Kira-Kira

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2004

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-9

Chapters 10-16

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

Innocent, Childlike Humor

To give the young Katie a believable narrative voice, Kadohata deploys her ability to remember what it was like to be a child. This includes peppering the narration with moments where readers will understand something Katie doesn’t quite grasp yet. As a result, when she is little, Katie’s naïve observations are often funny and full of joy. As the narrative progresses and Katie grows older and encounters some harsh realities, the character of her humor becomes worldlier. For example, in the early portions of the novel, Katie explains that her sister is a genius, which she knows because when she asked, Lynn affirmed it. Reflecting on her tiny mother’s mastery of her father, Katie decides that women know a secret foot-rubbing technique that renders men helpless to resist their wishes. When Uncle and Auntie Fumi disappear into a camping tent and her cousin tells her they are trying to make a baby, Katie reflects that whatever this means, it requires a lot of groaning.

In latter stages of the narrative, Katie’s frank observations deal with more mature issues, yet retain their childlike quality. When her parents break with their traditional distrust of banks to seek a mortgage, Katie is dubious that banks are necessary—Katie has hidden her money in the house, and knows that if a thief tried to steal it, she would simply hit them over the head with a lamp. After she eats five tacos, she describes her parents observing her cautiously: “He and my mother both looked at my stomach as if expecting to see it explode” (214). The author’s use of humor reveals how the sweetness of Katie’s childhood morphs into that of a worldlier person through her Loss of Innocence.

Awkward Exchanges

Scenes of people talking past each other is another motif that enhances the realistic tone of Kira-Kira. Kadohata often uses uncomfortable encounters to highlight hypocrisy and inequities. For instance, when a drunken hotel clerk assumes that the Takeshimas are Indigenous Americans or Mexicans, five-year-old Katie informs her that they are neither. The woman chastises the child for causing trouble. The exchange reveals the clerk’s Prejudice against any family that is not clearly white. When Katie later sees the woman drop her head on the desk, she feels sorry for her, pitying the woman’s ignorance, hypocrisy, and pathetic attempts to use what little authority she has over others.

When 11-year-old Katie asks the inoculator at the hatchery if the injections she gives the chicks is painful, the question draws a particularly compelling reaction. The woman admits she does not know—“Honey, do I look like I can talk to chickens” (163)—and goes on to confess that she sometimes accidentally breaks the neck of a chick while inoculating it, something that clearly bothers her. Like other Factory Workers, she must repetitively act upon thousands of hatchlings while suppressing whatever emotional response the job provokes. In the final chapter, Katie rides with Father, who wants her to see him confess to Mr. Lyndon that he is responsible for smashing the factory owner’s windshield. Mr. Lyndon aggressively demands that Katie take multiple lemon drops from his open candy bowl. “‘Take more!’” he bellowed” (233). This exchange shows both Lyndon’s lack of understanding—Katie does not like lemon drops—and his need to dominate every relationship and facet of his world. The many awkward encounters in the narrative may sometimes be difficult for readers, though always enlightening.

The Ocean as Life

Throughout the narrative, Kadohata returns to Lynn’s yearning to be at the ocean. Lynn longs to travel to California to see the Pacific and walk along the shore. When she becomes bedridden, she listens for hours as Katie reads encyclopedia articles about life under the waves; readers get the sense that Lynn has an inner awareness that she will never live to see the ocean. On one occasion, Lynn dreams that she swam in the ocean, something that should have been beautiful. Yet, as she explains to Katie in a moment of foreshadowing, in her dream, only her spirit was swimming and not her body. Thus, the author uses the ocean as a symbol for everything Lynn longs to experience fully, but never will. Standing on the Pacific shore in the last pages of the book, Katie mourns the absence of her sister while she vicariously rejoices in the ocean on Lynn’s behalf. Metaphorically, the author states that, though Lynn could not fully enjoy the rich fullness of life, Katie and her family will, in large measure because of the way Lynn inspired them.

The Sky as Beauty, Knowledge, and Possibility

Another symbol Kadohata employs throughout is the sky. As they lie on their backs in the middle of a country road at the beginning of the book, Lynn teaches Katie to say “Kira-Kira” (1), a Japanese word that means “glittering”—a description of the sky shimmering with endless stars. Lynn thinks that since the rich colors of the sky are also transparent, the sky is symbolic of beauty and endless possibilities. As they look up, Lynn confides that aliens from other worlds may want to communicate with them and they need to be ready. She implies that potential knowledge falls glittering from the sky for those who observe its beauty. When Sammy is born, the sisters introduce him to the practice of lying on his back and watching the beautiful sky. This habit is renewing for the girls. When Lynn loses mobility, Mother and Katie carry her to the front yard so she can watch the night.

Conversely, the author conveys the failure of knowledge and the end of possibility through descriptions of the sky as well. Katie sits alone in a lawn chair on New Year’s Eve, waiting to see the sunrise but instead falls asleep. She does not see the dawn and awakes to learn that her sister is dead. On New Year’s Day, she stands on a rooftop and watches the final rays of the red sun disappear on the last day of her sister’s life. Lynn’s symbol of beauty, knowledge, and endless possibilities now becomes the marker of a life ended too soon.