Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Obasan, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Race, Identity, and Citizenship
History and Memory
Speech vs. Silence
Selflessness and Decorum
Summary
Analysis
In the springtime, Naomi leaves the farm to sit by a nearby swamp. One day, she finds a frog with a broken leg. Stephen comes to bring Naomi home because Nakayama-sensei has come to visit, and Naomi brings the frog with her. When the children get home, the mood is solemn, and Naomi is told something that she refuses to comprehend or believe. She builds a habitat for the frog, and she nurses it over the next few weeks until it is strong enough to hop away on its own. When Naomi sees the empty habitat, she thinks of her last letter to Father, which remains unanswered.
Naomi’s desire to help the frog heal highlights her empathy and care for others, but it also indicates her lingering hope that she can somehow heal the damage her family and community have experienced. Though she succeeds in helping the frog, it leaves her, signifying that her family can never be put back together. Naomi’s narration doesn’t reveal the news she receives in this chapter, which emphasizes her inability to fathom it.
Themes
