Picture Bride Character Analysis

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When war breaks out, it’s an awful time for everyone and it may even seem like the end of the world. When troublesome things happen within a family it may also feel life-changing in a bad way. Well Hana Takeda in Picture Bride most definitely felt both of these things throughout her life. Picture Bride by Yoshiko Uchida is about a Japanese woman who decides to move to America to marry a so-called successful man named Taro. When she arrives she meets a lonely, balding Japanese man with a run-down shop that isn’t selling much. Hana struggles through temptations, family hardships along with war evacuations and death all in her lifetime, quickly learning that some conflicts are worse than others. Hana had some emotional difficulties with …show more content…

Japanese were treated unjustly which inevitably affected Hana and Taro very quickly. “The President of the United States authorized the Secretary of War and his military commanders to prescribe areas which any or all persons could be excluded...'It means we are all going to be evacuated one day soon,' Taro explained sadly, 'It means we are all going to be uprooted from our homes and interned without a trial or a hearing," (p. 154 Uchida). When Japan bombed the U.S., it really opened Hana’s eyes to how cruel the world can be, especially since it was her homeland. What this event also did was flip the definition of America to Hana and Taro. They always thought of America as a safe place to be themselves and a fresh new start to form their lives but now they were taking away the Japanese-American rights one by one. While in the Japanese concentration camps, tragedy struck Hana when she didn’t think life could get any worse. "'There was an accident, Mrs.Takeda,' the director said, ' your husband was shot by one of the guards. He was walking near the barbed wire fence and the soldier thought he was trying to escape," (p.211 Uchida). Hana was furious at the unreasonable and awful death of her husband but rethought her relationship with Taro. She forgot all the little things that bothered her and focused on their

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