Obasan
ObasanOBASAN - Opus
"I want to break loose from the heavy identity…I am tired of living between deaths and funerals, weighted with decorum, unable to shout or sing or dance, unable to scream or swear, unable to laugh, unable to breathe out loud." (102). In Joy Kogawa's Obasan. Naomi, a young female of Japanese decent is forced to adapt and grow into the Canadian society. She is faced with great pressures because of the events of WWII and the internment of Japanese Canadians. Her childhood is complicated by the absence of her mother and she is driven to grow up under two separate definitions of womanhood. Guidance is provided by her two aunts, Obasan and Emily. The complication arises due to their contrasting views of life, Japanese and Canadian. Born in Japan, Obasan believes in the more quiet and traditional Japanese lifestyle, based on loving "Silence". Meanwhile, Emily was raised in Canada and attempts are made to teach Naomi to be more outspoken and to form strong moral values. Due to this Naomi is tossed between the guidance of her two aunts, Obasan and Emily, through their differing forms of communication, lifestyle traits and Nisei and Sansei traditions, as a result she forms her own lifestyle path and discovers her complete identity.
The differing forms of communication by the two aunts play a role in Naomi's lifestyle choice: Obasan with her use of Japanese silence and Emily through her straight forwardness. Obasan lives her life through a shell that traps her thoughts and feelings inside. She expresses her feelings in her actions and with occasional Japanese phrases. This is evident in the following description by Naomi; "I feel that each breath she takes is weighted with her morality. She is the old woman of many Japanese legends, alone and waiting in her ancient time for the honour that is an old person's reward.". Naomi throughout the book is constantly searching for messages and attempting to find Obasan's love. Complicating the situation for Naomi is the use of the Japanese language by Obasan. Naomi was raised in Canada and had learned only the basic Japanese words. Naomi's brother, Stephen, has totally ignored the Japanese language as we see in this quote, "He grunts as Obasan tries to help him with it. Stephen has made himself altogether unfamiliar with speaking Japanese." (231). This demonstrates that Naomi is forming her own pathway between her two aunt's lifestyles, neither shutting out English or Japanese dialect. Obasan's voice can be described in this quote; "Uncle and his wife…live in almost total silence. They speak a mixture of Japanese and English, mostly in two or three word sentences. Much of their speech is evasive, sliding away from questions." (Suanne Kelmam pp. 39). Obasan represents a very traditional Japanese woman, living in humbleness and silence. The fact that Naomi struggles...
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