The Role Of Letters In Joy Kogawa's Obasan
Chrissy Paolini Obasan Object Essay The Role of Letters in Obasan
Although Naomi is thirty-six in the present day of Joy Kogawa’s novel Obasan, she still has unanswered questions about her childhood. Naomi, who grew up in Canada during World War II, suffers from not knowing about the loss of her mother. When Naomi finds the letters Aunt Emily wrote to her mother, she starts to see how the events of World War II differed from how she viewed them as a child. Aunt Emily, in her letters, combines the events in Canada with her emotions. When Naomi reads the letters, she knows exactly how Aunt Emily was feeling during the catastrophe. In Joy Kogawa’s novel Obasan, Kogawa uses letters to reveal Aunt Emily’s character, to recall the events of World War II in Canada and to unleash Naomi’s emotions. Although the main purpose of the letters is to tell her sister of the events going on in Canada, they also serve to give Aunt Emily a …show more content…
Before Naomi reads Aunt Emily’s letters, she is surrounded by “a silence that will not speak” (preface). Naomi always asks questions about her past while “expecting no response” (31). Naomi, filled with dullness, stops asking questions. She bottles her curiosity instead of looking for answers. Naomi, after finding the answers, starts to feel emotions other than dullness. For example, when Naomi realized that places like the “Pool” and “Sick Bay” were prisons, she felt disgusted that people could be “kept there like animals” (92). After Naomi reads of what happened to her mother, she is “not thinking of forgiveness”(288) towards the government like she thought. Naomi, after unleashing her emotions, suddenly sees that her mother “remains in the voicelessness”(289). Finding that her mother represents the silence, Naomi listens to hear her
Although Naomi is thirty-six in the present day of Joy Kogawa’s novel Obasan, she still has unanswered questions about her childhood. Naomi, who grew up in Canada during World War II, suffers from not knowing about the loss of her mother. When Naomi finds the letters Aunt Emily wrote to her mother, she starts to see how the events of World War II differed from how she viewed them as a child. Aunt Emily, in her letters, combines the events in Canada with her emotions. When Naomi reads the letters, she knows exactly how Aunt Emily was feeling during the catastrophe. In Joy Kogawa’s novel Obasan, Kogawa uses letters to reveal Aunt Emily’s character, to recall the events of World War II in Canada and to unleash Naomi’s emotions. Although the main purpose of the letters is to tell her sister of the events going on in Canada, they also serve to give Aunt Emily a …show more content…
Before Naomi reads Aunt Emily’s letters, she is surrounded by “a silence that will not speak” (preface). Naomi always asks questions about her past while “expecting no response” (31). Naomi, filled with dullness, stops asking questions. She bottles her curiosity instead of looking for answers. Naomi, after finding the answers, starts to feel emotions other than dullness. For example, when Naomi realized that places like the “Pool” and “Sick Bay” were prisons, she felt disgusted that people could be “kept there like animals” (92). After Naomi reads of what happened to her mother, she is “not thinking of forgiveness”(288) towards the government like she thought. Naomi, after unleashing her emotions, suddenly sees that her mother “remains in the voicelessness”(289). Finding that her mother represents the silence, Naomi listens to hear her