King Rat Analysis
The author
James Clavell, born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell was a British novelist, screenwriter, director and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Many of his novels were converted to movies, most famous of them being The Great Escape with Steve McQueen. In WW II he was wounded by machine-gun fire, he was eventually captured and sent to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp on Java. Later he was transferred to Changi Prison in Singapore.
He suffered greatly at the hands of his Japanese captors. Changi was notorious for its poor living conditions. Clavell was reportedly saved, along with an entire battalion, by an American prisoner.
The novel
This is captured in the novel King Rat from 1962. The novel opens in early 1945. Peter Marlowe, a young British Flight Lieutenant, has been a P.O.W. since 1942. He describes horrible conditions in Changi. The P.O.W.'s are given nothing by the Japanese other than filthy huts to live in and the bare minimum of food needed to prevent starvation. Officers from various parts of Britain's Asian empire are reduced to wearing rags and homemade shoes. Biggest concern is obtaining enough food to stay alive from day to day and avoiding disease or injury, since almost no medical care is available. Some literally steal food out the mouths of their comrades, while others give away what they have or take terrible risks to help their friends. Then Marlowe meets with „King“, an american corporal who became infamous throughout the camp as the most successful trader and black marketeer in Changi. Actually he was the only one who lived like a human being with clean clothes and enough food for more than 5 men. They become close friends, later Marlowe helps King with his trades. Marlowe being a naive idealist then sees how the world really works, he changes his points of view what makes his bond with King even stronger. The book ends with liberation of the camp by British forces. King leaves to America and is never seen by Marlove again.
James Clavell, born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell was a British novelist, screenwriter, director and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Many of his novels were converted to movies, most famous of them being The Great Escape with Steve McQueen. In WW II he was wounded by machine-gun fire, he was eventually captured and sent to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp on Java. Later he was transferred to Changi Prison in Singapore.
He suffered greatly at the hands of his Japanese captors. Changi was notorious for its poor living conditions. Clavell was reportedly saved, along with an entire battalion, by an American prisoner.
The novel
This is captured in the novel King Rat from 1962. The novel opens in early 1945. Peter Marlowe, a young British Flight Lieutenant, has been a P.O.W. since 1942. He describes horrible conditions in Changi. The P.O.W.'s are given nothing by the Japanese other than filthy huts to live in and the bare minimum of food needed to prevent starvation. Officers from various parts of Britain's Asian empire are reduced to wearing rags and homemade shoes. Biggest concern is obtaining enough food to stay alive from day to day and avoiding disease or injury, since almost no medical care is available. Some literally steal food out the mouths of their comrades, while others give away what they have or take terrible risks to help their friends. Then Marlowe meets with „King“, an american corporal who became infamous throughout the camp as the most successful trader and black marketeer in Changi. Actually he was the only one who lived like a human being with clean clothes and enough food for more than 5 men. They become close friends, later Marlowe helps King with his trades. Marlowe being a naive idealist then sees how the world really works, he changes his points of view what makes his bond with King even stronger. The book ends with liberation of the camp by British forces. King leaves to America and is never seen by Marlove again.