Kazuo Ishiguro's An Artist of the Floating World: Answering Excerpt & Essay Questions

There aren't many novels that address the Second World War and its influence on Asian Countries as well as Kazuo Ishiguro's An Artist of the Floating World. Neither are there many criticism of this novel. This book, therefore, intends to highlight the importance of this novel by critiquing the story and looking at its effect on Japan. In the novel, Kazuo Ishiguro highlights the conflict that results from the varying attitudes towards the Second World War in Japan, especially the contrast between the thinking of the youth and the older generation. This booklet in particular aims at helping the student or the teacher of An Artist of the Floating World to understand how to approach questions - both excerpts drawn from the novel and essay questions - in order to perfor as well as possible. To do this, the book examines the interpretation of QUESTION WORDS recognizing that this is one major problem which causes poor performance. Second, the book examines essay writing, beginning to how to write a paragraph, how to write introductory and concluding paragraphs and also, how to integrate the body paragraphs. The book gives several examples of essays written this way to make it easier for the student to follow. Finally, the book gives the meaning of major literary terms using examples drawn from the novel to make it easier for the student to use them and also understand other critics. Two things need to be said. One, that this book is a third in a series. The other two examine the elements of literature such as plot analysis, characters, theme and style in An Artist of the Floating World; they should be read before this. Second, that this book uses the template of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination English exam through which students matriculate to mid-level colleges and universities. Students and teachers from elsewhere should use this as a basis since their own exams may have different requirements in terms of time, the nature of questions as well as the marks awarded to the questions. Otherwise, the skills taught here are universal.