Obasan Character Analysis

Obasan by Joy Kogawa follows the story of protagonist, Naomi Nakane, as she reflects on her person experience as a young Japanese-Canadian during World War II. Throughout the novel, Naomi and her family members struggle to understand what it means to be a minority in Canada when a plethora of stereotypes exist in society. In Obasan, readers are able to see how difficult it is for an oppressed population to create their identity when so many things have already been assumed about them in society. Each person has their own unique characteristics, personality traits, and preferences that combine to create their identity. When society uses the actions, beliefs, or moral standards of one or a few individuals) to create stereotypes, innocent people
According to Google, personality is defined as “the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s distinctive character”. Personalities stem from a person’s distinctive preferences, which helps them to develop their identity, which typically differs from the stereotypes that society has assigned to them. According to Barry McGuiness, personality can also be defined as “the human nature we all share [that] manifest in different styles of thinking, feeling, and acting” (McGuinness). Each person on Earth carries a unique personality, which allows them to view the world in different forms. Personalities are driven by how each person interacts with the environment as well as the people in the environment. In his article titled What Is Personality?” McGuinness also states that “somewhere between these two-our common humanity and our unique individuality-lies personality” (McGuinness). This statement emphasizes that the personalities of individuals stem from how they interact with their environment as well as the people in their environment. The personalities each individual carries are unique and often times differ from the stereotypes, or labels that society has created for
In most instances, stereotypes exist in a negative context, in which the majority population develops a negative idea of a minority population and treats them accordingly. For example, in Obasan, Naomi’s aunt, Emily, wrote letters to Naomi’s mother who was visiting their mother in Japan at the time relocation began to occur. In the letter, Aunt Emily states “We were identified by the way we were seen” (Kogawa 139). This statement shows that stereotypes often limit a person’s ability to view someone beyond the label they have been given by society. Rather than actually attempting to get to know someone’s personality, beyond their ethnicity, many people make assumptions about people solely based on appearances. This statement also shows when stereotypes are highly active in society, people are not given the opportunity to be recognized based on the qualities they actually carry, instead they are viewed based on the qualities they are assumed to have. Stereotypes prevent a person from being judged based on the identity they have created for themselves. In most cases, stereotypes come from past events, that more than likely no longer affect society. According to Kim Davis from Indiana University “Labels can create expectations that are based on previous experiences or hearsay” (Davis). Regardless of being innocent of the events that inspire stereotypes,