Analysis of Joy Kogawa’s “Obasan”

1. Analysis of Joy Kogawa’s “Obasan” “I am the lorax, I speak for the trees.” – suess Danika Raymond Chris

2. Thematic Statement • Due to the objective mind of a child, they lack the abstract thinking needed to understand that in a time of oppression, a sense of community needs to be established for cultural survival.

3. Literary Techniques • Anaphora • Metaphor • Biblical Reference • Repetition of Natural Imagery • Point of View • Polysyndeton • Descriptive Imagery • Simple vsComplex Sentences • Symbolism

4. Anaphora demonstrates unity within Japanese community • Lines 1-28: Repeats “we are” in order to convey that the Japanese community has established an identity for themselves in Canada. • Lines 26-27: “We are the Issei and the Nisei and the Sansei, the Japanese Canadians.”

5. Metaphor amplifies oppression and cultural Unity • Lines 9-10: “ We are hammers and chisels n the hands of would-be sculptors, battering the spirit of the sleeping mountain.” • Lines 11-12: “We are the chips and sand, the fragments of fragments that fly like arrows from the heart of the rock.” • Lines 19-21: “We are the scholarly and the illiterate, the envied and the ugly, the fierce and the docile.”

6. Biblical reference shows purpose • Lines 16-19: “We are the man in the Gospel of John, born into the world for the sake of the light. We are sent to Siloam, the pool called ‘Sent.’ We are sent to the sending, that we may bring sight.”

7. Natural Imagery • Lines 1-25: • Water- “rain, cloud, mist,” “salty sea,” “swim,” “drowning,” “waterlogged” • Shows change • Land- “rock,” “stone,” “bush,” “forest,” “soil,” “mud” • Shows “rebirth”

8. Point of View provides the contrast between adult and child • Adult: • “We are leaving the B.C. coast – rain, cloud, mist – an air overladen with weeping.” • “We are the Issei and the Nisei and the Sansei” • Child: • “”I am a small child resting my head in Obasan’s lap.” • “I would call her ‘o-nesan,’ older sister.”

9. Polysyndeton gives a sense of an “overload” • Lines 26-27: “We are the Issei and the Nisei and the Sansei, the Japanese Canadians.” • Lines 46-47: “The train smells of oil and soot and orange peels and lurches groggily as we rock out way inland. • Lines 49-51: “Underfoot and in the aisles and beside us on the seats we are surrounded by odd bits of luggage…”

10. Descriptive imagery shows the “objective” mind of a child • Lines 47-49: “Along the window ledge, the black soot leaps and settles like insects.” • Lines 51-53: “My red umbrella with its knobby clear red handle sticks out of a box like the head of an exotic bird.” • Lines 53-55: “In the seat behind us is a boy in short gray pants and jacket carrying a wooden slatted box with a tabby kitten inside.”

11. Simple vs. Complex Sentences compare complexity In a child and an adult • SIMPLE • Line 88: “But I pull back.” • Lines 90: “I withdraw further into my seat. • COMPLEX • Lines 90-93: “She shakes open a furoshiki- a square cloth that is used to carry things by tying the corners together- and places a towel and some apples and oranges in it.”

12. Symbolism illustrates burden and complexity • Lines 90-92: “She shakes open a furoshiki- a square cloth that is used to carry things by trying the corners together…” • symbolizes the literal idea that Obasan understands the complexity of the situation • Unlike to the narrator, it is not something that Obasan wants to think about, therefore it is a burden she carries.

13. “stand-out” line • Lines 27-28: “We disappear into the future undemanding as dew.” • Forgotten • Must reestablish culture • WWII

14. The connection • Parents experienced the Cambodian Genocide as children, and stayed more independent/selfish. Now as adults, they see that everyone must stick up for one another. • As teenagers, we’re gradually becoming adults, and our thought processes may change (or may have already).