Obasan

She has learned it well, its idioms, and its nuances. Over the years, silence within her small body has grown large and powerful." (Kogawa 14) Naomi never gets access to Obasan's minds and thoughts. Much of her speech is evasive, evading the questions. In fact, Naomi realizes Obasan's evasion is a protective silence. "The memories were drowned in a whirlpool of protective silence. Everywhere I could hear the adults whispering, "Kodomo no tame. For the sake of the children- Calmness was maintained." (Kogawa 22) Under Obasan's guidance, Naomi is extremely quiet in her childhood. Naomi keeps Mr. Gower's sexual abuse a secret. She defends herself in a quiet life and a non-communicate silence. In contrast, Stephen has a dissimilar kind of silence inside. His silence is full of repressed memories and unexpressed anger. Because of the discrimination he has faced from the surroundings, he denies his Japanese heritage. He makes himself unfamiliar with the Japanese language and distances himself with Obasan. He is filled with anger and violence. "If he has changed at all, perhaps he is less surly - less easily angered. But he still seems irritable and is almost completely non-communicative with Obasan." (Kogawa 236) He tries to move away from his family and detaches himself of all Japanese ties. "He has just come in the door, and he already looks as if he would like to run out." (Kogawa 253) Stephen does not like to talk. Beside speaking and writing, he uses music as his voice and becomes an acclaimed piano player. On the other hand, Stephen has some recondite riddles inside him. "It is a riddle, Stephen tells me. We are both the enemy and not the enemy.Riddles are hard to understand. Only Stephen knows what they mean." (Kogawa 76-77) In Naomi's childhood, she fails to understand why they are both enemy and Canadian. Because of Obasan's protective silence and Stephen's alienation from the Japanese culture, Naomi couldn't know and understand the tragic fact of Japanese Canadian's situation during World War II.