In Joy Kogawa’s Obasan, the narrator reflects on her past memories with yearning and melancholy. Her reflection time spans back to “three decades ago,” yet the narrator still remembers her vivid experience on the train. Overall, the simple passage about the narrator’s dream indicates her complex attitude toward the past: melancholy and avoidance, but also yearning for the happiness. The first part of the passage, written from first person perspective plural, signifies the narrator’s complex attitude toward the past. In the beginning, the narrator indicates “we” are “hammers and chisels,” which are inanimate tools, and later indicates “we” “are sent” and “are those pioneers,” which are human actions. Repeatedly emphasizing that “we” did such
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This sudden transition, from “we” to “I,” creates sweeping isolation on the character and tone. All of the actions, experiences, with the Obasan, are told from the narrator’s perspective; thus, all the views, thoughts, and feelings become her own in the passage. The narrator has become independent, and her memories as the “we”s have mostly faded--only the vivid dream of three decades ago remained. However, this vivid dream, which makes part of her identity, made the narrator more gloomy and melancholy, indicated, for example, by her vivid memory of the miserable mother with a premature baby and her attitude of nonchalance. The narrator’s attitude toward the past was not only lonely, but also depressing.
Throughout the passage, the narrator repeatedly mentions memory in a melancholic but in an ironic way. Describing it as “drowning,” or “waterlogged eulogies,” the narrator associate past as a complete death, implying that her pasts will never come back. However, in the narrator’s reminiscences, the bright colors, such as red and orange creates overall positive tone. Although the narrator’s overall attitude towards memories is negative--calling memories as “dream images” to indicate her illusional experiences--the narrator hoped to see happiness from her past
This sudden transition, from “we” to “I,” creates sweeping isolation on the character and tone. All of the actions, experiences, with the Obasan, are told from the narrator’s perspective; thus, all the views, thoughts, and feelings become her own in the passage. The narrator has become independent, and her memories as the “we”s have mostly faded--only the vivid dream of three decades ago remained. However, this vivid dream, which makes part of her identity, made the narrator more gloomy and melancholy, indicated, for example, by her vivid memory of the miserable mother with a premature baby and her attitude of nonchalance. The narrator’s attitude toward the past was not only lonely, but also depressing.
Throughout the passage, the narrator repeatedly mentions memory in a melancholic but in an ironic way. Describing it as “drowning,” or “waterlogged eulogies,” the narrator associate past as a complete death, implying that her pasts will never come back. However, in the narrator’s reminiscences, the bright colors, such as red and orange creates overall positive tone. Although the narrator’s overall attitude towards memories is negative--calling memories as “dream images” to indicate her illusional experiences--the narrator hoped to see happiness from her past