The Consequences Of Silence In Obasan By Joy Kogawa
Joy Kogawa's Obasan is a representation of the silence Japanese Canadians experience specifically in the past as they have been repressed from telling the stories of the internment camps in Canada due to the government's pressure to not talk about what happened to them, leading to the negative and generational consequences of silence as a trauma response. In addition to showing how Japanese Canadians have covered up traumatic events through silence. Obasan also demonstrates how silence has not solved anything, but has made the traumatic events worse, and that healing can only occur when people begin to speak about them. Silence is shown by the family secret about Namois's mother being absent, as well as Namoi never wanting to tell anyone about her sexual assault from an Old Man Grower, the difference between Namoi’s aunts in how they choose to be vocal or silent in their life. Finally, how Joy Kogawa herself uses Obasan as a way to use language to share her story as a Japanese Canadian. She draws from her real life in her novel. Furthermore, through the novel, Namois's life is treated as if language is dangerous and silence is safe as she becomes …show more content…
As well as how her mother is like Naomi, she also had questions that she was silenced from knowing furthering the generational silencing, as that the “wordlessness” was the overall detriment and was the cause of her and her mother's destruction. McDermott, Sinéads “THE DOUBLE WOUND: SHAME AND TRAUMA IN JOY KOGAWA’S Obasan.” Discusses how Naomi's silence is not associated with a version of language itself but the silence is bigger than words or speaks more than words. The silence is negatively used to cover or shut down events of shame. Mcdermott explains how silence is a negative response by
Summary Of Chained In Silence By Talitha Leflouria
626 Words | 3 PagesTalitha L. Leflouria discusses and describes her Grandma Leola of Troup County, Georgia. Initially, Leflouria informs the reader that she would spend most of Saturdays at her great-grandparents home. Grandma Leola was renowned for efficiencies at various skills related to traditional country living in the South during the 20th century. She also describes her mother as someone that was loving, inviting, and rugged around the edges too. Grandma Leola would share stories to Leflouria about her life, and sometimes she would even tell her about life in the Rough Edge.
Summary Of Obasan Joy Kogawa
1467 Words | 6 PagesNaomi finds herself unable to speak to her mother, Nesan, as a child about the sexual assault she is a victim of, which puts Nesan “on one side of a rift” and Naomi “on the other” (Kogawa 77). Naomi’s silence is representative of how the Canadian government acted as Naomi’s assailant did: “A man going out in public and presenting a public face of decency when privately there is atrocity” (Clayton). Kogawa comments on how citizens could have protested in the same way as Naomi’s Aunt Emily, who pushes back against the Canadian government so the family “could all stay together” (Kogawa 109). Instead, citizens attempted to show their loyalty by accepting the government’s conditions. Naomi’s obasan is one of those who accepts their grim situation and works to conceal their drab living conditions for the children.
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Obasan Sparknotes
1241 Words | 5 PagesThe novel’s artistic quality stems from a variety of detailed comparisons, such as one instance in which Naomi reflects on her time working on the Barkers’s beet farm, where she and her family worked in 1949. Affected by the loss of her grandfather, Grandpa Nakane, as well as the unknown whereabouts of her mother, Naomi states that “the sadness and absence are like a long winter storm, the snow falling in an unrelieved colorlessness that settles and freezes, burying me beneath a growing monochromatic weight” (Kogawa 239-240). By alluding to the coldness of winter as well as a lack of color, Naomi emphasizes the growing sense of emptiness felt as the internment of Japanese Canadians continued late into her childhood and thus effectively cut her off from the rest of the world. Metaphors such as these are commonly praised by critics, and one review from the New York Times evaluates Obasan as “brilliantly poetic in its sensibility” (Milton). Naomi also expresses that “something dead is happening,” (Kogawa 240), creating a tone of uncertainty that implies Naomi’s feeling of hopelessness and referring to the tragedy of Japanese Canadian internment.
Summary Of Obasan By Joy Kogawa
763 Words | 4 PagesNaomi's parent and family members kept the truth from Naomi and her brother because they considered them too young to know the truth. As a result, this act of silence hinders Naomi from discovering the truth about her mother's disappearance. Naomi's mother and Obasan remained quiet because they believed that was the only way to survive in a harsh world. Naomi declares, "Silent Mother, you do not speak or write. you do not reach through the night to enter morning, but remain in voicelessness."
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1271 Words | 6 PagesIn Obasan, although many characters try to forget their past, characters like Aunt Emily give the Japanese-Canadians hope. Her hard work and perseverance for her heritage lead to true results. People like her formed the Co-operative Committee of Japanese Canadians who sent a formal appeal that stated, “the deportation of Canadians of Japanese racial origin are wrong and indefensible . . .” (Kogawa 297). This appeal lead to reinstatement of citizenship for Japanese-Canadians and a formal apology from the Canadian government.
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Jamaica Kincaid's Blackness Essay
479 Words | 2 PagesAdditionally, the narrator realizes her consciousness is constantly changing as she “loves the thing untouched by lore…the thing that is not cultivated… the thing built up” (473). The narrator’s consciousness faces another struggle between trying to find equal good in both the culture of her people and the new culture that has been introduced to her. Yet, she stands boldly “one foot in the dark, the other in the light” (473), as she forms a bridge between the two cultures and is stuck while she tries to understand her sense of self. Finally, the silent voice, a metaphor for her faith, calls out to her.
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