This course will explore the unique experience of the woman writer. Studying works written by women from a variety of cultures, races and classes will reveal how being a woman has influenced the woman writer's creative interpretation of the human condition.
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
For June 1st: "Last Day", "A Disappearance."
o Write two short paragraphs:
1.Who narrates the final chapter? What effect
does that have on your understanding of the end of the book?
2.Why is the novel called The Buddha in
the Attic? (Locate the reference as well).
Last day is narrated by the voices of the Japanese that left America physically and psychologically changed. Some left with the same clothes they had on. Some left with American clothes. Some left with money, some left with nothing. Most of them spoke English and their Japanese - American kids reacted as if it was a temporarily change of setting , almost as if they were going to return back very soon to continue living the American Way .Some Japanese left as if they were mentally ill and some in disbelief. Others angry, others worried. Some will try to find an excuse to return back but none of them could. “Most of us left only speaking English so as not to anger the Crowds that had gathered to watch us. “(105) “Katsumo left her husband‘s laundry in San Diego mumbling, “Somebody wake me up please”.( 109) “Futaye, who had the best vocabulary of us all, left speechless” (108) “Her husband left in muddy field clothes with their entire life savings stuffed into the toe of his boot “(107) “There were handsome young men in just –pressed chinos our older sons who left shouting the Berkley fight song and talking about next year’s big game “(111) Shizuma’s eldest daughter, Naomi left anxiously but stylishly in a gray wool skirt and white alligator pumps “ I understand “last day “also as a moment of truth and choosing an identity. Truth because the Japanese revealed secrets that they had kept inside them for many years and secrets that had been “restrained“ for many years , like the woman locked inside her house and the women that kill her child. Moment of true identity because many realized that America was not what they thought it was, like the girl that insisted to be called by an American name that later changed her mind and asked people to call her by her Japanese name instead (to me it seemed that she was in love with America until she felt discriminated) These changes occurred due to the war. The final chapter, “A Disappearance “is narrated by the Americans. They felt the Japanese absence and soon missed their faces, labor and personalities. Eventually like everything else their faces banished from their minds as other groups of emigrant occupied their space. Lives move on. “By the first frost their faces begin to blend and blur in our minds. Their names start to elude us. Was it Mr. Kato or Mr. Sato? Their letters cease to arrive. Our children, who once missed them so fervently, no longer ask us where they are” (128) I strongly believe that the reason the book was called “Buddha in the attic “is because religiously God is the one that sees all and knows our destiny. Destiny is already determined for the Japanese to live their lives in Japan the fact that they left their country ,meant that they were also leaving their themselves to become something new in a foreign land placing Buddha in the attic along with their Japanese beliefs. Buddha is also a representation at the end of the book for the Ironies lived by the Japanese. Buddha was laughing when they left to America and when they had to return to Japan almost as if Buddha was laughing at them for leaving their country their faith family and culture for something much worse, just so that they could realize at the end that their lives was a hundred times better than in America.
Last day is narrated by the voices of the Japanese that left America physically and psychologically changed. Some left with the same clothes they had on. Some left with American clothes. Some left with money, some left with nothing. Most of them spoke English and their Japanese - American kids reacted as if it was a temporarily change of setting , almost as if they were going to return back very soon to continue living the American Way .Some Japanese left as if they were mentally ill and some in disbelief. Others angry, others worried. Some will try to find an excuse to return back but none of them could.
ReplyDelete“Most of us left only speaking English so as not to anger the Crowds that had gathered to watch us. “(105)
“Katsumo left her husband‘s laundry in San Diego mumbling, “Somebody wake me up please”.( 109)
“Futaye, who had the best vocabulary of us all, left speechless” (108)
“Her husband left in muddy field clothes with their entire life savings stuffed into the toe of his boot “(107)
“There were handsome young men in just –pressed chinos our older sons who left shouting the Berkley fight song and talking about next year’s big game “(111)
Shizuma’s eldest daughter, Naomi left anxiously but stylishly in a gray wool skirt and white alligator pumps “
I understand “last day “also as a moment of truth and choosing an identity. Truth because the Japanese revealed secrets that they had kept inside them for many years and secrets that had been “restrained“ for many years , like the woman locked inside her house and the women that kill her child. Moment of true identity because many realized that America was not what they thought it was, like the girl that insisted to be called by an American name that later changed her mind and asked people to call her by her Japanese name instead (to me it seemed that she was in love with America until she felt discriminated) These changes occurred due to the war.
The final chapter, “A Disappearance “is narrated by the Americans. They felt the Japanese absence and soon missed their faces, labor and personalities. Eventually like everything else their faces banished from their minds as other groups of emigrant occupied their space. Lives move on.
“By the first frost their faces begin to blend and blur in our minds. Their names start to elude us. Was it Mr. Kato or Mr. Sato? Their letters cease to arrive. Our children, who once missed them so fervently, no longer ask us where they are” (128)
I strongly believe that the reason the book was called “Buddha in the attic “is because religiously God is the one that sees all and knows our destiny. Destiny is already determined for the Japanese to live their lives in Japan the fact that they left their country ,meant that they were also leaving their themselves to become something new in a foreign land placing Buddha in the attic along with their Japanese beliefs. Buddha is also a representation at the end of the book for the Ironies lived by the Japanese. Buddha was laughing when they left to America and when they had to return to Japan almost as if Buddha was laughing at them for leaving their country their faith family and culture for something much worse, just so that they could realize at the end that their lives was a hundred times better than in America.