“Obasan” by Joy Kogawa Essay

The issue of racial conflict has caused large(p) controversy for some(prenominal) centuries. Conflict which is incited by racism is often directiment to be the worst of altogether conflicts because it is unfounded and based on abruptly false beliefs. In society today, there be many antiblack raft who put use up and almost ostracize the people of other connection. In Joy Kogawas novel, Obasan, the issue of racism is discussed through the confused letters kept by Obasan which in turn provides a first-hand front at was d star to Naomis family. In Obasan, there are many instances where the Joy Kogawa uses images of animals, such as insects, kittens and especially sensationalistics to support a global theme of dehumanization. Also these animals al manners seem to correspond to human beings, whether they are generalized groups or individual characters. In other words, it is very unpatterned to see the foreshadowing of the story and too the close connection between the an imals in the story and the human condition of the story, through the use of these bright images of the animals.At the very beginning of the novel, wbiddy Obasan and Naomi arerummaging through the attic and getting reminded about all of the memories, they come across a family of spiders. These spiders are expound as being round black blots, large as a cats eye (24) and in a sense, disgusting affluent to send shivers down any persons spine. This description of the black and creepy spiders is a foreshadowing of all of the memories that Obasan and Naomi have, as the memories and the plot itself is quite dark and horrific. thither are many large and black memories that Naomi has such as the final stage of her mother and the incident in Old Man Gowers bathroom.However, it is achievable to assume that the blackest memories are the wizs that deal with the racism towards the Nipponese association. For example, it seems that everyone who has ever had an performance on Naomi, good or bad, has deserted her with time. Also, on the way to school, Naomi and Stephen are taunted and teased by the other school kids. Most importantly, the very way that the Canadian Government mistreated the Japanese friendship, sending them to concentration camps, putt them on trains and forcing them to live in tiny huts, is a cruel entrepot. This memory a provide probably stay with Naomi for the rest of her life practically like the ancient spiders in the attic.The part of the novel with the kitten detain underneath the outhouse in another, quite disgusting look at the issue of racism. The thing that is so shocking about this part is that the grey girl blames Naomi for something that Naomi obviously did not do, throwing a kitten down in the outhouse. What is even more shocking is that the girl, the owner of the kitten does not go down and get her kitten, entirely instead leaves the kitten there to ultimately die. The girl brush off represent the discolor Canadian and the kit ten dismiss be seen as a Japanese Canadian livelihood in that society.The kitten is stuck in the outhouse, which stub represent Canada. While it is down there, no one is nearbyno one comes to help (172) even though the cat makes a faint steady mewing (172). Since there is no one around the kitten will eventually be forgotten about. In other words, the Canadian government tries to get rid of the Japanese community by sending them to concentration camps where, despite all of the arguments and letters sent by Aunt Emily to be heard (the mewing), the Japanese community will probably be forgotten about as there is no one around.Another example of this animal imagery is when Naomi is standing unaccompanied in the backyard next to the cage of the white hen, she places one by one microscopical yellowed chicks in the cage with the hen. Suddenly and without warning, the hen jabs down on the chicks (62) consistently. Through the use of this animal imagery, the issue of racism is distinc tly apparent. For example, the hen can be seen as the white people living in the cage or Canada. Slowly, the Japanese people, in this case the yellow chicks, immigrate into the cage. Without doing anything wrong or anything that would anger the hen, or white people, the hen comes down and starts pecking at the chicks.In this part, it is possible to assume that the sole source that the hen comes down on the chicks is that the yellow chicks have appearances different than the white hen. Also, there is a great deal of foreshadowing in this little part of the novel as the Canadian people will in short start ostracising the Japanese Canadian community with no warning at all. Not only will they ostracise the community, the Canadians, although they do not knock down the Japanese like the hen did to the chicks, but the racism is so dependable that they will send the Japanese on concentration camps away from all urban areas and even treatthem like animals forcing them into little tool di scharge houses covered with cow manure for a roof.Another example of the chicken imagery is in the school yard where a bunch of Japanese schoolboys are killing a white chicken. This imagery of the chicken miserable is one of the better examples of racism in the novel. This killing of the chicken can symbolise the anger that the Japanese community have against the white Canadians by and by the way that they have been treated. This hatred and anger is in fact so strong that it is not good enough to just kill the chicken, but they got to make it suffer (169). This is kind of ironic as well, because the chicken can be seen as the Japanese community and the schoolboys can be seen as the white Canadians. The Canadians in the novel continuously make the Japanese people suffer instead of killing them instantly as killing them or deporting them would affect the Canadian image. It is for this reason that the Canadians decide to torment the Japanese and probe to cover everything up.In concl usion, Obasan, by Joy Kogawa deals with the issue of racism in a very efficient way by using unusual images of animals to not only represent human beings in society, but also to help support the theme of this dehumanization. Racism in society is super awful as it is based on utterly false beliefs. In the novel, for example, all Japanese were considered to be evil people even though the Japanese living in Canada did hardly anything to the Canadians. Individuals of a certain community are being ostracized by other people for being of a certain race. Obasan, teaches us that we should not consider a certain community to be evil, but embrace the differences in society. In other words, Hitler was a fanatical German, however not all Germans are fanatical.