Obasan book report
I decided to read the novel by Joy Kogawa entitled Obasan. The novel was written in 1981 and told the details of how the Japanese were discriminated against during World War 2. The author's main purpose was to educated the reader on how hard life really was for her family and other Japanese Canadians living in British Columbia, and especially in Vancouver. Joy Kogawa tried to show how ignorant British Columbians really were, and that we still do not fully understand what really happened during the war. She also tries to teach Canadians the culture of the Japanese. The novel starts in the seventies with Naomi a teacher in Northern Alberta finding out that her uncle has died. When Naomi returns home to console her Aunt Obasan, she begins to relive the difficulties of her life. She recounts the struggle against the government and themselves while trying to stay in Vancouver. Naomi is very small at the time of the war and did not really fully understand what was happening to her race. The novel recounts the struggle of Naomi's Aunt Emily to ensure that her family would be together in whatever place they were sent to. Aunt Emily wanted to
On the flip side there were also many weaknesses in the book Obasan. One major weakness was the failure to distinguish between present time and the past. There were to many times that I did not realize that Naomi had switched into a flashback or vice versa. This left me rereading many pages over. I also did not like the way that the novel would drag on. It sometimes failed to have much to do with the rest of the story, and is to wordy. I believe the story could have been told in about one hundred and eighty pages instead of the two hundred and fifty pages. I think that the novel could have also gone into a little more detail about the living conditions at Hastings Park, and also a political aspect of why this was happening to these people. All and all I would have to say this novel helped me a lot in head east to Toronto, but was unable to get the documentation for the entire family which included her sister children, who she was taking care of. The novel discuses the camps that the Japanese families were sent to in Hastings Park during the war. It described the treatment the families received while there, including the lack of food a
Some common words found in the essay are:
Japanese Canadians, Aunt Emily, Hastings Park, Emily Toronto, World War, Joy Kogawa, British Columbians, Columbians Obasan, Aunt Obasan, Japanese United, aunt emily, joy kogawa, obasan novel, world war, happened world war, happened world, hastings park, west coast, recounts struggle, british columbians, japanese canadians,
Approximate Word count = 781
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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