<p>Name: ______Date: ______Period: ______Black Rain Seminar Questions</p><p>Directions: Choose FOUR of the following prompts to respond to in writing. Be sure to include specific textual evidence to support your ideas. </p><p>1) Trees are a powerful motif in Black Rain. Consider the denotation of a tree and then the connotations of trees as they appear at specific moments in this book. Dig deep to the roots of this motif. Why might Ibuse rely upon it so heavily? What are the effects on the reader?</p><p>2) Reread Chapter 8 and think about the particulars of setting—in this case, the train and its motion or non-motion. Relate details of the setting to the stories being told and the narrative structures of each story. How does this impact the reading of the novel?</p><p>3) Consider the importance of fire and water as archetypal symbols of destruction and creation in Chapter 9. How do they function in the structure of the chapter? How are these symbols used and altered (from what we normally expect of them) in this chapter and other parts of the novel? </p><p>4) How does record-keeping (preservation of what happened) function in the text? Consider the denotation of records and record keeping before plunging into specific meanings and examples in the novel. What are the effects on the reader? </p><p>5) Festivals are mentioned several times in the novel. How does Ibuse use the idea of ritual in his story? What functions do these rituals serve? What is the denotation of ritual? Consider this before looking deeper into the connotations of ritual as they appear in the text. What are the effects on the reader?</p><p>6) In many respects, Black Rain is not about the dropping of the bomb so much as it is about both the baseness and integrity that come out in humans at remarkable, devastating times. How do humans react to the bomb and what it brings? What stories about being human lie beneath the dropping of the bomb, the gore, and the horror? What is Ibuse saying about the human condition based on specific moments that you underscore from the book? What are the effects on the reader? </p><p>7) Ibuse uses contrast on a number of different levels: burns that do not hurt, rain (normally something pure) that is black, a child playing with his dead mother’s burned breast (normally a symbol for nurturing), a river (normally pure and cleansing) of dead bodies. What is Ibuse doing with the idea of contrast in his novel? What meaning should we derive from it? What are the effects on the reader?</p><p>8) How does reading Black Rain from a modern Western perspective influence its impact? How can a Western audience explain or justify the atomic bomb when confronted with this point of view?</p><p>(continued on back) 9) John Bester, in the preface to his translation of Black Rain, said that he “had considerable doubts” about its subject. He asked himself, “Could the author possibly have avoided stridency, sentimentality, melodrama, monotony, and all the other pitfalls? Could such a theme yield, in the widest sense, beauty? Could it, in short, be fashioned into a work of art?" Explore the answers to these questions. </p><p>10) Birds are also a powerful motif in Black Rain. Consider the denotation of a bird and then the connotations of birds as they appear at specific moments in this book. Why might Ibuse rely upon these images so heavily? What are the effects on the reader?</p><p>11) Watch the 1989 movie adaptation of Black Rain and discuss the director’s treatment of the novel. What elements of the novel are lost in the film’s depiction of the story? What is gained? Identify elements of the film that expanded your understanding of the novel.</p><p>12) CHOOSE YOUR OWN QUESTION. Write your own original discussion question in space below and write a thoughtful response with textual evidence to support your ideas. </p>