The Difference Between When The Emperor Was Divine And American Son

In both novels, When the Emperor was Divine and American Son, the racial alienation, both internalized and external, causes the two families to mirror the white society in order to feel less shame and deserving of their citizenship. Both authors show the alienation by the pronouns used. The difference and the distinct line between the “I” or “We” and the “Them” shows there is a barrier. In the quote from American Son, Gabe says “I wonder”, “I try”, “I uncross” in contrast to “they seem”, “how they can”, and “their legs” referring to one certain group of people that he is striving to be like. Roley uses the repetition of the pronouns to show the internal alienation that Gabes feels due to the social differences of cultures. The use of the pronouns

The cruel face of the enemy. We were guilty”(120). The “we” can be interpreted as the family in the novel, but it also resembles the entire Japanese American community during this time. They were physically isolated from the entire world, which led to an internalized feeling of shame and disbelonging.The difference between the “I” and the “we” is that Gabe’s alienation is internalized. The internalized alienation is caused by his ability to pass as white through appearance, but cannot culturally pass based on his race. His inability to pass culturally is shown as he is unsuccessful in the end since he cannot keep his legs crossed. There is racial alienation in both novels, but the external alienation causes a shared experience of a community in When the Emperor was Divine while in American Son, the alienation is internalized from an individual experience and

The characters try to absolve this alienation by copying or mirroring white society, which is ultimately unsuccessful. The metaphor of the mirror is present in both the novels as a solution to eliminating racial alienation as much as they can. Gabe tries to mirror the white men that sit in front of him to replicate the social standard. The repetition of the word “cross” shows the idea of the mirror. Gabe says that the men “cross their legs”so he tries “crossing my legs the same way”, but he fails when he has to “uncross it again”. When the white man does something, Gabe does it in order to be like the “beautiful” white standard. However, there is still the racial barrier as he physically cannot hold his legs crossed, signifying that he can never absolve this alienation as it is racial not behavioral. The mirror is also seen in When the Emperor was Divine as the son physically looks in a mirror and sees “the enemy” based on his race. The mirroring is seen in the dialogue between himself and society. “We were guilty. Just put it behind you. No good. Let it go” (120). Society is telling him to let go of the past, and just to “behave” but due to the externalized isolation and constant blaming, his alienation has become internalized. He is mirroring what society said to him for years to what he says to himself in the present. He knows he will never be