Looking At John Okadas No No Boy English Literature Essay

Looking At John Okadas No No Boy English Literature Essay Right from the beginning of John Okadas No No Boy there is the juxtaposition of the Japanese-Americans returning from internment camps at the end of World War II and the Japanese-Americans that pledged themselves to the U.S. Military returning from service overseas. Ichiro Yamada, the protagonist, is facing a personal dilemma of national identity. He blames his stubborn Japanese heritage for him getting locked up, and the Americans were the ones that did the locking. His parents speak only Japanese in defiance to American influence. Despite being born and raised in America, Ichiro claims to be a Japanese nationalist and is consequentially imprisoned. His mother claims that the entire family is wholly Japanese, although Ichiro has never been to Japan. This generational conflict thats common in immigrant families is the spur for Ichiros identity crisis throughout the novel. The one exception to the hostility of the generational split lies in Ichiros friendship with Kenji. Kenji is a decorated war hero that was rewarded for his military efforts with material possessions from the federal government. He doesnt condemn Ichiro for his decision. He instead provides Ichiro a valuable glimpse at the extravagant reward of assimilation, but the image is tainted with the gangrenous injury he sustained in the service. Kenjis character is polarized by that of Freddie. He is an old friend of Ichiros and a fellow No No Boy that is determined to run from his problems with society and his family instead of dealing with them rationally like an adult. Okada associates everything maternal in the story with Japanese loyalty. Ichiro blames his Japanese nationalist mother as the reason that he became a No No Boy in the first place. She is a nationalistic elitist in every sense of the word. She refuses to learn English during the thirty years that she lives in Seattle and doesnt even believe the numerous reports that mighty Japan has lost the war to the Americans. To her, assimilation equals death. By contrast, Ichiros example of successful integration, Kenji, has a superb family life without a mother. When Mrs. Yamada finally comes to terms with Japans loss in the war, she drowns herself in the bathtub. The rest of the family is relieved from the alleviated expectations. Ichiro identifies his mother early on as the solitary force preventing him from reproachfully integrating into popular American culture, but her death provides a passing of the torch in Japanese nationalism and he soon finds out that his problems are of his own making . When Ichiro comes back to Seattle, things are not what he expects. Since he was so abruptly rounded up and shipped off to an internment camp, to proveà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦that they werent American enough to be trusted, he anticipates discrimination among mainstream culture, but he is met with what is developing into the most accepting era in American history (p. 153). The civil rights movement is just around the corner. The hostility that he expects from white Americans doesnt happen. The only bullying he meets is at the hands of other Japanese-Americans. Every powerful white man that Ichiro runs into receives a good impression from him. His old Professor Brown urges him to come back to the university. Mr. Carrick offers him a job on the spot at an engineering office in Portland. Both of them are very sympathetic for what he has endured and disagree with the injustice of the whole affair, yet Ichiro rejects all them. He could assimilate if he wanted to, but he doesnt because he is convinced that since he once rejected the United States that he is forever intolerable to it. He could have been an engineer in Oregon and ascend the social ranks. No longer would he have been a lower-class immigrant, but a shining member of the middle class. Instead, he chooses to maintain his social immobility and cultural isolation. This was a common feeling during this time, as Kenji puts it: They bitched and hollered when the government put them in camps and put real fences around them, but now theyre doing the same damn thing to themselves. (p. 164) Post-war Japanese-Americans are forcing segregation upon themselves. Most Americans, at least in this novel, prove entirely compliant in moving forwards from the past from which they came. They are willing to bring cultural diversity into their schools and workplaces, but the Japanese-Americans seem insistent on continuing their oppression. Early in the novel, Ichiro cites the guilt of his disloyalty to the United States as a reason for not accepting any of these offers. He hasnt fought for the country and doesnt feel like hes earned such lavish opportunities, so he leaves them for truly Americanized people to capitalize on. This reverence exhibited by Ichiro for American culture and those that it approves counteracts his attempts to remain loyal to his Japanese ancestry. He externalizes his need to be devoted to Japan onto his mother, but it doesnt end when she dies. He realizes that her strict codes of Japanese loyalty were not the only thing keeping him from assimilating. Ichiro turns down another promising job offer at the Christian Reclamation Center where the owner had already hired another No No Boy. It is no coincidence that Mrs. Yamadas suicide is juxtaposed with Kenjis death. The chapter in which both events are contained is the turning point in the novel. Mrs. Yamada dies because of her refusal to integrate into American society and Kenji dies from gangrene in an injury he suffered during his attempts to integrate into American society. The two extreme examples of national identity can no longer survive. Kenji tells Ichiro on his death bed that ethnic differences should be transcended to blur the lines of racial distinction, and therefore prove categorization difficult. Ichiro seems to take Kenjis advice to heart when he plans on becoming a true American with a house and a wife and kids, only to put himself on trial moments later for his treasonous intentions. He has also inherited the voice of his mother in his brain in addition to Kenjis a rampant incompatibility. These opposing viewpoints eventually begin to balance each other out, and Ichiro realizes that he is neither J apanese nor American. Ichiro began the novel concerned with improving his public image, and he gradually changes his concern to self-respect. The problem with his initial mindset is that self-esteem is determined by the will of the state. Nations create their own hegemonic value systems in this way to establish cultural standards. The notion of free choice is illusory. It is misery to continually cater to the evaluations of anonymous strangers. To project the lives of others onto oneself is to completely hide ones own personality. Ichiro is ashamed of his disloyalty to America. He acts as if every white American thinks that he is a traitor for not demonstrating himself to the country, but his fixation is evidence that he cares more on the matter than any white character in the story. With the deaths of his mother and Kenji, Ichiro becomes startlingly aware of the importance of his self-respect, since he no longer has his mother to blame his problems on or Kenji to live out his Americanized daydreams. Ichi ro begins to resist integration because, to him, it would mean forfeiting his identity in lieu of conformity. He concerns himself only with his own opinions and thinks independently of the cultural groups which surround him, as Kenji suggested he do. The symbolism of Ichiros altered ideals is apparent when comparing the start and end scenes of the novel. It starts with Ichiro walking out into the downtown Plaza as he contemplates his own path of nationalism, and ends with Ichiro ducking down a dark narrow alley. That path less travelled is precisely the path that Ichiro has chosen to take in his life. He chose not to blaze the beaten paths of American ideals or Japanese elitism that everyone seemed to be treading on, but rather a small hidden passageway tucked in between the two avenues. Throughout the novel, Emi remains an image of normalized American domesticity, and yet another failed opportunity at Americanization for Ichiro. Much like his wasted job offers, Ichiro thinks that he doesnt deserve Emi because her husband is in the military. When she devotes herself to him, they go out dancing and Ichiro fancies the thought of being with a woman that other men want. His fixation on the men that find her attractive rather than the attractive girl herself gives the scene masculine undertones. Emi alone is not enough to sway Ichiro to commit himself to her, but the sheer interest of other men provokes Ichiro think that he has a real catch on his hands. This is a prime example of Ichiro succumbing to the opinions of the general public in America instead of listening to his own self-respect and his own opinions.

History of the Ku Kus Klan

The history of mankind is a history of â€Å"repeated injuries and usurpations† on the part of man toward man. In the documents I have asked you to read, the universal rights of the individual–man, woman, and child–are addressed or the question of injustice to a particular group is central. The United Nation writes about the tyranny of one nation over another, while setting forth the rights of man; Mrs. Stanton delineates women's grievances and calls for equal rights for women; in a rich and deep idiom, Sojourner Truth echoes Mrs.Stanton's pleas for justice for all women (black and white; rich and poor; scholar and laborer); Dr. King addresses the oppression of Blacks in the U. S. and calls upon all eople who care about human dignity and human rights to respond; in contrast, Hitler argues for the natural superiority of the Aryan race–his racial theory, though deeply flawed, led to the slaughter of six million peple in the Nazi death camps; the United Natio ns' manifesto is considered the seminal modern document on universal human rights and its Convention on the Rights of the Child â€Å"proclained that childhood is entitled to special care and assistance. The Geneva Accords which set out to establish the treatment of soldiers eventually found it necessary also to lay down rules for the conquered peoples. Everywhere we look today (Haiti, Cuba, Somalia, Sudan, China, Iraq, and other nations singled out for human rights violations–man's inhumanity to man and new theories of â€Å"racial cleansing† lead to the mutilation of man's mind and spirit and to racial and ethnic genocide. Our country does not escape censure.The abuse at Abu Grahib, Amnesty International's recent report that female prisoners are often sold as sex slaves to male inmates in our prisons, the controversies over building a mosque not only at Ground Zero which is an extremely sensitive issue but also in Oklahoma and other places across the nation, and the new immigration laws in Arizona, show that America is failing to uphold human rights and the dignity of the individual both abroad and at home.Your assignment is to write a research paper in which you investigate an injustice that has been perpetrated against an individual or a group here in the United States in the twentieth century. You can drw from past history, such as the shameful treatment of the Bonus Army by the government in 1932, or from current headlines. Requirements: 0. The text of the paper must be 5 typed pages. This means that the body of the paper is approximately 1,500 words.In addition, there is to be a â€Å"Works Cited† page. 0. There is to be a minimum of five sources used. Of these, 4 must be books and 1 may be a scholarly article drawn from an academic database. Internet sources should not be consulted as in most cases it is impossible to check their accuracy. The homepage of specific fringe organizations (such as the Ku Klux Klan) can be used. 0. You must use at least 1 primary source. The paper must use correct MLA format and documentation style.

The Effects Of Electronic Devices On Children And...

1) Just another hour, please! This is what most parents hear from their children/adolescent every time it is time to stop using an electronic device. Children and adolescents today spend â€Å"1 to 3 hours per day during the week and between 1 to 4 hours per day on the weekends† (Kappos, A.D. pg. 556) on computer games, viewing videos, watching television and internet surfing to name a few. The use of electronic devices has changed the life of children/adolescent and have exposed them to a volatile and irreparable outcome, in their social interaction with peers and family, self-perception, behavior and sleep pattern. 2) It is now a standard in today’s school and at home to have access to a computer to complete homework assignment and projects. The additional stress to perform has risen and has caused unwanted stress and anxiety in school age children. Due to the ease of accessibility of cellular phones and tablets today, it has become harder to monitor what your child/adolescent. â€Å"Only about three in ten young people say they have rules about how much time they can spend watching TV (28%) or playing video games (30%) and 36% say the same about using the computer. When parents do set limits, children spend less time with media: those with any media rules consume nearly 3 hours less media per day, than those with rules† (Kaiserfamilyfoundation.wordpress.com. 2010). Media present in the bedroom effects on sleep in children/adolescents consequences can be both physical andShow MoreRelatedThe Effects Of Electronic Devices On Children And Adolescents Essay1463 Words   |  6 Pageshour, please! This is what most parents hear from their children/adolescent every time it is time to stop using an electronic device. 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Charles Dickens Hard Times and David Lodges Nice Work...

Charles Dickens Hard Times and David Lodges Nice Work ----â€Å"Fact, fact, fact, everywhere in the material aspect of the town; fact, fact, fact everywhere in the immaterial.† – Charles Dickens In the early 1851, London staged the Great Exhibition to show the world, the achievements and inventions of the Industrial Revolution. Many people believed that this showed how much better, safer and healthier Britain was than its neighbours in Europe. People living in mansions amid lawns and fountains, with horse drawn carriages certainly felt that life couldn’t be better. However behind the publicity and the royal occasions there was another England, not so glorious. Benjamin Disraeli wrote that Britain was really â€Å"two nations†,†¦show more content†¦In many ways Dickens was viewed to denounce the Capitalist ethic. However never to found to be Communist/ Marxist it can be stated he was merely anti-materialistic. He felt the social injustice, which was created due to the heavy industry. Most of the mechanized account and in particular p.20 creates such an impression on the reader to think this. Dickens believed that this was a brutal world where everything is â€Å"measured by figures† in a Gradgrind gospel of â€Å"Fact†. He has written a satire against the foundation and the constitutions of Industrial Society. A uniformly monotonous description is used, much like the movement of machine where â€Å"products are continuously churned out†. The language used in this chapter holds no complexity. It translates simply to the author’s purpose; generating a cold mocking account – â€Å"a satirical bite†. This is the main thematic contrast of the two texts. We find Lodge is very unclear in who is denounced, what the author feels about society. It is very difficult to gauge what the author thinks about the deindustrialisation of Britain in the 1980’s. Therefore we find the passage to be very much gentler in comparison, Lodge is not hostile to the West Midlands. Lodge mainly writes with a dry informative tone throughout most of the narrative. At times his writing can be said to quite tedious. There obviously must be much more to this mundane tone than the writer’s real style. It is