The Cost of Freedom
Imagine a world where you are suddenly an alien. Your life is ripped away, and everyone looks at you differently. Within the novel When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka, Japanese-American people are segregated and incarcerated in camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The family that is described within this book is one of the unfortunate families that was ripped away from their home because of their heritage. To analyze their situation, Julie Otsuka uses many objects and motifs to present a common idea that allows the reader to interpret literal situations or recognize them. Objects presented in this book like the horses, the flowers, and the pearls all represent the important idea of freedom by recognizing the …show more content…
When “a man was shot dead by the barbed wire fence” (101), many people believe that he “had been reaching out to pick the flower” (101) on the other side of fence when he had been shot. In this case, the flower is a metaphor for freedom. This ‘flower’ can be admired, and it can exist, but that doesn’t mean that it can actually belong to someone. Every time someone does reach for it, they pay an unfair price. People are tricked into reaching for something they can’t grasp. In the case of the Japanese-Americans, this is their freedom. When the family arrives home after the many years in a camp, they realize that their favorite rosebush is gone. Later, at the end of the novel, the boy and the girl “wandered the streets every day after school in search of the rosebush” (138). They believe that “somewhere out there, in some stranger's backyard [the]…rosebush was blossoming madly…” (139). The family knows that somewhere, their rosebush is growing. They can’t seem to find it, so, in a way, this rosebush is out of reach. This metaphor again connects to freedom, something that is constantly out of reach for the Japanese-Americans and something they are always looking for. The flowers they used to grow represent the freedom they had before they were taken away, but even after they return, they are thwarted with the …show more content…
The woman mentions that she “‘lost an earring on the train’” (86). This earring that she lost was a pearl. The boy wonders if she may find it, and the woman says, “‘It’s just gone. Sometimes things disappear and there’s no getting them back’” (86). In this moment, this object represents freedom because when the woman was incarcerated, she lost her pearl. This pearl is similar to freedom because the mother possesses it when she lives her life the way she chooses, but loses it when she is on the train. Within this train, the family is controlled and ripped away from the real world. Because they are so controlled by the racist American government, their freedom may really be lost forever, just like the mother said. Later, the boy imagines his father coming home. He would “come back on a horse...and he’d reach down into his pocket and pull out a single white pearl” (104). This dream about the discovery of the pearl seems to give the boy hope. His connection to the pearl could be connected to the idea of his liberation. His freedom could possibly be found even if it was thought to be lost. While this moment never actually happened, the boy presents the idea of this pearl as an object that comes with freedom and control of one’s own life. Even though the pearl may return in the dreams of the boy, the woman still believes some things just never come back. In
Imagine a world where you are suddenly an alien. Your life is ripped away, and everyone looks at you differently. Within the novel When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka, Japanese-American people are segregated and incarcerated in camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The family that is described within this book is one of the unfortunate families that was ripped away from their home because of their heritage. To analyze their situation, Julie Otsuka uses many objects and motifs to present a common idea that allows the reader to interpret literal situations or recognize them. Objects presented in this book like the horses, the flowers, and the pearls all represent the important idea of freedom by recognizing the …show more content…
When “a man was shot dead by the barbed wire fence” (101), many people believe that he “had been reaching out to pick the flower” (101) on the other side of fence when he had been shot. In this case, the flower is a metaphor for freedom. This ‘flower’ can be admired, and it can exist, but that doesn’t mean that it can actually belong to someone. Every time someone does reach for it, they pay an unfair price. People are tricked into reaching for something they can’t grasp. In the case of the Japanese-Americans, this is their freedom. When the family arrives home after the many years in a camp, they realize that their favorite rosebush is gone. Later, at the end of the novel, the boy and the girl “wandered the streets every day after school in search of the rosebush” (138). They believe that “somewhere out there, in some stranger's backyard [the]…rosebush was blossoming madly…” (139). The family knows that somewhere, their rosebush is growing. They can’t seem to find it, so, in a way, this rosebush is out of reach. This metaphor again connects to freedom, something that is constantly out of reach for the Japanese-Americans and something they are always looking for. The flowers they used to grow represent the freedom they had before they were taken away, but even after they return, they are thwarted with the …show more content…
The woman mentions that she “‘lost an earring on the train’” (86). This earring that she lost was a pearl. The boy wonders if she may find it, and the woman says, “‘It’s just gone. Sometimes things disappear and there’s no getting them back’” (86). In this moment, this object represents freedom because when the woman was incarcerated, she lost her pearl. This pearl is similar to freedom because the mother possesses it when she lives her life the way she chooses, but loses it when she is on the train. Within this train, the family is controlled and ripped away from the real world. Because they are so controlled by the racist American government, their freedom may really be lost forever, just like the mother said. Later, the boy imagines his father coming home. He would “come back on a horse...and he’d reach down into his pocket and pull out a single white pearl” (104). This dream about the discovery of the pearl seems to give the boy hope. His connection to the pearl could be connected to the idea of his liberation. His freedom could possibly be found even if it was thought to be lost. While this moment never actually happened, the boy presents the idea of this pearl as an object that comes with freedom and control of one’s own life. Even though the pearl may return in the dreams of the boy, the woman still believes some things just never come back. In