How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Mukashi mukashi o-o mukashi …," Obasan says, holding the photograph. "In ancient times, in ancient times, in very very ancient times..." (10.1)
The phrase "mukashi mukashi" is the Japanese equivalent of "once upon a time." Here, Obasan is using this phrase to talk about a picture of Naomi and her mother, so the language that she uses makes it seem as if that time was only a fairy tale.
Quote #2
Seeing Obasan now, older than the grandmother I knew as a child, older than any person I know today, I feel that each breath she takes is weighted with her mortality. She is the old woman of many Japanese legends, alone and waiting in her ancient time for the honor that is an old person's reward. (10.3)
There are lots of Obasans in Japanese fairy tales. Almost every female character is either a princess or an Obasan. By calling her Aunt Obasan instead of calling her Aunt Ayako or even Ayako Obasan, Naomi references these fairy tale women.
Quote #3
Each night from the very beginning, before I could talk, there were the same stories, the voices of my mother or my father or Obasan or Grandma Kato, soft through the filter of my sleepiness, carrying me away to a shadowy ancestry. "Tonight, which story? Momotaro again?" (10.4)
This should tell you how important literature is to Naomi. Before she can even talk, she's immersed in the world of fairy tales. She won't tell you this, but she's definitely a book nerd.
Quote #4
Mother, it seems to me, could. So could Grandma Kato or Obasan. But not, I think, Aunt Emily, though perhaps that is not so. She is too often impatient and flustered, her fingers jerking her round wire-rimmed glasses up her short nose. (13.9)
Now, that's not a nice thing to say about your Aunt, is it? In this scene Naomi is wondering which of her family members could be brave even in scary situations, like in fairy tales. Why do you think Naomi says that Aunt Emily is not fit to be a fairy tale heroine?
Quote #5
All this talk is puzzling and frightening. I cradle the rubber ball against my cheek and stare up at the white tufts like tiny rabbit tails stuck all over the bottom of the mattress. I am thinking of Peter Rabbit hopping through the lettuce patch when I hear Stephen's lopsided hop as he comes galloping down the stairs. (13.34)
Remember how we said that Naomi is a book nerd even before she can speak? Well then it makes sense that she would use fairytales to comfort herself. In fairy tales lots of scary things happen, but there is always a happy ending.
Quote #6
In one of Stephen's books, there is a story of a child with long golden ringlets called Goldilocks who one day comes to a quaint house in the woods lived in by a family of bears. Clearly, we are that bear family in this strange house in the middle of the woods. I am Baby Bear, whose chair Goldilocks breaks, whose porridge Goldilocks eats, whose bed Goldilocks sleeps in. Or perhaps this is not true and I am really Goldilocks after all. In the morning, will I not find my way out of the forest and back to my room where the picture bird sings above my bed and the real bird sings in the real peach tree by my open bedroom window in Marpole? (17.25)
Which is Naomi? Is she Baby Bear or is she Goldilocks? Or is she both?
Quote #7
He picks up several twig people from our sand village and puts them in a cluster at the base of one mountain. "These," he says, "are people. And this"—he points to the hole again—"lake. Wanna hear a story?" (21.28)
How can you not love Rough Lock Bill? When he needs to random kids in the forest, his first instinct is to tell them a story. It's a mighty big coincidence that Bill is a fellow fan of fairytales and the most honorable white person in the whole novel.
Quote #8
I am in a grade-two reader full of fairies, sitting in the forest very still and waiting for one fairy tiny as an insect to come flying through the tall grasses and lead me down to the moss-covered door on the forest floor that opens to the tunnel leading to the place where my mother and father are hiding. (22.8)
Naomi has loved stories since she was a child. Do you think that Naomi makes a distinction between reality and fairytales as a child?
Quote #9
When Germany surrenders he tacks the headline page over his bed. I am more interested in the lives of Little Orphan Annie, Mandrake the Magician, Moon Mullins, the Gumps, the Katzenjammer Kids, Myrtle with her black pigtails sticking out the sides of her wide-brimmed hat. My days and weeks are peopled with creatures of flesh and storybook and comic strip. (23.3)
Stephen is obviously not interested in this fairytale stuff. He's more interested in the real world than things that are going on in books. Why do you think that is? Is it because he's older? Is it because his personality is different from Naomi's?
Quote #10
"Write to us, Stephen," I shouted as he watched us from the train window. I was feeling proud of him and thinking of Momotaro going off to conquer the world. (33.5)
It makes sense that Naomi would hold on to fairytales as a little girl, but what about now? Why do you think she is still using them as a way to understand the world? Do you think she is stuck in time?