When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka Book Analysis Essay Example

Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine is filled with heartbreaking and striking moments, but one that stood out to me takes place on pages 32 to 33 when the family is on the train, and the story is told from the girl's perspective. This passage is one of the first times that we see a member of the family's internal conflict and struggle. They break down time and time again throughout the internment, but this moment stood out to me because it happens before this tragedy is normalized and expected from the characters. It stuns the reader and reveals the girl's innermost thoughts, worries, and fears. It shows her grasping on to what she has left and desperately looking for answers. This passage provides insight and forces readers to empathize with the girl's feelings and experiences.  

The first part of this passage that stood out was her relationship with the hairbow and with her mother. Reaching up to adjust her hair bow, the girl reveals her anger and resentment towards her mother: "Her mother had tied it (the hair tie) for her that morning, but she had made it too loose. The girl yanked the bow tight, but the ribbon snapped and her hair came tumbling down. She tossed the ribbon to the floor." (Otsuka, 32). In this part of the passage, the author uses aggressive language, which lets the reader understand the girl's anger. The way that the girl can't control her appearance forces her to confront her lack of power in her situation. This seemingly small insignificant issue of a hair tie snapping makes it painfully obvious to the girl how little control she has over her own life because of her race, an aspect of herself that she also can't control. I think it is also essential to recognize that this outburst of anger happens away from her family, which leads me to believe that she feels the need to hide her rage from them even though they are the people who could understand what she is going through best. Suppressing her emotions is causing her to feel suffocated and push away her family, specifically her mother, which is making her feel alone. 

Another aspect of this passage that struck me was how the girl speaks to a stranger she meets in line for the train. She reveals the desperation she feels for someone to talk to in her conversation with the man: "Last night it was too cold, but now it's too hot, everything keeps on changing" … "Can I call you Ted?"(Otsuka, 33). She confides in him about her fear and worries about her situation and practically asks him to be her friend. This abnormal behavior leads me to believe that she isn't fulfilled by her relationship with her family on the train. The reason becomes clearer when she is talking to the man, and he asks her how she is: "I don't know," she said. "How do I seem?" (Otsuka, 32). She asks him to tell her about how she feels and should feel and act in her situation, the answer to which she doesn't have but desperately wants. I suspect she is asking him this because her father is who she relied on for clarity and structure, and her mother isn't filling this role. Without him there, the girl struggles to cope with the fear, doubt, and anxiety she is experiencing in the purgatory-like train to the internment camps. It emphasizes how she needs her father now more than ever and gives another reason to push away her mother. 

In this passage, the girl's family is falling apart at the time when she needs them most, which is one of the cruelest parts of this historical tragedy. This separation of families is something that thousands of Japanese Americans had to go through during this period of internment camps, and throughout this book, it has been one of the hardest things for the characters, especially the children, to deal with. This small, seemingly insignificant interaction stood out to me because she is confronted with her powerlessness as a Japanese American. She is left feeling hopeless and alone, which is emphasized by the missing piece in her family. Separating children from their families is one of the most damaging and long-lasting effects of internment camps because, on top of losing their homes, friends, and lives, Japanese-American children lost their support systems when they needed it most.