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Nakayama-sensei
Grandpa Nakane is Father’s father and Grandma Nakane’s second husband. He is an expert boatbuilder and sailor, but his boats are confiscated when he and Grandma Nakane are imprisoned at the Pool in Vancouver. Grandpa Nakane falls ill at the Pool and suffers from poor health for the rest of his life.
Grandpa Nakane Quotes in Obasan
The Obasan quotes below are all either spoken by Grandpa Nakane or refer to Grandpa Nakane. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 18 Quotes
It is always so. We must always honor the wishes of others before our own. We will make the way smooth by restraining emotion. Though we might wish Grandma and Grandpa to stay, we must watch them go. To try to meet one’s own needs in spite of the wishes of others is to be “wagamama”—selfish and inconsiderate. Obasan teaches me not to be wagamama by always heeding everyone’s needs. That is why she is waiting patiently beside me at this bridge. That is why, when I am offered gifts, I must first refuse politely. It is such a tangle trying to decipher the needs and intents of others.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Grandpa Nakane Character Timeline in Obasan
The timeline below shows where the character Grandpa Nakane appears in Obasan. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4
Naomi thinks about her family history. Grandpa Nakane , her paternal grandfather, was a master boatbuilder and sailor, and he brought his widowed...
(full context)
Chapter 14
...visits a deeply depressed Grandma Nakane, who is living in squalor in the Pool while Grandpa Nakane is isolated in the Sick Bay. In addition to the unsanitary living conditions, the Mounties...
(full context)
Chapter 18
Grandma Nakane dies while the family is in Slocan. She and Grandpa Nakane visited Naomi, Obasan, and Stephen a few weeks earlier, but they quickly left for a...
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Chapter 22
...narration becomes confused and meandering. Naomi thinks of Father, who is in a hospital with Grandpa Nakane in New Denver. When Stephen comes to see her, he reassures her that their father...
(full context)
Chapter 30
...farm, they receive no word from Mother. Father sends a few letters, informing them that Grandpa Nakane has died and that Father himself has been unable to recover from an operation. They...
(full context)
