Empire of the Sun

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1984

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-10

Part 1, Chapters 11-19

Part 2

Parts 3 and 4

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Character Analysis

Jim

Jim, the protagonist, is loosely based off author J.G. Ballard as a boy. He is a child of the Second World War. At the novel’s start, his life and imagination are saturated with images and discussion of conflict. As he astutely asks himself, “had his brain been damaged by too many war films?” (5) His formative years dominated by war, Jim internalizes the ideals of courage and martial prowess fed to him by the endless newsreels. This leads him to valorize fighter pilots, especially Japanese ones, who appear to epitomize these values. It also puts him in good stead when he is separated from his parents. His acceptance of war, combined with his natural resourcefulness and independence, helps him survive in the hostile and chaotic environment after the Japanese annex the International Settlement. Likewise, he endures weeks alone in the detention center and the arduous journey to Lunghua camp by embracing the challenge and adventure of the conflict.

However, Jim’s relationship to the war starts to change. Although at first, “he had learned to enjoy the war” (164), relishing the sight of planes and war-scarred landscapes, it eventually has a darker effect on him. His identity becomes so enmeshed with war that he cannot envision a world without it. This is why he continually asks as World War II comes to an end, “had World War III begun?” (282). He starts to identify himself with the reality of death, first saying that “it would be for the best if they all died” (210). He then goes even further wondering whether he or his soul “were already dead?” (210). In the end, he returns to his parents, to England and to peace. Yet, as he says at the novel’s end, part of him would remain in that world of death forever, “returning on the tide like the coffins launched from the funeral piers at Nantao” (298). For Jim, Ballard suggests, the impact of Shanghai and the war is so deep that it will never truly leave him.

Basie

When Jim meets Basie for the first time, he reflects that his “entire upbringing could have been designed to prevent him from meeting people like Basie” (76). Yet he also adds, “[T]he war had changed everything” (76). Prior to the outbreak of war, Basie had been an entertainer on a cruise ship. As such, his class and social position was much below that of Jim or his parents. However, the war allowed for an equalizing or even reversal of positions. So while many allied prisoners view the war with horror, Basie sees it as an opportunity. Dr. Ransome goes so far as to say in the camp that “wars exist for people like Basie” (177). On the one hand, the war had taken away the automatic superiority of people like Mr. Maxted or the Vincents. On the other hand, it allows Basie to use the tricks learnt as an entertainer and his natural charisma to not just survive but flourish. Going into Lunghua camp with nothing, he manages by the war’s end to have accumulated a treasure trove of clothes, magazines, and sporting goods.

This is why, as Dr Ransome also says to Jim, “it’s a good thing that you’re friends with Basie” (177). Jim’s alliance with Basie at the detention center and the camp allows him, in exchange for assisting Basie, to get the extra food which is crucial to his survival. It also saves his life when one of Basie’s fellow bandits is about to kill Jim. Nonetheless, their relationship remains one of convenience. Basie dumps Jim in the detention center, leaves the boy when escaping the camp, and abandons him after the bandits have picked Jim up. Basie remains, at heart, exploitative in his dealings with others and Jim. And his cynicism is motivated by the realization that with the wars end he could end up as “a wine-waiter at the Cathay hotel” (282). He looks to make the most for himself during the chaos of the war because afterward the old social structures and hierarchies will reassert themselves.

Dr. Ransome

While Basie represents and teaches Jim cynicism, Dr. Ransome, a doctor Jim meets on the truck journey to Lunghua camp, tries to cultivate compassion and civility in Jim compassion. For example, on the trip to Lunghua, “by an enormous effort of will [Dr. Ransome] had told Jim to strip and had washed his clothes in the pigs’ water trough” (119). As seen in this example, Dr. Ransome tries to arrest any descent of Jim into barbarism. He does this by ensuring that Jim continues to practice personal hygiene. At the camp, he also strives to keep Jim meaningfully occupied. He works with Jim to grow vegetables in the camp garden and gives the boy Latin and arithmetic homework. As such, Ransome provides Jim with important structure within the otherwise chaotic world of the camp. And he inculcates in Jim a respect for the education and productive work.

However, Ransome is not entirely selfless or without flaws. As Jim notes on the truck journey, “for all his displays of public spirit, Dr. Ransome had drunk more than his fair share of the water” (110). Even though at that moment there was not enough water to go around, Dr. Ransome had prioritized and ensured his own survival. Through his work as a doctor, Ransome, like Basie, accumulates comforts and goods not available to others. Moreover, his attempts to promote civilized values and keep up morale become more problematic as the novel progresses. Getting starving prisoners to play rugby, for instance, demonstrates a certain detachment from reality. In his efforts to “civilize” the camp, he ends up ignoring or downplaying the full horror of what is unfolding there. This is symbolized by his relationship to religion. As Jim says, “the doctor was curiously reluctant to discuss religious topics with Jim, although he himself went to church services on Sunday morning” (173). Dr. Ransome does not want to delve into issues of meaning and death precisely because such questions are too close to home when prisoners are dying every day.