Obasan By Joy Kogawa Essays - Japanese Canadian Internment, Obasan

Obasan By Joy Kogawa Today, society has become a boisterous world of communication. From telephone conversations to live Internet chat and e-mail, the world has never before been quite so in touch. In the novel Obasan, by Joy Kogawa, Naomi Nakane does not have technology to communicate. Instead, she faces the dilemma of communicating at all. From her family, Naomi is shown the many faceted truths of speech and communication. From strong, silent Obasan, to stubborn, resolute Aunt Emily, Naomi finds that one can correspond with others through silence as well as through speech. As a child, Naomi spends much of her life in non-communicative silence, only to help further the distance between herself and her mother. As Naomi grows into womanhood and beyond, she discovers that in speech lays understanding and, unfortunately, pain and sorrow. Joy Kogawas tale of Naomi Nakane shows how one young girl can live a tortured life and find peace living life in between silence speech. Naomis relationship with Obasan is an influential one, molded from love, respect, and understanding. Naomi describes Obasans way of communication best when she say declares, The language of her grief is silence. She has learned it well, its idioms its nuances. Over the years the silence with her small body has grown large and powerful(Obasan 17). Obasans silent stance provides a firm starting point for Naomi to return to when she needs to find her bearings. Obasan provides Naomi only positive reinforcement when it comes down to determining the right and wrongs of silence. Obasan used her silence to protect the children from the many faceted horror known as truth. The truth behind Naomis mother was requested to be kept from Naomi and her brother, but it was also potentially damaging to them as well. The memories were drowned in a whirlpool of protective silence For the sake of the children, calmness was maintained(Obasan 26). Aunt Emily believes that the only way to live at peace in the present, you must live in peace with your past. Emily gets this across to Naomi when she goes on a rant and says You have to remember. You are your history. If you cut any of it off youre an amputee. Dont deny the past. Remember everything. If youre bitter, be bitter. Cry it out! Scream! Denial is gangrene. Look at you, Naomi, shuffling back and forth between Cecil and Granton, unable to go or stay in the world with even a semblance of grace or ease(Obasan 60). Unfortunately, for the quiet Naomi, Emily also believes that in order to be at peace with your past you must stand up and yell at those at fault for reconciliation. Emily shows that her beliefs remain contingent upon facts, and that everyone needs to be on the same page before healing can begin. It matters to get the facts straightReconciliation cant begin without mutual recognition of the facts, she said. Facts? [said Naomi] Yes, facts. Whats right is right. Whats wrong is wrong. Health starts somewhere. (Obasan 219) Naomi cannot comprehend the angle with which her aunt approaches life. While Naomi may believe reconciliation is in order, she is only discouraged when she looks to see where speech has placed her Aunt Emily. If Aunt Emily with her billions of letters and articles and speeches, her tears and her rage, her friends and her committeesif all that couldnt bring contentment, what was the point (Obasan 50). Naomi becomes more and more frustrated when she sees the futile efforts of her Aunt. Albeit, she does believe that what her Aunt is doing is important for her Aunt, she cannot see the use if the results of such hard laborious tasks go for naught. All of Aunt Emilys words, all her papers, the telegrams and petitions, are like scratchings in the barnyard, the evidence of much activity, scaly claws hard at work. But what good do they do, I do not know-those little black typewritten words-rain words, cloud droppings. They do not touch us where we are planted here in Alberta, our rots clawing the sudden prairie air. The words are not made of flesh. Trains do not carry us home. Ships do not return again. All my prayers disappear into space.(Obasan

american indian essays

american indian essays It was approaching dusk as the conspicuous line of dark vans entered the reservation. These vehicles served the purpose of furnishing transportation for about 30 members of a Cleveland area youth group, whose mission was to bring good news to the badlands. In short, the group was ministering to the Indian children of the Pine Ridge Reservation, which was in close vicinity to the natural wonder found in the foothills of the badlands. The trip became a tradition for my church and I traveled there on three separate occasions. Each year, the team received a welcoming that could be described as anything but inviting. In fact, the first year the trip fell on the Fourth of July and as we drove in, our vehicles were bombarded with fireworks. I could never really grasp why we were so despised. After all, our intentions were commendable. The matter became clearer after I read Zitkala-sas American Indian Stories. Within this text, a Native American expresses her beliefs that actions s imilar to ours serve merely in altering culture. The main characters civilization had religious beliefs long before the white man presented his ideas. Essentially, the Sioux religion was based on nature. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact beliefs of the group because of the deficiency of information. However from the text, some aspects can be gathered. First, it appears as though everything in nature is believed to retain a spirit. Zitkala-Sa is observing the flowers and personifies them, assuming they are possessive of a spirit by saying, Their quaint round faces of varied hue convince the heart which leaps with glad surprise that they too, are living symbols of omnipotent thought. (102) Everything natural was incorporated into their religious beliefs. Thus, the people receive refreshment of the soul through companionship with the outdoors. The narrator describes a spiritual expe...

Top Girls by Caryl Churchill Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Top Girls by Caryl Churchill - Essay Example My general thought of the production is that the director did an excellent job in explaining the challenges facing tough women. The play commences in the cafà © where Marlene waits for her friends to arrive to celebrate her success as the boss of the employment agency (Churchill 1982). The women guests explain their experiences prior to attaining their goals. Scene one in Act 2 displays Marlene at the agency working while Scene 2 shows Angie and Kit playing. Angie says that she would kill her mother as she had been sleeping around (Churchill 1982). In Scene 3 Marlene arrives, Nell and Win gossip about the latest in the office. Angie arrives; but is shy in Marlene’s presence. Mrs. Kidd interrupts and requests Marlene to step down from the â€Å"man’s job† for her desperate husband, Howard. Marlene declines Mrs. Kidd’s offer. Nell then arrives with the news that Howard had had a heart attack but Marlene is not moved (Churchill 1982). The final act takes place in Joyce’s kitchen, where Marlene, Joyce and Angie share experiences. Joyce and Marlene are wary that Angie may not m ake much of herself. Joyce is skeptical of her success, but Marlene insists that she will be a successful woman, just like her mother who is revealed to be Marlene (Churchill 1982). The setting played  a more active role in  my experience of the film by crafting a completely simulated world on my understanding of the film. The setting is in Britain where the success of women is regarded stylish and fashionable (Churchill