Character Clues
Character Analysis
Food
If you like Japanese food, this book is sure to make you hungry. But all those mentions of food are not just ways of making you want to take the next flight to Tokyo. They tell us a lot about the characters' relationships with their Japanese heritage.
Let's look at one scene. Here's Naomi's lunchbox: "My lunch that Obasan made is two moist and sticky rice balls with a salty red plum in the center of each, a boiled egg to the side with a tight square of lightly boiled greens." And here's Stephen's lunchbox: "Stephen has peanut-butter sandwiches, an apple, and a thermos of soup" (22.33). Notice any differences?
Where Naomi gets a totally traditional lunch (a bento box stuffed with umeboshi), Stephen's meal is like an advertisement for generic school lunches. But that's no surprise is it? Stephen's PBJ is just another part of his overall rejection of his Japanese heritage. Naomi's lunch, on the other hand, just shows how willing she is to try the traditions of her first generation family members.
Speech and Dialogue
Are you getting tired of these language-related issues? Sorry, but Kogawa is obviously a stickler about words.
There are two big ways that speech and dialogue work to characterize the Katos and Nakanes. The first is proficiency in English. The first generation Japanese are not very fluent and it shows. Naomi notes:
Riddles are hard to understand. Only Stephen knows what they mean. Neither Aya Obasan nor Grandma and Grandpa Nakane understand the jokes in Stephen's riddle book. (13.1)
It's not just a linguistic problem, but a total cultural disconnect. That's why it's interesting that Naomi mentions riddles. Even a bilingual person can't be considered totally fluent until they understand a language's humor. That requires more than just linguistic proficiency; it requires a total understanding of the culture. That's what the Issei (first generation Japanese) are missing.
The second way they are characterized as by how much they talk. Naomi describes her Aunts like this: "How different my two Aunts are. One lives in sound, the other in stone. Obasan's language remains deeply underground but Aunt Emily, BA, MA, is a word warrior" (7.14). While Aunt Emily won't shut up, Obasan barely makes a peep.
It shouldn't be surprising that the approaches are split between the first and second generations. Obasan (the Issei) would rather not talk, be emotional, or worry too much about the past. Aunt Emily (the Nisei) is constantly confronting her past, and talking about it to everyone that can she can force to listen.
Actions
Actions speak louder than words. What a cliché. But this time it's true.
Take Naomi and Stephen. In Slocan, the brother and sister come across a bunch of insects outside of their new home. Naomi says:
As we stand here looking over an overgrown tangle of weeds and vines, the air is suddenly swarming with butterflies. [...] Stephen whacks his crutch into the grasses, scattering the butterflies. Each wing bears two round circles of gold, and when the pairs are spread, they are infant eyes, staring up at us bodiless and unblinking. [...] "They're bad," Stephen says as he wades through the weeds, "They eat holes in your clothes!" (16.49)
So who's right? Naomi? Or Stephen?
Stephen calls the insects moths. Naomi seems to want to protect them, calling them butterflies. They are seeing two entirely different things while looking at the same picture. This is not the only time that happens. Later, when Naomi catches a lame frog Stephen tells her not to touch it because toads give you warts.
What do these moments tell you about Stephen and Naomi? Even as a kid, Stephen is disillusioned. He expects the worst from everything. Naomi is a dreamy little kid. She sees the best in everything, even when she should be a little more cautious than she is. Which way is right? We don't know. Sigh. And we thought we knew everything.