Obasan Isu
Jennifer ENG 2D
Mr. Brennan
November 21
An analysis of Main Conflict in Obasan Pg. 71-142 A main conflict is the main problem that a character has in a story, or the main problem of the story. The author uses a main conflict to keep the problems rotating around the main problem to make an impact in the story. The main conflict shows many sides of the story. For example, internal and external conflicts. Also it makes sense to the reader when they are reading the novel. By examining the external conflict, the internment/work camps, the internal conflict with a minor character, and the external conflict that happened in "Sick Bay", can we see the main conflict in Joy Kogawa's novel, Obasan. Firstly, the Internment and Work camps display the main conflict, the Lack of Human Rights by mistreating Japanese-Canadians, who were promised to have the exact and fair human rights as anyone in Canada. An example of this would be when Aunt Emily writes in the journal she would give to her sister (Naomi's mother) about the conflicts happening in her time. In the journal Aunt Emily describes what she heard about the Internment camps from her family and friends. This is shown in the following quotation; "There are no partitions of any kind whatsoever and the people are treated worse than livestock...No plumbing of any kind. They can't take a bath. They [aren't allowed to] even take their clothes off...They're cold...they're undernourished, they're unwash[ed]..." (Kogawa 97) The phrase "people are treated worse than livestock" indicates that they clearly lack human rights since they are treated worse than farm animals, and not like the Canadians they were promised to be treated like. Another example is the Work camps, where Japanese-Canadian men went to work for their family, were treated just as bad
Mr. Brennan
November 21
An analysis of Main Conflict in Obasan Pg. 71-142 A main conflict is the main problem that a character has in a story, or the main problem of the story. The author uses a main conflict to keep the problems rotating around the main problem to make an impact in the story. The main conflict shows many sides of the story. For example, internal and external conflicts. Also it makes sense to the reader when they are reading the novel. By examining the external conflict, the internment/work camps, the internal conflict with a minor character, and the external conflict that happened in "Sick Bay", can we see the main conflict in Joy Kogawa's novel, Obasan. Firstly, the Internment and Work camps display the main conflict, the Lack of Human Rights by mistreating Japanese-Canadians, who were promised to have the exact and fair human rights as anyone in Canada. An example of this would be when Aunt Emily writes in the journal she would give to her sister (Naomi's mother) about the conflicts happening in her time. In the journal Aunt Emily describes what she heard about the Internment camps from her family and friends. This is shown in the following quotation; "There are no partitions of any kind whatsoever and the people are treated worse than livestock...No plumbing of any kind. They can't take a bath. They [aren't allowed to] even take their clothes off...They're cold...they're undernourished, they're unwash[ed]..." (Kogawa 97) The phrase "people are treated worse than livestock" indicates that they clearly lack human rights since they are treated worse than farm animals, and not like the Canadians they were promised to be treated like. Another example is the Work camps, where Japanese-Canadian men went to work for their family, were treated just as bad