Symbolism In Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine

Symbolism is used in many novels and provides a more profound insight for the reader. Julie Otsuka's novel, When the Emperor Was Divine, explores the aftermath of Pearl Harbor and how racism against the Japanese- Americans victimized her characters. Through the use of symbols, it is conveyed how the lives of the Japanese- Americans changed. In her novel Otsuka conveys how the Japanese- Americans’ past, present, and future are symbolically intertwined. This is evidenced in the symbols of the pearl earing, the Gleaners painting, and the rosebush.

The pearl earring, belonging to the mother of the family, symbolizes, or represents, the beauty of the life the family once had before the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Prior to the attack, the family

Three women are depicted gleaning- gathering leftover crops after the harvest. This was usually done by the poor and was frowned upon, similar to how the Japanese- Americans were viewed after the war.This is what Otuska symbolizes in her novel. As she is taking down the painting, the mother comments how the gleaners are “forever bent over”(8), which signifies submissiveness. Later on in the novel, the family, the mother in particular, begin obeying and feeling submissive towards the Americans, as it started with the Evacuation Order. As the mother is a woman who did not always follow the rules, [she] followed the rules”(9). This also goes back to the back to the order and how the Japanese- Americans simply obeyed it and did not ask any questions or not do it. Relating to the symbolism, the painting shows how the gleaners and the Japanese- Americans were considered a threat and danger to society and were treated as the bottom of the social classes. By deciding the painting “would have to go… outside with the garbage”(8), she is tossing away the submissive feeling she may have had when she came to America, only to feel it again during the