Obasan Chapter 29 Summary

  • Aunt Emily's package has a newspaper clipping. It says that the evacuees on sugar beet farms, like Naomi and her family, are grinning and happy. Good joke.
  • Even though things sucked in Slocan, they weren't like this. Hard work, no food, a tiny house infested with bugs and covered in dirt. We are pretty sure she wasn't grinning and happy.
  • You should read this chapter, just to see how the family goes from living like humans in Slocan, to basically living like animals on the farm in Granton. They don't see anyone else, or do anything else besides harvest beets. Naomi says that they have become machines.
  • On April Fools' Day 1949, they are finally allowed to go home.
  • Looking back on everything, Naomi wonders what's the point of Aunt Emily's effort. People are bad. Won't they always be bad?