Naomi Nakane's Death In Obasan

In the novel, Obasan, the protagonist, Naomi Nakane is introduced as a confused, hopeless, and fragile character, whose life is surround by silence. “Listening and listening to silent earth and the silent sky as I have done all my life” (288). In Naomi 's whole life, she strives to find the answers to questions about her family, and specifically her mother, who has a great impact on Naomi, and her life. However, no one shows any kind of response to Naomi’s endeavour to find the truths. The continuous silence leads Naomi to feel heavy with worries and frustrations, eventually it influences her to become who she is now; confused, hopeless, and fragile. Although Naomi’s family decides to keep silence to protect Naomi from getting hurt by knowing the

The motif of death, and its inevitableness is continuously mentioned; “Everyone someday die” (14), (34), (54), (55). However, undoubtedly, one of the most significant deaths is Naomi’s mother’s, because of its such great impact on Naomi. “Your leg is a tree trunk, and I am branch, vine, butterfly. The tree is a dead tree in the middle of there prairies” (291) Naomi once again uses the tree imagery to describe her mother’s death. Naomi uses the word “dead” directly to describe the tree, which is the symbol of her mother. When the tree is dead, the branch must be dead too, and this suggests that along with Naomi’s mother’s death, Naomi also becomes dead, not literally, or physically, but in a way that because of the absence of the ultimate foundation in her life, she becomes emotionally, and spiritually dead. The death of Naomi’s mother, who has a significant impart on Naomi’s life makes Naomi suffer greatly, and her absence influences Naomi to become confused, and feel