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 explore these three dreams and uncover the significance of the dreams to their inter-relationship.
The first dream that Naomi encounters in the inter-related dream sequence was in chapter six. This dream talks about how Naomi is in a forest and how there is a man and wife. The man has a well trained "lion dog"(29). Naomi sees her uncle doing a flower dance, which is a ritual of the dead. During this time the man, who is now wearing an army uniform, disappears into the mist. The dance that Naomi uncle is doing is related to death and right after this sequence Naomi notices that the man, who happens to be British, is wearing an army uniform. The uniform relates to the World War II while the flower dance relates to the death of Naomi's parents. The mist in the dream also seems to play a key role in the inter-relationship between the death of Naomi's parents and the war. The mist seems to pull the two fears of Naomi together. It acts like a vacuum, and sucks in the fears and blends them together, and spits it out to the reader as one fear. Even though these two fears are different in real life, in Naomi's dream the fear is one.
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...
Paper- Obasan This is a story of silence. ... Ever since Naomi was five, Obasan, their aunt, raised her and her brother Stephen. ... Naomi is always stuck between the two aunts of Obasan and Emily. ... Naomi does agree however with certain aspects of Obasan's being. ... "Obasan and Uncle have been the mainstay of Naomi's traumatic childhood- (Goettliev, 36). ...
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...
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. ...
