Obasan by Joy Kogawa Book Analysis

📌Category: Books
📌Words: 1353
📌Pages: 5
📌Published: 04 February 2022

In Joy Kogawa’s Obasan, the author writes to discuss how repression and silence has caused a considerable amount of loss in Naomi Nakane’s life. One passage that particularly emphasizes this theme is on page 290 in Chapter 38. Kogawa employs detailed figurative language, direct address, and present tense throughout this passage in order to show that while many of Naomi’s family members used silence to repress their shame and trauma experienced during Japanese-Canadian internment, Naomi used the power of silence to gain agency over addressing her grief and finding a sense of closure after years of enduring oppression. Specifically, the passage selected ultimately exemplifies the nature in which repression through silence can be overcome by embracing memories and new realities. 

This passage uses vivid figurative language to convey how Naomi begins to find strength in silence after the disclosure of her mother’s desertion. For instance, Naomi declares that her mother’s past silence is “straight as a missile [going] to our hut on the edge of our sugar-beet field” (Kogawa 290), bringing attention to the impact of the newfound truth in her life as an adult. By comparing her mother’s past to a missile, Kogawa not only emphasizes the amount of force used to reconstruct Naomi’s memories but also provides an explanation for her mother’s disappearance: World War II. This direct comparison refers to the air-raids and bombings Naomi’s mother and grandmother experienced in Nagasaki, showing that World War II and Japanese internment influenced the repression and destruction in Naomi’s life (Kogawa 284). However, the sheer power and noise radiated by a missile also symbolizes how breaking the silence by confronting the past can provide her strength in finding closure. Similarly, in this passage, Kogawa’s use of visual imagery allows for depiction of the decimation that haunts Naomi’s dreams. By expressing representations of “red mist,” “bright light flar[ing],” and “the mountain breaking” (290), Kogawa demonstrates the extent of which Naomi’s present life is becoming more aware of the loss of her mother. Because Kogawa creates a parallel between this passage and the letters describing where Grandma Kato is in “intolerable heat, blood, and a mountain of debris” (284) after the bombing, the placement of this passage suggests how the revelation of these letters is becoming a more tangible recollection for Naomi. By having this remembrance evade Naomi’s subconscious mind, Naomi acquires a deeper realization about her mother’s silence. This connection with her mother’s repression allows Naomi to contextualize the reasons for her own grief and gives her more power to control how she copes with her hardships. 

Furthermore, this passage utilizes evocative visual and auditory imagery to describe the gruesome suffering that Naomi’s mother endured in Japan, emphasizing the ways that Naomi’s memories of her mother are becoming more concrete while also giving her a sense of clarity about her childhood. When illustrating how the “skin on [her mother’s] face bubbles like lava and melts from [her] bones” (Kogawa 290), Naomi creates a physical and tactile depiction of her mother. This suggests how even though Naomi lost her mother at a very young age, learning more about the past of her family has brought these repressed feelings to the surface and made her mother feel more present. At the time of her disappearance, Naomi’s mother took “the form of a shadow” (Kogawa 78), stripping away her identity and forcing her to assume the role of a forgotten memory. However, in this passage, Naomi transforms her forgotten memories into a new memory by saying “Mother, I see your face. Do not turn aside” (Kogawa 290). Giving back her mother’s face allows Naomi to finally gain clarity and confront the source of her repression. By making Naomi’s mother a concrete image, Kogawa illustrates the control that Naomi assumes over her relationship with the memories of her mother. Additionally, Kogawa uses auditory imagery of Naomi’s mother’s “cries” and “screams” (290) to express that by revealing her truth, Naomi breaks the cycle of silence in her family. Kogawa evidently shows that Naomi’s mother “refused to speak” (282) in order to repress the shame she felt and to protect her family. However, by giving Naomi’s mother a powerful, yet desperate voice in Naomi’s dreams, Kogawa emphasizes that pain cannot hold her back any longer. The dramatic contrast of utter silence and intense screams amplifies the impact her mother’s repression has on Naomi’s self-transformation. This passage suggests that reconstructing one’s traumatic memories to then be empowering can allow for healing and growth.

In addition, Kogawa frequently uses contrasting imagery of the ideas of power and repression in order to show how Naomi wrestles with this opposition as she navigates through repairing her life. Particularly, the first line in this passage is, “Martyr Mother, you pilot your powerful voicelessness over the ocean and across the mountain” (Kogawa 290). The juxtaposition between “powerful” and “voicelessness” creates an interesting dynamic because it expresses that Naomi realized how although her mother lacks a voice and autonomy, she created such an everlasting impression on Naomi’s memories. Kogawa expresses that finding power in silence brought Naomi closer to the hidden memories of her mother and closer to moving forward from all that she endured. Naomi even states that her and her mother “were lost together in [their] silences” (Kogawa 291), emphasizing that she recognizes the destruction of repressing their voices. However, this commonality between Naomi and her mother closed the fracture in their relationship that persisted throughout Naomi’s memories. Furthermore, Kogawa utilizes contrasting imagery in Naomi’s dream when she describes that Naomi’s mother “pilot[s] [her] powerful voicelessness,” and then later, her “long black hair falls and falls into the chasm” (290). This depiction conveys how much control Naomi’s mother exerts when remaining silent but then how she has to relinquish that power as soon as her traumatic experiences in Japan become known. Although her mother lacks autonomy, Naomi sees her mother’s pain as an opportunity, not to run away or hide from these recollections, but instead embrace them and begin to heal by staying by her mother’s side (Kogawa 290). Through this passage, Kogawa emphasizes the urgency that Naomi feels to reunite with the memories of her mother, focusing on how Naomi begins to restore what she has lost. 

Moreover, Kogawa uses direct address in this passage to stress Naomi’s acknowledgement of her mother’s presence. At the beginning of the passage, Naomi addresses her dialogue to “Martyr Mother” (Kogawa 290). By directing the focus of her pain and grief to the silence of her  mother, Naomi gains back control by asserting dominance over these memories. The use of “you” (290) shows that by facing the memories that caused her repression, she is able to find acceptance of her mother’s impact on her life. Furthermore, before Naomi read the letters sent by Grandma Kato, she would not directly address her mother. For example, Naomi said, “My mother hid her love, but hidden in life does she speak through dream?” (Kogawa 274). By changing the authorial address to finally give Naomi’s mother a voice in her dreams, Kogawa shows how revealing the truth and breaking that silence allows Naomi to gain agency over her grief. The shift in pronoun usage in this passage signifies how combatting her repression influences the transformation within Naomi and her newfound determination to find closure in her life.

Finally, as this passage is set in one of Naomi’s dreams, Kogawa only uses present tense in order to show that Naomi is facing the reality of her present life. Throughout the novel, Kogawa often switches from past tense to present tense, offering different recollections of Naomi’s memories. However, the sole use of present tense in sentences, like “I see your face”  (Kogawa 290), suggests that Naomi wants to confront the cause of her pain head-on. Using present tense symbolizes how Naomi fully embraces recollections that are not hers to begin with and how she no longer looks to the past for answers. Breaking her mother’s silence allows Naomi to gain agency and clarity over the remembrance of her childhood. Through transforming these memories to become her present, Naomi can thus begin to heal because her repressed memories have emerged and are no longer holding her back. This passage serves as a gateway to Naomi’s present state of mind in order to convey that she is ready to accept her new memories and begin to find closure from her past. 

Ultimately, this passage emphasizes the common theme that repression in the form of silence can be overcome by the active process of confronting the memories that cause such pain. Kogawa uses figurative language, direct address, and present tense to show how Naomi finally gains power to acknowledge the grief and loss she has been suppressing. It is through silence where Naomi fully embraces the truth about her childhood, allowing her to move forward on her own terms.

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