Mother Character Analysis in Obasan

Mother is Naomi’s mother, who disappears on a trip to Japan when Naomi is a child. Throughout her life, Naomi yearns for her mother and wishes to know what became of her, until Grandma Kato’s letter reveals at the end of the novel that Mother was horribly injured and disfigured by the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Mother insisted that the truth be concealed from her children so as not to burden them, not realizing (as Naomi comes to learn) that silence does not prevent pain from spreading; it only obscures the source of the pain. After Naomi learns the truth about Mother, she becomes dedicated to hearing Mother through her silence and feeling her love despite her death.

Mother Quotes in Obasan

The Obasan quotes below are all either spoken by Mother or refer to Mother. 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:

Race, Identity, and Citizenship Theme Icon

All Nisei are liable to imprisonment if we refuse to volunteer to leave. At least that is the likeliest interpretation of Ian Mackenzie's “Volunteer or else” statement. […] Why do they consider us to be wartime prisoners? Can you wonder that there is a deep bitterness among the Nisei who believed in democracy?

Related Characters: Aunt Emily Kato (speaker), Mother

Page Number and Citation: 103

Explanation and Analysis:

In Aunt Emily’s wartime diary, which she addresses to her sister (Naomi’s mother), she contends with the tension between her Canadian identity and Canada’s notion of all Japanese Canadians as foreign. The government has issued an ultimatum against second-generation Japanese Canadians that threatens them with imprisonment if they do not leave their homes on the coast. There is a deep irony in the phrase “volunteer or else,” issued by Ian Mackenzie (a real historical figure and anti-Japanese member of Canadian Parliament). The language of “volunteering” gives false agency to the Nisei, implying that they get to choose their fate, when Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia

The crowd stands aside, waving steadily, bowing, touching arms here and there, and then they are out of view and I’m clambering up the train steps again as I did three years ago.

We sit in two seats facing each other once more, exactly like the last time. Where is Father? […] Where are we going? Will it be to a city? Remember my doll? Remember Vancouver? The escalators? Electric lights? Streetcars? Will we go home again ever?

Related Characters: Naomi Nakane (speaker), Aunt Emily Kato, Father (Tadashi/Mark Nakane), Mother

Page Number and Citation: 216

Explanation and Analysis:

The Nakanes leave Slocan on a train, just like how they arrived. The Nakanes are displaced from their new home “exactly like the last time,” when they were displaced from Vancouver. This parallel indicates that the Canadian government’s mistreatment of its Japanese citizens will not change, even though Canada has won the war against Japan. Naomi yearns for home, and her trepidation about the future blends with her memories of the past. The way Naomi looks to the past as she tries to make sense of her present and future lends credence to Aunt Emily’s belief, voiced earlier in the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim ne

[The Grand Inquisitor’s] demand to know was both a judgment and a refusal to hear. The more he questioned [Mother], the more he was her accuser and murderer. The more he killed her, the deeper her silence became. What the Grand Inquisitor has never learned is that the avenues of speech are the avenues of silence. To hear my mother, to attend her speech, to attend the sound of stone, he must first become silent. Only when he enters her abandonment will he be released from his own.

How the Grand Inquisitor gnaws at my bones. At the age of questioning my mother disappeared. Why, I have asked ever since, did she not write? Why, I ask now, must I know?

Did I doubt her love? Am I her accuser?

Related Characters: Naomi Nakane (speaker), Mother

Page Number and Citation: 273-274

Explanation and Analysis:

Shortly before Naomi learns the truth of her mother’s fate, she dreams of a mysterious figure, whom she calls the Grand Inquisitor, killing Mother. He has some “demand to know,” and he violently refuses to accept Mother’s silence. Naomi recognizes that violence in herself. She, like the Grand Inquisitor, has failed to acknowledge that Mother communicates through silence rather than speech. Naomi realizes that although she only yearns to understand her mother out of love, that failure to properly attend Mother’s speech is in itself a violent act. She can’t force her mother to speak—she can only learn to attend Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus volupta

She and my mother, [Grandma Kato] writes, were unable to talk of all the things that happened. The horror would surely die sooner, they felt, if they refused to speak. But the silence and the constancy of the nightmare had become unbearable for Grandma and she hoped that by sharing them with her husband, she could be helped to extricate herself from the grip of the past.

Related Characters: Naomi Nakane (speaker), Mother, Grandma Kato, Grandpa Kato

Page Number and Citation: 282-283

Explanation and Analysis:

In Grandma Kato’s letter explaining the devastation of the bombing of Hiroshima, she apologizes to her husband for burdening him with the information. Like the other members of Naomi’s family, Grandma Kato believes that sharing suffering is selfish. However, the family’s traditional method of suffering in silence has become unbearable, and this displays the negative impacts of silence. Over the course of the story, Naomi learns to accept her mother’s silence as the way she chose to communicate, but silence can also exist in its more predictable form as an absence of communication. In this form, silence is stifling and Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum

This body of grief is not fit for human habitation. Let there be flesh. The song of mourning is not a lifelong song.

Father, Mother, my relatives, my ancestors, we have come to the forest tonight, to the place where the colors all meet––red and yellow and blue. We have turned and returned to your arms as you turn to earth and form the forest floor.

Tonight we picked berries with the help of your sighted hands. […] See how our stained fingers have read the seasons, and how our serving hands serve you still.

My loved ones, rest in your world of stone. Around you flows the underground stream.

Related Characters: Naomi Nakane (speaker), Mother, Father (Tadashi/Mark Nakane)

Page Number and Citation: 294

Explanation and Analysis:

The final moments of Naomi’s story see her coming to terms with the many deaths of her loved ones. Naomi has tried to escape her grief by denying it, but now she realizes that if she lets herself feel the full weight of that grief, eventually she will be able to move on. In part, this is because she no longer feels that the loved ones she has lost are truly gone. She sees them in the beauty of the landscape and feels their guidance as she carries out simple, heartfelt tasks that her ancestors have performed for generations. In Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusant

Mother Character Timeline in Obasan

The timeline below shows where the character Mother appears in Obasan. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...Stephen, the first grandchild in both the Kato and Nakane families. In the photograph, Naomi’s mother stands next to her sister Emily, and Naomi wonders if the Katos were ever truly... (full context)

Naomi finds an old quilt Mother made when Naomi was a child, and though she wants to go back to bed,... (full context)

...Aunt Emily’s journal in the box and sees that the later entries are addressed to Mother, Emily’s older sister. She is struck with a new feeling of connection to her mother... (full context)

The photo depicts a young Naomi with Mother, and Naomi recalls her own youthful discomfort with being perceived. She identifies her distrust of... (full context)

...her aunt as the archetypal old woman from many Japanese legends. She flashes back to Mother telling Naomi’s favorite story, the story of Momotaro. In the story, an elderly couple is... (full context)

...with the adult chickens, and a hen begins to kill them all. Naomi runs to Mother, who rescues the surviving chicks with a matter-of-fact swiftness that Naomi deems characteristic of Japanese... (full context)

...in his presence, and every time he abuses Naomi he warns her not to tell Mother. The secret makes Naomi feel separated from her mother, and she feels even more distant... (full context)

The story moves to September 1941, when Naomi is five years old. Grandma Kato and Mother leave for Japan to visit Naomi’s ill great-grandmother, and Naomi wonders why her great-grandmother’s need... (full context)

...of the chapter comes in the form of Emily’s diary entries, framed as letters to Mother, who in the 1940s is still in Japan with Grandma Kato. In the first entry... (full context)

In late March of 1942, Emily briefly stops addressing her diary entries to Mother, as she no longer has faith that she will see her sister again, but by... (full context)

...feel better, Naomi gives Stephen one of her toys. She clings to a doll that Mother gave her before she left. (full context)

...she is finished. Naomi brings Nomura-obasan back inside, where Stephen is listening to his and Mother’s old records. Naomi wishes to go home, but she knows she cannot. She stops asking... (full context)

...that their father won’t die, but he doesn’t answer when Naomi asks about Father and Mother. Obasan brings Naomi a picture book to read, and the yellow art prompts Naomi to... (full context)

...and Nakayama-sensei leads the group in prayer. During the prayers, Stephen accidentally breaks one of Mother’s records. The Nakanes and their guests take communion from Nakayama-sensei, and he assures them that... (full context)

...They discuss Uncle Dan, who has remained “fiercely loyal” to Canada; the unknown fates of Mother and Grandma Kato; and Nakayama-sensei, who tried in vain to foster a sense of community... (full context)

While the Nakanes are at the Barker farm, they receive no word from Mother. Father sends a few letters, informing them that Grandpa Nakane has died and that Father... (full context)

Looking at the photographs makes Naomi think of Mother and Grandma Kato. Nakayama-sensei searched for them when he visited Japan after the war, but... (full context)

...have killed the Nakanes over and over in Naomi’s dreams. In the courtyard, she sees Mother dancing with a red rose in her mouth. Naomi tries to go to her mother,... (full context)

...to share the letters’ contents, but decided instead to follow the wishes of her sister (Mother). The letters, Emily and Nakayama-sensei reveal, were written many years ago by Grandma Kato. (full context)

...describes the events that befell the Kato family in Japan in 1945. Grandma Kato’s ailing mother makes an unexpected recovery, and Grandma Kato goes with Mother to Nagasaki, to help Mother’s... (full context)

...better shape. The next morning, Tomio is missing and Grandma Kato still has not found Mother. Tomio is never found, but Grandma Kato discovers Mother burned and disfigured beyond recognition. Grandma... (full context)

...by preaching love and forgiveness. Naomi is not interested in forgiveness. She thinks only of Mother, and begs Mother to help Naomi hear her. (full context)

Naomi calls out to Mother, trying to decipher the “wordless word” of this voiceless woman. Mother’s name was eventually found... (full context)

Naomi thinks of the old photograph in which she clings to Mother. She thinks of her mother as a tree from which Naomi herself branches. She thinks... (full context)

Mother Character Analysis

Mother Quotes in Obasan

Chapter 14 Quotes

Chapter 26 Quotes

Chapter 35 Quotes

Chapter 37 Quotes

Chapter 39 Quotes

Mother Character Timeline in Obasan