In the
novel Snow Falling On Cedars by David
Guterson, Hatsue learns what it means to be a Japanese American during a time
of war. When she was just a child, she
believed that she was more American than she was Japanese, thinking that there
was no difference between her and Ishmael since they were just people. Her young innocence led her to have a growing
romance with Ishmael while in their secret cedar tree, where they felt that
nothing could separate them or tell them that they couldn’t be together, not
even the war. Although she did not
realize that she was already following the conventions, young Hatsue knew that
she could not be romantically tied to Ishmael, even though they grew up with
one another. Hatsue undergoes a major
transformation when her and her family are sent to the Japanese internment
camps. She realizes that she can never be
with Ishmael while traveling south. She
grows up much quicker than most young girls her age, realizing that even though
she sees herself as an American, on the outside, she is Japanese. Hatsue struggles to accept the fact that even
though she was born in America ,
she will always be seen as Japanese first.
By the time she marries Kabuo and during the present time of the novel,
Hatsue has learned to follow the social conventions by marrying a Japanese man
and to have a stoic, silent demeanor that will not betray her true feelings.
In the
novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by
Khaled Hosseini, Mariam and Laila both undergo transformations. Mariam has her first transformation when she
realizes her father’s true nature on her fifteenth birthday. Not only does she realize that she is
unwanted by her father, but she also blames herself for her mother’s
death. She grows into herself, losing
the curious happiness associated with innocence and youth when she is given
away to Rasheed. She grows even harder
than she originally was at the beginning of the novel, particularly when she
has her first miscarriage, for when she was pregnant she felt a rekindling of
hope and love in the world which will not return until she grows closer to
Laila and Aziza. During the time she is
living with Rasheed, Mariam becomes detached from the world. By the end of the novel, however, she
realizes that there is hope and that she can stand up for herself. Although the attempt to run away with Laila
fails, when Laila’s life is in danger, Mariam realizes that she can take control
of her own life and make her own decisions, which she does by killing
Rasheed. Mariam also learns by the end
of her portion of the novel that even though she was born a harami, or bastard child, she can still
be loved and love in return. Laila, on
the other hand, started out life happily.
There were some struggles in her youth, such as the bombings, her
friends moving or dying due to the rockets, and choosing to stay behind with
her parents when asked to leave with the love of her life, but Laila started
off as an innocent girl as well who had hopes for herself. However, when her parents are killed by a
rocket and she decides to move in with and marry Rasheed, she is forced to
realize the harsh reality of her life: because she is a female during the time
of Taliban rule, she will not be provided with the same opportunities as
men. Laila also grows in to herself for
a portion of the novel after realizing the cold truth that she will not be able
to do the things that her father had high hopes of her doing one day, which
includes going to school to receive a full education. Laila may have been naïve in the beginning of
the novel in her hope of living a happy, successful life, but once she makes
the connection with Mariam and has her two children, she realizes that even if
she gives up hope for herself, she must remain strong for those around
her. Laila, in becoming a mother,
realizes that she needs to protect other people instead of focusing on her own
well-being. However, if not for each
other, Mariam and Laila would not have been able to develop as characters
because they teach each other the power of friendship (even though their
relationship becomes one similar to that between a mother and daughter) and
learn to sacrifice their own well-being for someone else. By living together and growing together as
people, the two both transform into women who are willing to sacrifice
themselves because they now have something worth fighting for: each other and
the two children, Aziza in particular.
In the
novel A Tale for the Time Being by
Ruth Ozeki, Ruth finds a diary written by a Japanese teenager named Naoko, or
Nao for short. Although they never come
into direct contact, Ruth forms an unexplainable connection to Nao. At the beginning of the novel, Ruth is a
distanced, somewhat self-centered person, as demonstrated by her quick
willingness to just throw away what she discovered on the beach without even
trying to see what was inside the package.
As the novel progresses however, and Ruth becomes more invested in Nao’s
story, she opens up more to the world and realizes the importance of being
Japanese. Ruth learns how precious life
is and how crucial it is to remember where one’s family comes from as she
continues to read Nao’s story. Ruth
becomes more invested in Nao’s life even though she has never seen Nao or met
her in real life. In the novel, Ruth is
attempting to write a memoir, but is finding difficulty because she does not
know who she really is and has no motivation to write about herself. However, after reading Nao’s diary, she is able
to look within herself to see that there is still more to the world than what
Ruth has been living so far. Nao, on the
other hand, undergoes multiple transformations in the novel. She may have originally had the intent to
write a biography about her great-grandmother, but instead finds that by
writing what she is feeling, she can confide her feelings in something instead
of letting them bottle up inside of her.
Nao wonders about death and suicide a lot in the novel, but by the end
of the novel, she realizes the importance of life. Nao had to face the tough challenge of moving
from California ,
which she has always considered her home, back to Japan , where she feels foreign and
unwelcome. She is angry with herself and
the world in the beginning of the novel because she was forced to move to a
place that challenged who she was.
However, when she lives with her great-grandmother, she opens up and
looks deep within herself to realize that the whole world is not bad; there are
good things in the world that can outweigh the harsh things in life. When she is first going to the temple to live
with her great-grandmother over the summer, Nao asks her father if they can go
to Disneyland after he comes to pick her up,
not realizing how materialistic her request sounds. However, when she leaves the temple and her
father is actually able to take her to Disneyland ,
she is not nearly as happy as she would have been before living with her
great-grandmother Jiko because she has undergone a transformation. At this point in the novel, Nao makes a
connection with her spiritual self and has a new view of the world, one that is
not shrouded in anger and resentment.
However, her newfound spirit does not last for long as she enters into a
lost state of mind in which she does not see the value in life; she reverts
back into a form of her past self in which she closes herself off from the
world, but the new Nao does not care about things and begins to have a much
more sadistic view of life than she originally had. At the end of the novel, though, Nao once
again undergoes a change for the better in which she once again sees the beauty
in life. She enters into a much happier
state of mind, and, even though she knows that there will be more struggles
ahead of her, she appreciates the life that she has and decides to keep living
instead of giving up and ending her life early.
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