When Everything Exploded Analysis

The influence of the past creates a continuity of attitudes and behaviors. When “everything… exploded”(128), referring to when Naomi’s family breaks in two due to the orders of the Canadian Officials, the family resigns rather than fight. As merely children, Naomi and her brother Stephen have no choice but to follow the decisions of their caretakers. Their coming of age during a time of crisis reveals differing methods of managing their outcast status through out their transition from innocent youth to disillusionment and resignation of reality. Since the novel primarily views the internments through Naomi, her observations as a young child are plain and honest. She frequently considers the auditory and tactile characteristics such as the “smells …show more content…
“Not a mark was left”(139) of the Japanese, perhaps suggesting society’s shame, but more importantly, there is no effort to change and instead hide and forget. According to Grice, Naomi’s isolation from her previous home is a “psychological distance from… British Columbia,” which allows Naomi to grow up away from the main society, and instead with her Japanese counterparts. However, the Japanese also have their share of stubbornness. Despite the forgiving landscape, members within their own community exhibit the same inability to see past their fears and judgmental disposition as the rest of Canadian society who puts the group of Japanese to begin with. Stephen, already feeling the shame of his disability of an injured leg, refuses to embrace his new home. He “tramples and slashes… swinging his crutch like a scythe”(145) at “baby ballerina”(144) butterflies. Stephen’s attack on the innocent is parallel society’s condemnation of the Japanese. In the moment, the need to justify and act on fear and anger permits one to bring suffering to those on the premise of reasonable intent. However, the manner of implementation is humiliating, oppressive, and