The Consequences Of Silence In Obasan By Joy Kogawa

Joy Kogawa's Obasan is a representation of the silence Japanese Canadians experience specifically in the past as they have been repressed from telling the stories of the internment camps in Canada due to the government's pressure to not talk about what happened to them, leading to the negative and generational consequences of silence as a trauma response. In addition to showing how Japanese Canadians have covered up traumatic events through silence. Obasan also demonstrates how silence has not solved anything, but has made the traumatic events worse, and that healing can only occur when people begin to speak about them. Silence is shown by the family secret about Namois's mother being absent, as well as Namoi never wanting to tell anyone about her sexual assault from an Old Man Grower, the difference between Namoi’s aunts in how they choose to be vocal or silent in their life. Finally, how Joy Kogawa herself uses Obasan as a way to use language to share her story as a Japanese Canadian. She draws from her real life in her novel. Furthermore, through the novel, Namois's life is treated as if language is dangerous and silence is safe as she becomes

As well as how her mother is like Naomi, she also had questions that she was silenced from knowing furthering the generational silencing, as that the “wordlessness” was the overall detriment and was the cause of her and her mother's destruction. McDermott, Sinéads “THE DOUBLE WOUND: SHAME AND TRAUMA IN JOY KOGAWA’S Obasan.” Discusses how Naomi's silence is not associated with a version of language itself but the silence is bigger than words or speaks more than words. The silence is negatively used to cover or shut down events of shame. Mcdermott explains how silence is a negative response by