Writing your analysis for After Darkness is no easy feat!
After Darkness is a complicated read that looks into the experience of WWII in Australia from the eyes of an outsider. Not to mention, the novel is packed with literary techniques that are worth finding and analysing if you want to chase that A+!
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After Darkness by Christine Piper Summary
Key Characters in After Darkness
Context
Themes Explored in After Darkness
Essay Analysis of After Darkness
After Darkness by Christine Piper Summary
After Darkness is a piece of historical fiction with Doctor Tomakazu Ibaraki is the protagonist of the story. Ibaraki is a Japanese surgeon living in Australia during the course of World War II.
The story is told in three parts, each corresponding to a certain time frame in the character’s story.
It therefore uses a non-chronological structure — so, to understand this novel back to front, keep this in mind to save yourself time and effort! Although this is only apparent by the end of the novel, the book is written as though Ibaraki is reflecting on his past.
Here is the broad outline of the three parts!
Ibaraki at Loveday Detainment Camp
Doctor Tomakazu Ibaraki’s fortunes take a bitter turn when he is forcefully sent to a detainment camp in 1942. He is transferred to remote Loveday in South Australia, after being considered an ‘enemy’ by authorities.
The main reasoning behind this is due to Japan siding with the Axis powers of World War 2.
In this first segment of the novel, Ibaraki learns to live in the deeply divided social structure of the camp, trying to fit in and working as a doctor among rising tensions between inmates and cultural differences.
Ibaraki’s Arrival in Broome
The second section takes place in the pearling harbour of Broome, 1938, where Ibaraki works after he leaves Japan.
Here he meets Sister Bernice, an Australian-born nun in charge of his care there. Ibaraki sees her as a mother figure, as well as a simultaneous love interest.
Bernice is instrumental in the audience’s understanding of Ibaraki. She conditions him to open up parts of him that he usually keeps hidden and also reveals his compassion and good nature. Sister Bernice is a calm individual, and a sharp contrast to Ibaraki’s instability.
Ibaraki in Tokyo
The novel, however, delves into perhaps the most disturbing part of Ibaraki’s life back in 1934, Tokyo.
Here the subject is Ibaraki’s involvement in the infamous Unit 731, and the crumbling marriage that then moves him to escape Japan and find work in Broome, Australia. As a training surgeon, it becomes apparent that Ibaraki did not intend to pursue his involvement with the horrific and inhuman experiments conducted in the Epidemic Prevention Laboratory within the Army Medical College in Tokyo.
Ibraki is exposed to experimentation with deadly bacteria and disease on live subjects, as well as weapon testing and disturbing human experiments.
Despite this, he is promptly fired when refusing to dissect a child’s body infected with disease. His marriage with his wife Kayoko is also threatened by their personality differences, which ultimately end up causing the couple to divorce.
Kayoko is relatively liberal as an individual, a stark contrast to Ibaraki’s stubbornness and tendencies to blind loyalty (shown also in Loveday Camp).
It is revealed that both Kayoko and their child passes away.
Key Characters in After Darkness
Ibaraki
Portrayed as a doubtful, fragile human being, Ibaraki has to find his way through the dismal circumstances he is chained to. Unfortunately, his nature is to doubt of his own capabilities at the wrong time, leading him to think of himself as often useless or unprepared or weak.
This is of great importance, as Ibaraki’s choices throughout his story either cause or are an effect of his personality. This is also the starting point from which Ibaraki can discover his true value as a human being and his internal strength, given the circumstances he has been put into.
Kayoko
As Ibaraki’s wife, Kayoko presents herself as opposed to her husband’s loyalty complex and his insecurities.
She appears as a more decisive character, surer of her beliefs, and more liberal than Ibaraki. These differences terminate their relationship, but are nevertheless important to highlight ibaraki’s shortcomings and his beginnings in terms of his character arc.
Kayoko acts as Ibaraki’s rock through his time working in the human experimentation departments.
Sister Bernice
As a later love interest of Ibaraki and a simple, and extremely kind soul, sister Bernice acts in a similar way to Kayoko for Ibaraki. The doctor is always swept off his feet by her kindness, her predisposition to help others, and her selflessness.
“Without her, my world shrunk”, says Ibaraki, conveying her significance to him. It is this kindness that allows the protagonist to open up, a kindness he was not shown back in Japan except for when he was with Kayoko.
Johnny Chang
As the main antagonist of the book, this inmate stirs trouble in Loveday camp by refusing to obey his superiors. Ibaraki opposes him at first, not understanding his plight.
Johnny is half Chinese half Japanese and, like Ibaraki, is caught in a limbo between different cultures that refuse him. The Japanese despise him for his Chinese heritage, while the Chinese resent him for his Japanese heritage, and Australians don’t consider him one of their own.
Ibaraki is in this self-same predicament, not Australian enough and an outcast in the eyes of the Japanese. It is through Johnny that Ibaraki discovers the gravity of the situation he is in.
Context
WWII in Australia
Australian immigrants during WWII, especially those from “enemy” countries, were ostracised and often found culpable of espionage and sabotage.
For this reason, they were outcasts in society and were often interned in prison camps to contain possibilities of treason. These assumptions were mostly unfounded, and most immigrants were in fact refugees from war or individuals with a troubled past trying to start a new life, like Ibaraki.
Christina Piper’s Personal Context
After Darkness is also an exploration of the writer’s own family and cultural identity.
In her own words, Piper says “I became interested in this topic because my mother is Japanese. In some ways, writing from a Japanese perspective was an effort to get to know the culture from within.”
Themes Explored in After Darkness
Silence and Loneliness
Ibaraki’s extensive time spent practising terrible experiments on human beings take a toll on Ibaraki. His superiors scare him into keeping everything secret and not confiding in anyone.
This leads Ibaraki to become secretive and eventually destroys his relationships. Ibaraki does not know precisely whether secrecy is “comfort or a terror” He hides his nature and imput when his significant others are trying to get his perspectives.
“Gripped by the feeling that [he] didn’t belong” is how Ibaraki ends up as a consequence.
Culture and Belonging
Ibaraki, like the many inmates caught behind the walls of Loveday camp, finds himself in a particularly dire situation that puts into doubt the protagonist’s very identity.
He is disliked equally by his home culture and country, as well as by the culture and country he has taken refuge into. He is therefore caught in a limbo, between two cultures he feels he does not belong to.
Time
Piper cleverly comments on the past’s ability to significantly affect the present and future of people, and the need to resolve those unresolved questions that challenge existence.
This is done through the fragmented timeline in which the story is told.
It appears as though once Ibaraki reflects on his shortcomings, he realises he hasn’t yet eliminated or addressed these weaknesses, despite having many chances to do so. This eventually leads him to think that “despite everything [he] had been through in the previous eight years, it seemed [he] had returned to the point at which [he’d begun].”
Essay Analysis: How to Analyse After Darkness in 3 Steps
Step 1: Choose your Example
The best way to choose an example is to choose a technique.
Remember you must include stylistic devices (how images and words are arranged in a text in order to produce meaning), and aesthetic features (elements that prompt a critical response from the reader) in your essays to gain the most marks.
In After Darkness, themes are a great window into exploring both the psychology of the protagonist, as well as the intrinsic purpose of the book itself. We’ll concentrate on the theme of Silence and Loneliness as our example:
“I had often wondered what it was like for the divers, who had to work alone for hours on end in their subterranean world. Was the silence a comfort or a terror to them?”
Step 2: Identify your technique(s)
In this introspective metaphor, almost soliloquy-like piece of dialogue, Piper utilises characterisation to make audiences aware of ibaraki’s internal conflict.
Here Ibaraki doubts himself and his proclivity to keep quiet as a force of good. Ibaraki begins to think it may be the reason why his loved ones have left him.
Step 3: Write the analysis
Always be ready to ask yourself what the author intended you to feel/respond emotionally by reading the example quote. This will make sure that you tackle an important part of the analysis, which is the effect on the reader.
For example:
Christine Piper masterfully utilises dialogue and metaphor to reveal the theme of silence and loneliness in her historical fiction ‘After Darkness’: “I had often wondered what it was like for the divers, who had to work alone for hours on end in their subterranean world. Was the silence a comfort or a terror to them?” Hence, this metaphoric reflection is a testimony to Ibaraki’s will to better himself and his talent for introspection, that ultimately make him realise that his silence and lack of expression is part of the cause of his suffering.
Need some help with your essay analysis of other texts aside from After Darkness?
Check out other texts we’ve created guides for below:
- Jane Eyre
- Run Lola Run
- Romeo and Juliet
- The Tempest
- Little Miss Sunshine
- King Lear
- In Cold Blood
- Persepolis
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- The Book Thief
- Things Fall Apart
- Blade Runner
- Mrs Dalloway
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