Theme Of Silence In Joy Kogawa's Obasan

Silence in Joy Kogawa’s Obasan Joy Kogawa’s novel Obasan is the story of discrimination, identity, and silence in the Japanese - Canadian community during and after World War II. Kogawa places a special emphasis on silence, speech, as well as the positive and negative aspects of both. In the novel, Kogawa contrasts silence and speech by illustrating through Obasan and Aunt Emily, respectively, while also demonstrating Naomi’s confusion of whether she should be silent or vocal about her feelings and views. Obasan’s silence is representative of her traditional Japanese values while Aunt Emily’s outspoken tendencies represent her message of being a Canadian. Speaking out about issues is an ideology most would associate with western society and

Several times, silence is oppressive due to the fact it stunts communication and relationships within the family. For instance, when Naomi is molested by Old Man Gower, in which he tells her to defer from telling her mother this information for obvious reasons. A. Lynne Magnussen observes the following: “Before Gower: knowledge between mother and child is antecedent to words. After Gower: the silence hides a secret betrayal” (Magnussen 8). This explains how Naomi’s relationship with her mother never became vocal, let alone overly vocal, before the secrets began with Old Man Gower. The weight of the secret strained the relationship, but Naomi was the only one who was able to recognize the situation since her mother had no part. Naomi herself describes the experience as a mountain splitting in half: “[Naomi’s] mother is on one side of the rift. I am on the other. We cannot reach each other” (Kogawa 77). In addition to this instance, the rest of Naomi’s story is also driven by oppressive silence in the government’s treatment to the Japanese-Canadians. They were evicted from their homes and businesses without any guarantee that they would see any of their possessions again. Eventually, this lead to the Japanese-Canadian community being forced into ghost towns to build up a new life. Their letters were

For the majority of the novel, she lives with Obasan and takes after her by not speaking much. Rough Lock Bill comments on her shy silence and praises her for it, saying that, “Smart people don’t talk too much” (Kogawa 174). He even scolds himself for talking too much on an occasion, thinking that too much talk equals not much thought behind the words. This contrast is also illustrated by Naomi’s observations of her two aunts: “one lives in sound, the other in stone” (Kogawa 39), meaning she sees Aunt Emily’s vocal tendencies as simplistic and plain, while Obasan is set in stoic silence and indirect responses. Magnussen observes: “Naomi seems to honour Obasan’s silences above Emily’s words…. Naomi’s imagery articulates her confidence that Obasan’s stony silence shields a more authentic language” (Magnussen 6). Naomi sees Obasan’s silences harder to decipher and therefore more meaningful than Aunt Emily’s straight speaking. However, toward the end of the novel Naomi finds herself wanting to break free from the chains of silence keeping her. She states that “[she wants] to break loose from the heavy identity…. unable to shout or sing or dance, unable to scream or swear, unable to laugh, unable to breathe out loud” (Kogawa 218). Though Naomi is full of grief, she does not know how to deal with it and the silence of Obasan and the obligations of politeness feel