How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Isn't it dangerous?" I asked. Uncle is almost never direct in his replies. I felt he was chiding me for being childishly afraid when he said abruptly, "Mo ikutsu? What is your age now?" (1.18)
Pay close attention. When we first read Uncle's question, we assumed the same thing as Naomi. But after reading the book, we noticed that she says, "I felt he was chiding me." There are moments like this all over the novel. Kogawa is very precise with her language, and little things like that sentence can totally change your understanding of the story.
Quote #2
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. She's a crusader, a little old gray-haired Mighty Mouse, a Bachelor of Advanced Activists and General Practitioner of Just Causes. (7.14)
Why do you think Aunt Emily is so different from Obasan? Why is she so into words, while Obasan barely speaks?
Quote #3
"Now look at this one," she said. "Here's a man who was looking for the source of the problem in the use of language. You know those prisons they sent us to? The government called them 'Interior Housing Projects'! With language like that you can disguise any crime." (7.28)
Aunt Emily is the one who lets us know that language is a tool… or in some hands a weapon. For example, if you heard that you were being sent to "Interior Housing Projects," you may not be so worried. But if they wrote, "Internment Work Camps," you might start freaking out.
Quote #4
"Everyone someday dies," she says again. By repeating this so often, I suppose she is trying to make realizable what is real. (8.21)
The way that Obasan repeat these words is almost like an incantation. What magic is Obasan wielding? What magical powers does language have in this novel?
Quote #5
Who is it who teaches me that in the language of eyes a stare is an invasion and a reproach? Grandma Kato? Obasan? Uncle? Mother? Each one raised in Japan, speaks the same language; but Aunt Emily and father, born and raised in Canada, are visually bilingual. I too learn the second language. (9.2)
Remember that there are lots of different kinds of language. Not just verbal language, but body language, and the language of the eyes. How do you think Naomi feels about being bilingual in so many languages?
Quote #6
"It was not good, was it?" Mother says. "Yoku nakatta ne." Three words. Good, negation of good in the past tense, agreement with statement. It is not a language that promotes hysteria. There is no blame or pity. I am not responsible. The hen is not responsible. My mother does not look at me when she says this. She squats beside the box and we watch the trembling chicks together. "Kyotsuke nakattara abunai," she says. "If there is not carefulness, there is danger." (11.20)
Here the structure of Japanese helps to calm Naomi after a disaster. But Japanese is a double-edged sword, because the same thing that calms her here is also the source of her confusion. Since spoken Japanese often lacks subjects (a more direct translation of Yoku nakatta is "wasn't good") it's really easy to get confused. If the person listening doesn't understand the context, it's totally possible for two people to have a conversation about entirely different things. And that's what happens. Throughout most of the novel Naomi thinks that her family was talking about one thing, but really they are talking about something totally different.
Quote #7
We do not talk. His hands cup my face. I wrap my arms around his neck. The button of his pajama top presses into my cheek. I can feel his heart's steady thump thump thump. [...] There is no sound in the house except the satisfied "Aah'" that Uncle makes after he has swallowed a hot drink, and the scrape scrape of Obasan's knife buttering the toast. (24.31)
If this were a scene in a movie, it would probably have some kind of dramatic music in the background. But instead Kogawa mutes the sound, and we can only see what's going on. What effect does that have on your understanding of this scene? How would it be different if Naomi were screaming excitedly or saying I love you?
Quote #8
Some of the ripe pidgin English phrases we pick up are three-part inventions—part English, part Japanese, part Sasquatch. "Sonuva bitch" becomes ''sakana fish", "sakana" meaning "fish" in Japanese. On occasion the phrase is "golden sakana fish." (33.42)
The third generation Japanese Canadians are very inventive with their use of language. It seems that every generation in the novel has their own approach to language. The first generation is silent. The second-generation is obsessed with accurate language, and the third-generation isn't bound by one culture or another. They mix all of their cultures together, making new words with new meanings. Pretty cool.
Quote #9
"If these matters are sent away in this letter, perhaps they will depart a little from our souls," she writes. "For the burden of these words, forgive me." (37.16)
Why do you think Grandma Kato sends the letter? How does talking about a subject with another person make it feel better? Do you think that Naomi's mom would feel better or worse knowing that Naomi and Stephen have heard the truth?