Animal Symbolism In Julie Otsuk's When The Emperor Was Divine

Symbolism is defined as an object, word, mark, sign, or fact used to represent something. For example, doves mean peace and hope, flowers might mean growth, and a red octagon means stop. In the novel When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuk, the symbolism of animals is used to represent how Japanese-Americans were free to live their lives to being trapped in a barbed wire fence with no freedom. The story follows a family of three who experienced life before, during, and after living in an internment camp after the Pearl Harbor Bombing. After arriving home from the camps, they still faced discrimination after not being guilty. The animals that are held captive symbolize the lost freedom of Japanese-Americans after the Pearl Harbor bombing.

After she and her kids get home, they eat dinner and greet their pets, White Dog and a bird. After the daughter finishes studying prime numbers, she “came into the kitchen and went over to the macaw’s cage by the stove” (Otsuka 14). Their pet bird stays locked up in a cage like how Japanese Americans were guarded by barbed wire fences in the internment camps. The macaw was later set free by the woman, but it didn't want to go. The bird symbolizes the lost sense of safety and foreshadows the imprisonment of the family when they get to the camp. The next morning, the family leaves for the camp on a train. The boy mentions a memory of White Dog after they had to leave him at home. His memory is a flashback, “[...] when White Dog was still a noisy white dog that would bark at anything no matter how big it was”(Otsuka 44). White Dog wasn’t domesticated for his whole life, he used to live in a forest near the family’s house. White Dog learned to trust the family and grew old with them until he was put out of his

After their train ride ended, the family lived in a horse stable before finally reaching the camps. Sometimes, the boy had plucked the stiff horse hairs out of the freshly white walls and run his fingers along the toothmarks on top of the double Dutch door where the wood was soft and worn" (Otsuka 30). Horses that probably lived free are now living in stalls. The horses have chewed on the wall of the stalls, wanting to be free from captivity and be free to live in the wild. These horses mirror the family and the real Japanese-American families wanting to be free from being guarded. Life in the camp was harsh for the family due to the rumors spread. The boy wasn’t able to make friends, “[...]but he had a pet tortoise that he kept in a wooden box filled with sand[…]”(Otsuka 60). The boy found a tortoise living free in the wild and decided to keep it as a pet. The boy carved his ID tag into its shell that he and his sister got while in the camp. The tortoise dies later on which symbolizes the loss of identity while in the camps. Symbolism can be shown through animals by their