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Keep your eyes down. When you are in the city, do not look into anyones face. That way they may not see you. That way you offend less.
The novel, Obasan tells the story of a Japanese family's efforts to survive the trauma of separation from their homes and eachother. The novel was written in 1981 by Joy Kogawa and tells the details of how the Japanese were discriminated against during World War 2. The novel commences in the seventies with Naomi Nah Nakane a teacher in Northern Alberta finding out that her beloved uncle has died. When Naomi returns home to console her Aunt Obasan, she is distraught to see her aunt is only a shell of the strong woman who raised her. She begins to relive the difficulties of her life after she discovers a package left by her Aunt Emily. The package is filled with letters, documents, articles, She recounts the struggle against the government and themselves while trying to stay in Vancouver.
Naomi is very small at the time of the war and did not really fully understand what was happening to her race. The novel recounts the struggle of Naomi's Aunt Emily to ensure that her family would be together in whatever place they were sent to. Aunt Emily wanted to head east to Toronto, but was unable to get the documentation for the entire family which included her sisters children, who she was taking care of. The novel discuses the camps that the Japanese families were sent to in Hastings Park during the war. The detained families were forced to live in horrendous conditions, sharing living quarters with strangers, without adequate food and supply, and the pungent smell of Naomi during this time was being sexually molested by her next door neighbor and did not tell anybody about this, this possibly relates to the novels theme of silence. Naomi seems resentful during the novel, as she comes across as a quiet little girl, who does not seem to interact with many people.
Aunt Emily finally finds a place in Scan for the family to go live, but just before they leave finds out her and her immediate family could go to Toronto. This leaves Aunt Emily going to Toronto and everybody else moving to Toronto. In the end almost everybody ends up dying leaving the legacy of their family to deteriorate as has the trust in the Canadian government. The novel had many strengths and weaknesses.
One of the main focuses in the novel is the great detail in which described how the Japanese were treated, even though they were Canadian citizens. One major weakness was the failure to distinguish between present time and the past, which leaves the reader in slight confusion. Altogether the novel was not only a story of Naomi's family, but a story of history told through the eyes of someone who faced the reality of it. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Recounts The Struggle Aunt Emily Family
