Empire of the Sun by James Graham Ballard

Type :

Book review

Pages :

20 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

06/27/2008

Category :

Philosophy & literature

Sub category :

Literature

Oboulo.com selection criteria

$ 19.95 Add to cart

Summary :

Everywhere in the city people were watching movie reels of the war.
Behind Dr. Lockwood's estate was the Hungjao airfield where the Chinese faught the Japanese in 1937 trying to keep them from reaching Shanghai.
Jim woke up in his room on the 10th floor of the Palace Hotel they stayed in that night and looked out the window to see the Shanghai waterfront.
Finally the reality of his situation is sinking in.
Jim was half his size and looked older from the time he spent scrounging for food.
Jim is happy to have been caught because he is hoping to be sent to the same camp his mother or father are being held at.
The truck full of prisoners of war set off for the camp in Woosung.
They traveled in the truck for days trying to find an already established prisoner camp.
Jim is doing whatever he needs to survive and the book takes a new turn in part two.
Dr. Ransome told Jim to eat the tomatoes himself and gave Jim two condoms to give to Basie.
The prisoners were so weak they could not make the journey and sat down to die.
Jim still has no sense of security but the food dropped from the sky gives him happiness.
Even though Jim is reunited with his parents and has his belongings back from his previous life, nothing is the same.

Abstract

Jim, an eleven year old boy, and his parents are living in a wealthy European area in Shanghai during World War II. The novel begins the evening before the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. Most of the European families had already been evacuated from China, and there were many scrambling to get aboard ships even with the threat of German submarines near the Yangtze River. Jim and his family, on this night, were planning to attend a Christmas party at a friend, Dr. Lockwood's house.

Everywhere in the city people were watching movie reels of the war. Even Jim, after church the sunday morning of December 7th, was taken down to the crypt of the church with the other choir boys and forced to watch reels of the war before they could go home.