Battle Royale
Battle Royale
Throughout the novel Battle Royale, by Koushun Takami, the reader is introduced to a long list of students from the school. Each time one of these characters is revealed the author tells you a little background information on them and gives you a look at who they are. As the story continues the author tells of how the East Asia Empire has instituted a government mandate that makes each child, when they turn fifteen, eligible to be drafted into The Program. The Program is a government entity that puts fifteen year old students on an island and tells them that if they want to survive they must kill all of their classmates. So naturally as the story unfolds everything the reader has been led to believe about these people can be completely forgotten because most likely what or who you thought someone was is not true at all. This is quite understandable due to the nature of the situation they are in, however, some students stay the same. Amongst this group of almost new characters that emerge two stand out, Shuya Nanahara and Shogo Kawanda. Shuya Nanahara is the character in this novel that helps the story hold on to some semblance of sanity, he remains the person who no matter what happens his number one priority remains trying to find a way for the most people alive as possible; on the other hand Shogo Nanahara is a character that begins as someone with a seemingly villainous nature but ends up as a hero.
In the beginning of the novel Shogo Kawanda seems to be a mysterious loner of sorts who is covered in scars that every kid in class is scared to talk to. He is described as being “a notorious thug at his last school,” and “his body was covered in scars,” (Takami 15). After hearing the description of this character it seems as though something is not right. It leaves the reader thinking about why Shogo makes them feel so uneasy. Even though not much is known about him early on in the story the author portrays him as some one to be on the look out
Throughout the novel Battle Royale, by Koushun Takami, the reader is introduced to a long list of students from the school. Each time one of these characters is revealed the author tells you a little background information on them and gives you a look at who they are. As the story continues the author tells of how the East Asia Empire has instituted a government mandate that makes each child, when they turn fifteen, eligible to be drafted into The Program. The Program is a government entity that puts fifteen year old students on an island and tells them that if they want to survive they must kill all of their classmates. So naturally as the story unfolds everything the reader has been led to believe about these people can be completely forgotten because most likely what or who you thought someone was is not true at all. This is quite understandable due to the nature of the situation they are in, however, some students stay the same. Amongst this group of almost new characters that emerge two stand out, Shuya Nanahara and Shogo Kawanda. Shuya Nanahara is the character in this novel that helps the story hold on to some semblance of sanity, he remains the person who no matter what happens his number one priority remains trying to find a way for the most people alive as possible; on the other hand Shogo Nanahara is a character that begins as someone with a seemingly villainous nature but ends up as a hero.
In the beginning of the novel Shogo Kawanda seems to be a mysterious loner of sorts who is covered in scars that every kid in class is scared to talk to. He is described as being “a notorious thug at his last school,” and “his body was covered in scars,” (Takami 15). After hearing the description of this character it seems as though something is not right. It leaves the reader thinking about why Shogo makes them feel so uneasy. Even though not much is known about him early on in the story the author portrays him as some one to be on the look out
Cited: Takami, Koushun. Battle Royale. 2nd. San Fransisco: Haika Soru, 1999. Print.