This is similar to the hen and chick incident where the mother hen pecks at the baby chicks. She now can see a tare between mother and daughter she couldn't see before. " They are the eyes that protect, shielding what's hidden most deeply in the heart of a child"(Kogawa, 59). There was no longer this mystic link between her and her mother. This exact shame occurred when Stephen, her brother, came home from school one day after getting beat up by a group of white children. He was ashamed, so he remained silent. He did not lash out and scream and complain, but just remained silent and filled with shame, much like Naomi did while being molested by Mr. Gower. Even at a young age, silence coinciding with fear enters the minds of these young children. .
"In her quest for identity and peace, Naomi is influenced by her two aunts with contrary responses to their harrowing experiences during the war"(Cheung, 115). After Mother went off with Grandma Kato to and young Stephen and Naomi were to stay with Uncle and Aunt Obasan, their views changed. Stephen came into his own way of being, finding himself adapting fully to the Canadian culture. Naomi is always stuck between the two aunts of Obasan and Emily. Obasan is a quiet, stay at home type who busies herself with chores and quiet things of the sort. Naomi does agree however with certain aspects of Obasan's being. Aunt Aye is passive and learns to forgive and forget, which is how she raises Naomi. "Crimes of history can stay in history"(Kogawa, 41). She learns to leave the past war mishaps in her life alone and move on with things. .
Aunt Emily, however, will not fall that easily. "Write the vision and make it plain"(Kogawa, 31) is a passage that Aunt Emily wrote on a piece of paper in a packet of letters given to Naomi. She is a truly inspired woman out to right the wrongs stuck to the Japanese-Canadian people during WWII. Naomi does not see Aunt Emily's work as successful.
Naomi says that "the language of her (Obasan's) grief is silence. ... (Kogawa 14) Naomi never gets access to Obasan's minds and thoughts. ... In fact, Naomi realizes Obasan's evasion is a protective silence. ... (Kogawa 22) Under Obasan's guidance, Naomi is extremely quiet in her childhood. ... She follows Obasan's silence in her childhood. ...
When Naomi returns home to console her Aunt Obasan, she begins to relive the difficulties of her life. ... Obasan also taught me a lot about the Japanese culture and background. ... On the flip side there were also many weaknesses in the book Obasan. ... Obasan was on the most part well written and gives an excellent account of the Japanese reviews. Obasan was a good novel to help better understand our Canadian history....
In the novel Obasan, written by Joy Kogawa, an important event occurred that changed the lives of many Japanese Canadians during World War II. ... The excuse Canada had for this action was that "Japanese people were not white and could be Japanese 'spies'".2 In the novel Obasan, one of the letters from Aunt Emily says "we're a 'lower order of people'. ... In Obasan, Aunt Emily states "we're hit so many ways at one time that if I wasn't past feeling, I think I would crumble.... Obasan greatly encases these ideas and demonstrates the unjus...
Personal Journal After reading the novel, Obasan, I step out a mile for understanding the disadvantages about being go to war. For my opinion, "War" doesn"t earn any benefits. It hurts people's souls, destroys the friendship between different nations and break down the whole world ec...
In the novel Obasan, the protagonist goes through a dream sequence. There are three dreams that she experiences that are inter-realated. The dreams have a relationship between the loss of her parents, and the fears about the war that is taking place while the story is being told. This essay will ...
The poem "Day of the Bride- was written by Joy Kogawa, who is an award-winning Japanese Canadian author who often integrates ideas of culture and identity into her writing. The poem is heavily laden with historical Japanese imagery, culture and tradition. The author makes several references to eth...
--Obasan The educational value through this novel is not necessarily what the characters perceptions or even if school is mentioned in the story, but the significance is that the readers can relate to this novel through the character, the language, the proverbs and learning about Japanese-Canadian history, which is a lesson in itself. ... The historical setting is faithfully portrayed and gives the reader a clear sense of what it was like to live in that time period, such as wearing a nemaki "a nightie or Obasan making lots of sticky onigiri rice balls. ...