Obasan

Themes

Romanticism

Examples

Deaths,Abandonment,Alientaion

Coming of age

Subtopic

Uncommon Ideas and Values

Subtopic

Main conflicts

Naomi's struggle to deal with her past.

Vocabulary

Subtopic

Characters

Naomi

The narrator and main character of the novel. Naomi, a thirty-six-year-old schoolteacher, is both tormented and fascinated by her childhood memories

Uncle (Isamu/Sam Nakane)

Uncle is a quiet, kind, and steady man. A good husband to Obasan, he is also an excellent provider and father figure for Naomi and Stephen

Obasan

Naomi’s aunt is the quietest character in the novel, but she is also one of its most forceful personalities

Aunt Emily

Aunt Emily is a smart, energetic woman who campaigns relentlessly on behalf of Japanese Canadians.

reference: Sparknotes*

Settings

time

-1954 is when they started the trips to coulee, or ravine, in Granton, Alberta, with her uncle Isamu, and it was last mentioned that they went there in 1972.

place

The rural town of Cecil, Alberta, in Canada.