Obasan Chapter 22 Summary

  • Naomi is in a hospital. Well, she's dreaming she's in a hospital. But she's also really in a hospital.
  • In the hospital, the nurse brushes her hair so roughly that it hurts. She thinks about fairytales in order to endure the pain. Stephen tells her that their dad is sick and she worries that he will die. But only old people die, right?
  • She thinks about chickens. They remind her of the yellow peril, and being yellow is to be weak and small, like the chicks that were pecked to death. Death comes in many places, she thinks. She saw it just a week ago.
  • She and Stephen are walking to school. Some white boys come and try to bully Stephen, but one of the missionaries stops the bullying and they keep walking. Then Stephen sees something not far from school that makes him run away.
  • There is a circle of boys standing around something, but all Naomi can see are feathers and hands. One of the boys, Sho, is killing a chicken. Why, we have no idea. It's pretty gruesome.
  • The bell rings before they can finish killing the chicken. Most of the kids run to class, but Sho stays behind to make sure it is really dead. The class sings "O Canada", but Sho doesn't. Naomi doesn't either.
  • Naomi hates school. She hates where the chicken was killed. She hates where the white kids bully her. And she hates where a strange girl killed her kitten in a well.
  • All of these episodes become part of her dream. It is pretty gross, so read at your discretion, but let's just say there's a lot of death involved.