I have been asked to write on the book Obasan, written by Joy Kogawa. Here it goes:
One of the most important characters in the book is the character the book is named after, Obasan. The aunt of Naomi, the protagonist, Obasan plays a major role in the book, predominantly as a caregiver and guardian for Naomi. She has very little role other than that concerning caregiving activities. Though she plays a large role in the book, replacing Naomi's mother, I found that she had surprisingly little depth of character. Though this may be a result of Naomi's childlike perspective, it makes determining anything solid about Obasan extremely difficult, other than she is a motherly figure.
What can be determined is her outlook, which shows a very interesting sense of nationality: she considers herself equally Japanese and Canadian. This plays out oddly, as they seem to surface equally: Japanese surfaces among her friends and family, but in public, she's a Canadian. This makes her all the more outraged when the Canadian Government deports them: she considers herself a Canadian among other, more "Canadian-looking" Canadians (sorry if that sounded racist. Or didn't make any sense).
