Joy Konawa's Obasan Essay

The novel Obasan by Joy Konawa tells a story about a young girl who separates from her home. Her experience of being separated from her “home” is both alienating and enriching to her character development. Our past home experiences can have both negative and positive effects on our future and have helped shaped us to be who we are today in life. “I am sitting in nemaki on the ….watching the goldfish…” (Kogwawa 62), Naomi is isolated from her family. She does not communicate much with her family as her older brother does, Naomi feels that she is an outside because she has no interest in music “ we three, the goldfish and I, are the listeners in the room”(62). While her parents and brother share a passion for music “mother sings and Stephen and father play” (62).Naomi identifies more with her goldfish, this alienating causes Naomi to feel as if she is not loved enough. It makes her feel that in order to connect with her family she’d need to have a similar interest with them. “I am sometimes not certain whether it is a clustered attic in …no end to the forest or the dust storm ...Here in this familiar density, beneath”(131), her exile to Slocan …show more content…
She does not feel at home because her parents are not a part of her life anymore, Naomi is raised by her aunt. This exile from home enriches Naomi to become independent at a young age, She helps take care of Nomura-obasan. She faces racism at a very young age, she is blamed for throwing a cat down an outhouse by a girl with white hair, “ you threw my kitten down there… I didn’t do it… you did too” (188). she also faces racism when she enters an outhouse and everyone quickly exit. After she moves to Slocan, Naomi faces racism in Slocan contributes to being a strong individual. She learns to treat people equally and not based off of skin color or