggest the speaker is fed up with being told what is important and whose histories deserve mention. 

This tone then complements the opening metaphor, ‘Bandage up me eye with me own history/ blind me to me own identity’ in which the speaker suggests that the Anglocentric curriculum he has been taught has dominated the curriculum to such an extent that the history of his own people and of important Caribbean figures has been completely neglected. Again Agard uses plosive consonance, beginning each line with plosive bs to emphasise his anger and frustration. This stanza best captures the message of the poem which is that education affects our own sense of identity, and perhaps that schools and education boards have a moral duty to teach or connect students with the histories of their own cultures and not to leave them in the dark. As Agard grew up in Guyana under British colonial rule, he might have found it odd that his own education was focussed on the histories of peoples on the other side of the world, and that the Anglocentric education he received came at the expense of learning more about the culture and history of Guyana and the histories of those culturally connected to Guyana. 

Structurally, Agard uses counterpoint or juxtaposition. In his own words, the stanzas which pay tribute to important, heroic Caribbean and African figures, provide a ‘counterpoint’ to the stanzas which downplay or belittle the significance of Western historical figures such as Napoleon. There are two distinct voices in the poem: there is the lyrical voice of the italicised stanzas which give praise and credit to the marginalised figures the speaker has learned about to reshape his identity which then contrast with the somewhat condescending and blunt voice present in the other stanzas. For example, Florence Nightingale is comically and dismissively alluded to in the line ‘Florence Nightingale and she lamp’; while Mary Seacole, who was also a nurse, who helped treat and save wounded soldiers during the Crimean war is described poetically with an entire stanza dedicated to her achievements. She is a ‘healing star among the wounded’ and through this metaphor Agard implies her achievements outshine Nightingale’s. The speaker seems to resonate with the story of Mary Seacole in a way they don’t with the story of Florence Nightingale, perhaps because she is closer culturally to the poet and because of the additional adversity she had to overcome as well as the fact that she has not been given the credit she deserves.

The final stanza again begins with the refrain ‘Dem tell me’ but the speaker is emboldened to reshape his identity. This is captured in the metaphor, ‘But now I checking out me own history,/ I carving out me own identity’. The use of the discourse marker ‘But’ signals a volta in the poem in which the speaker asserts his resolve to reform his identity. The speaker will not passively accept the identity he has been given by his colonial education, but will educate himself and in this sense form his own identity. The speaker moves from being a passive ‘me’, the object of the sentence in the opening line, to being an active ‘I’, the subject in the last line. This suggests the speaker has found a new sense of agency to influence his own identity: he moves away from identifying himself with the Eurocentric cultural capital he has been taught to prize, ‘1066 and all dat’ to embracing and celebrating the achievements of Caribbean and African figures like those who are revered in the poem.

Similarly, Kamikaze focuses on the importance and value we attach to national identity. But whereas the speaker in ‘Checking Out Me History’ moves from feeling disconnected from their own history to then feeling rooted, the father, who is the subject of the poem in Kamikaze, goes from being a hero, someone who is proud to die for their country, to a social pariah. The poem begins recounting how the father must have felt before he set off on his mission. The atmosphere is one of national pride and determination. In the cockpit, the father carries a ‘samurai sword’, a national symbol of Japan representing the brave Samurai warriors of the past who would have been willing to sacrifice themselves for their country as the father is about to do. And he has ‘a shaven head full of powerful incantations’ which evokes images of Buddhist monks chanting, further emphasising the sense of purpose and resolve he feels to serve and die for his country, to die a hero as captured in the metaphor in the final line of the stanza, ‘a one way journey into history’. So whereas the speaker in ‘Checking Out Me History’ feels oppressed by his colonial rulers, the father feels determined and ready to take up the call to arms and sacrifice himself for his. 

However, the father completely loses his heroic status and sense of identity, and this is captured in the metaphor in the final two lines, ‘And sometimes, she said, he must have wondered/ which had been the better way to die.’ This metaphor emphasises how the father lives in a kind of purgatory, existing as a ghost among his family, shamed and shunned by the society which would have revered him as a hero had he sacrificed himself. The father dies a figurative death and his daughter imagines he must have wondered if he thought his life had really been worth living. This is opposite to the narrative arc of the speaker in ‘Checking Out Me History’ who begins the poem by expressing how disconnected he feels to the history and culture of his people as encapsulated in the metaphor of ‘bandage up me own eye to me own history’ to feeling empowered to reconnect with his own heritage through the concluding metaphor of ‘carving out [his] identity’.

Structurally both poems use contrast and juxtaposition to emphasise key ideas about identity. In Kamikaze, the resolute and fearless warrior the father is presented as at the beginning of the poem is contrasted with the social pariah and living ghost he becomes post war–whose own children are taught to ignore him. Garland also juxtaposes the way the grandfather is welcomed home from his fishing expeditions with the way he is treated. Whereas, the father and his brother waited expectantly for their father to return home from fishing ‘safe to the shore, salt shodden awash/ with cloud marked mackerel’, the speaker suggests it would have been better if the father had died and never returned. In the description of the grandfather’s return from fishing, Garland includes the image of the father and his brother building ‘cairns of pearl-grey pebbles’ which evokes a playful and joyful atmosphere as they wait for their father to return with a great bounty of fish, presenting him as a provider. The use of sibilance evokes a tranquil tone and is perhaps used to mimic the calm sound of the breakers. This description is in stark contrast to the way the father is treated when he returns home in which the atmosphere is stifling with his own wife never speaking again ‘in his presence’ or even ever meeting his eyes. Similarly, Agard uses juxtaposition to differentiate between who should be celebrated and who he values, juxtaposing marginalised Caribbean and African historical figures with more widely recognised European figures.

Kamikaze also ends with a message of reeducation, but whereas Agard resolves to reeducate himself, the family of the father in Kamikaze, specifically the children are taught to shun their own father. The daughter says she was taught ‘to be silent, to live as/ though he had never returned’ and the use of caesura slows down the pace and evokes a more solemn tone in contrast with the determined and empowered tone of the speaker in ‘Checking Out Me History’ in the final stanza. The final stanza emphasises the idea that the father has brought shame by returning and loses his former identity. Garland invites the reader to reflect on how devastating it would have been for men like this, who chose not to complete their kamikaze missions to return home, to be with their families, but ironically ended up being treated as if they no longer existed.

In summary, the father in ‘Kamikaze’ through his actions in war loses his sense of identity and status irrevocably. Whereas the speaker in ‘Checking Out Me History’ feels a lack of identity and connection to his heritage as a result of a blinkered colonial education, but appears to be in the process of reconnecting with his roots and resolves to reshape his identity by reeducating himself. Additionally, in Kamikaze, the father appears to be powerless to change his situation and how others perceive him, whereas the speaker in ‘Checking Out Me History’ feels empowered to reshape his identity and change his own narrative.

What you can take from this

1. Notice how I lead with ideas as much as possible. I always encourage my students to lead with ideas rather than techniques. This will help ensure you are writing about the poets bigger ideas and messages. And in the words of the mark scheme, you will then be taking a conceptualised approach which will secure a top grade.

2. I comment extensively on contrast and tone. You can always comment on the speaker’s tone and there will almost always be juxtaposition to comment on too.

3. Keep quotes short and embed them so you are always keeping the focus clearly on ideas.

Further support

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