Kensuke's Kingdom

“I promised, and because of that I have had to live out a lie. I could let sleeping lies sleep on, but more than ten years have passed now. I have done school, done college, and had time to think. I owe it to my family and to my friends, all of whom I have deceived for so long, to tell the truth about my long disappearance, about how I lived to come back from the dead.”

In the novel’s opening passage, several literary techniques combine to build intrigue. The metaphorical language of “sleeping lies” and coming “back from the dead” prompts questions about what the narrator has concealed. Morpurgo creates rhythm by repeating words like “lie”/”lies,” “sleeping”/”sleep,” “to my,” and “about.” This repetition gives the words a weighty tone, emphasizing that Michael has thought the matter over carefully before deciding to reveal his true story. The alliteration in the phrase “live out a lie” adds to the passage’s lyrical quality.

“Until I was nearly eleven, until the letter came, life was just normal. There were the four of us in the house: my mother, my father, me, and Stella—Stella Artois, that is, my one-ear-up and one-ear-down black-and-white sheepdog, who always seemed to know what was about to happen before it did. But even she could not have foreseen how that letter was going to change our lives forever.”

The repetition of the word “letter” underlines the significant impact the message has on the narrative and builds up suspense about the contents of the letter that would “change [their] lives forever.” In addition, the lovingly detailed visual imagery in the narrator’s description of Stella, the “one-ear-up and one-ear-down black-and-white sheepdog,” reflects Michael’s great affection for the dog. As the story continues, Stella emerges as a motif of The Essential Need for Friendship and Companionship.