Helpful Tasks / Things to Consider:
1. List or depict in complete sentences the physical setting or settings in Kanae's poem, keeping in mind that the physical setting refers to elements such as the scenery, the geographical features, the weather. |
| 2. List or depict in complete sentences the psychological setting or settings in Kanae's poem, keeping in mind that the psychological setting often refers to the mood, or the pathos-based appeal of the setting. |
| 3. List or depict in complete sentences the cultural setting or settings in Kanae's poem, keeping in mind that cultural setting often refers to the habits of the inhabitants, or the religious or social patterns they exhibit. |
| 4. Explain how the settings themselves are ripe with conflict or tension. |
| 5. What is Kanae's narrator's primary concern? What does this narrator, as the protagonist, really want? What is this narrator's goal? |
| 6. Express who the antagonists are in this poem, keeping in mind that an antagonist, the opposing force to the main character, often tries to prevent the protagonist’s quest for the goal. Is the antagonist a human being? Discuss. |
| 7. Express who the alazon(s) is/are in this poem, keeping in mind that the Alazon is most frequently the helping character(s) who assist the protagonist in some way. |
8. Discuss any or ALL of the various conflicts that can be found in this poem: • Human-vs-human; |
9. • Universal symbols that embody universally recognizable meanings wherever used, such as light to symbolize knowledge, a skull to symbolize death, etc., • Constructed symbols that are given symbolic meaning by the way an author uses them in a literary work, as the white whale becomes a symbol of evil in Moby Dick. Based on these definitions, can you find universal symbols or constructed symbols in this poem? What are these universal or constructed symbols and how are they applied? |
| 10. What is the ultimate theme of this poem? What is Kanae's narrator trying to convey to you, the reader? |
| 11. Discuss the role of music in this poem. How is the music choice ironic? |
| 12. As a K.C.C. student, how can your relate, if at all, to the girl depicted in this poem? |
| 13. Discuss the role of irony in this piece. What makes the piece ironic? |
14. Create a viable thesis statment for this poem, starting with... Lisa Kanae’s poem, “Island Girl” . . . . . .. (continue) |
Print, download, or view the original online version, here:
http://www.downwindproductions.com/kanae.html
ISLAND GIRL
On the cover of the Royal Hawaiian
Shopping Center brochure,
a girl wears a crown of plumeria
tilted slightly forward -
grazes the top of her eyebrows.
Straight black hair
frames her airbrushed face.
During the photo shoot,
in the photographer's backyard,
Bach's Air in the Key of G
floats over tripods and wardrobe racks.
Silver umbrellas filter ten o'clock sunlight.
She wears plaid boxer shorts
beneath a borrowed red pareau.
Between costume changes she studies
prerequisite world history 151, while
the stylist retouches her blush,
reapplies glue to an uncooperative eyelash.
The girl's features are not Asian,
Caucasian, or Pacific Islander.
More like the "other" on a census form.
A face without allegiance to one ethnicity,
ad agency exotic: one print hits
more than two market targets.
After the photo shoot,
she catches the number 47, Waikiki
gets off at the coffee shop
between Kalakaua Avenue and Lewers Street.
She enters the women's restroom
before the dinner rush,
changes in to a kapa-print uniform to
greet three hundred guests, two to six at a time.
She hands each person a dinner menu
printed in English and Japanese.
Tonight's special --
Try our authentic Hawaiian Pineapple Boat
when you order a Porter House steak with
French fries or rice.
Behind the cashier's counter she
slips coupons inside cocktail menus;
One free continental breakfast
with every twenty-five dollar purchase.
Lisa Linn Kanae, 1991