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Chapter 17
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
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 hospital some distance away. Naomi wishes that her grandparents could stay in the hut, but Obasan has taught her to prioritize the desires and needs of others before her own. Of the family, only Obasan and Naomi attend Grandma Nakane’s wake; Grandpa Nakane is too ill and Stephen refuses to go. Naomi doesn’t understand the prayers at the wake, nor does she understand the prayers at the funeral the following day. Stephen goes to the funeral, but he gives little regard to the proceedings. Grandma Nakane’s body is sent to be cremated in a Buddhist ceremony, and Stephen scowls when Obasan remarks on the significance of cremation. He tells Naomi that their grandmother will simply turn to ash.
Naomi’s family continues to fracture. Even when she is briefly reunited with her grandparents, they are quickly separated again by illness. Naomi has been taught to respond to this loss by internalizing her feelings. Grandma Nakane’s funeral service demonstrates the family’s immigrant Japanese Canadian culture, as it blends traditions of Canadian Anglican funerals with traditions of Japanese Buddhist ones. Stephen once again demonstrates his disdain for his Japanese heritage, which isolates him from his family as he rejects their customs of mourning.
Themes
