Essays on Obasan

After the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, Canada responded quickly by developing several concentration camps for Japanese civilians of any descent, including Canadians. The individuals at the camps were stripped of their homes, businesses, and even separated by their families. In the novel Obasan, Joy…

In the novel Obasan, Kogawa uses Naomi’s narrative point of view to convey that one’s misfortunes, such as racism and abandonment, can take a toll on one’s identity which causes them to remain silent. Throughout the book, Naomi experiences many traumatic events. She was just…

In the novel, Obasan, Kogawa uses Naomi’s character development to convey that early life racism, internment and abandonment from loved ones can lead to one feeling confused about their identity. The narrator of the novel, Naomi, goes through a series of traumatic events as a…

People these days do not realise how the Canadian government was discriminating and taking actions against systemic racism during World War II. Obasan is a story written by the Japanese Canadian novelist Joy Kogawa that tells a story about how Japanese Canadians were treated by…

People today often underestimate the trauma experienced by the Japanese in World War 1. Kogawa puts Japanese treatment during that time into perspective through her novels Obasan and Naomi’s Road. By crafting two novels for different age groups, Kogawa has created two pieces of literature…

Joy Kogawa’s Obasan is the story of what Japanese-Canadians endured through during the Second World War. The book represents Joy’s story, the history, and the society at the time when these Canadians were treated unfairly. Joy Kogawa lived through a rough time in Canadian history….