How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The house is indeed old, as she is also old. Every homemade piece of furniture, each pot holder and paper doily is a link in her lifeline. [...]They rest in the corners like parts of her body, hair cells, skin tissues, tiny specks of memory. This house is now her blood and bones. (3.50)
We kind of feel like Obasan should be on an episode of Hoarders. Why do you think Obasan's home has become such a large part of her identity?
Quote #2
All our ordinary stories are changed in time, altered as much by the present as the present is shaped by the past. Potent and pervasive as a prairie dust storm, memories and dreams seep and mingle through cracks, settling on furniture and into upholstery. Our attics and living rooms encroach on each other, deep into their invisible places. (5.23)
Earlier, Naomi says that the home is just like Obasan's body. Now she compares to her mind to a home and its attic. At the same time she foreshadows the family's exile to Granton, where they live in the house coated in dust.
Quote #3
"Tell me what happened to my mother's tiny house—the house where my sister was born, with the rock garden in front and the waterfall and goldfish. Tell me what has happened." (7.55)
This quote is from a letter that Aunt Emily sends to the Canadian government asking about her home. There is basically no answer. We wouldn't be surprised if many people in real life were asking these questions, since many Japanese Canadians had their homes taken away from them with no explanation.
Quote #4
I glance at the electric clock above the stove. Unlike the faithful grandfather clock that stopped when its owner died, this one whirrs and hiccups on and on. (8.8)
Remember kids, robots don't care whether you live or die but analog appliances are loyal to the bone.
Quote #5
"Everyone someday dies," she is saying with a sigh as she clears the table. She takes half a piece of leftover toast and puts it away in a square plastic container. (8.11)
Obasan is obsessed with preserving leftovers. She's keeping toast, seriously? She also keeps repeating "everyone someday dies." Do those ideas conflict with each other? Why, or why not?
Quote #6
I am supremely safe in my nemaki, under the heavy bright-coloured futon in my house.The house in which we live is in Marpole, a comfortable residential district of Vancouver. It is more splendid than any house I have lived in since. It does not bear remembering. None of this bears remembering. (9.18)
Why doesn't Naomi want to remember her home in Vancouver? Why do you think she felt so safe there?
Quote #7
Aya's house was looted. I haven't told her. It's in such an out-of-the-way place. When I took the interurban on Friday to see if the dog might have shown up, I was shocked. Almost all the hand-carved furnishings were gone—all the ornaments—just the dead plants left and some broken china on the floor. [...] No one will understand the value of these things. (14.126)
What effect do you think that the looting had on Obasan, if any?
Quote #8
It seems more like a giant toadstool than a building. The mortar between the logs is crumbling and the porch roof dives down in the middle. A "V" for victory. From the road, the house is invisible, and the path to it is overgrown with weeds. (16.27)
Let's put this in context: Naomi and her family lived in a beautiful house big enough to have a room dedicated just to instruments. Now she has lost her mother, her father, and her Aunt Emily. On top of everything else, now they have to live in a house that looks "more like a giant toadstool than a building." Kogawa doesn't tell us Naomi's emotions, but the contrast that she sets up makes it pretty obvious that this isn't the happiest situation.
Quote #9
The boxes we brought from Slocan are not unpacked. The King George/Queen Elizabeth mugs stay muffled in the Vancouver Daily Province. (29.25)
Here Naomi is describing her time on the sugar beet farm. Notice that they don't even unpack their stuff. That's basically saying that they don't consider this place a home.
Quote #10
We stand awkwardly in the living room, Mrs. Barker glancing around. Her eyes dart back and forth. I find myself donning her restless eyes like a pair of trick glasses. She must think the house is an obstacle course. (34.14)
Even though we don't like her, Mrs. Barker is useful. Through her eyes we get to see what someone else thinks about Obasan's house. In Naomi and Obasan's eyes, her house is a place full of memories and keepsakes. In Mrs. Barker's eyes, it's just a cluttered mess. Her visit is kind of like a reality check.