Previous
The Boy
For most of the novel, the father only exists in the memories of the other family members and in the short, censored letters he writes from the detention camp (he was detained by the U.S. government months before the story begins). The family remembers him as a loving, mild-mannered, and gentle man, and his warm letters, though censored, confirm that he loves and cares for his family. However, when we see the man at the end of the novel, he is a bitter and weary, reeling from the psychological effects of being unjustly interned as an “alien enemy.” Gripped by his rage and resentment at America for imprisoning him and his family, the man slowly disconnects from the family, becoming more sullen and withdrawing into his inner world. Though he did not physically die at the camp, he does return as a ghost of his former self.
The Man / The Father Quotes in When the Emperor was Divine
The When the Emperor was Divine quotes below are all either spoken by The Man / The Father or refer to The Man / The Father. 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:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
She’d been in America for almost twenty years now. But she did not want to cause any trouble—“The nail that sticks up gets hammered down”—or be labeled disloyal. She did not want to be sent back to Japan. “There’s no future for us there. We’re here. Your father’s here. The most important thing is that we stay together.”…
Loyalty. Disloyalty. Allegiance. Obedience.
“Words,” she said, “it’s all just words.”
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Chapter 4
Quotes
And when our mother pushed us gently, but firmly, from behind, and whispered, Go to him, all we could do was stare down at our shoes, unable to move. Because the man who stood there before us was not our father. He was somebody else, a stranger who had been sent back in our father’s place. That’s not him, we said to our mother, That’s not him, but our mother no longer seemed to hear us…He got down on his knees and he took us into his arms and over and over again, he uttered our names, but still we could not be sure it was him.
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Chapter 5
Quotes
I spied on you—you get up at six, you like bacon and eggs, you love baseball, you take your coffee with cream, your favorite color is blue.
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The Man / The Father Quotes in When the Emperor was Divine
The When the Emperor was Divine quotes below are all either spoken by The Man / The Father or refer to The Man / The Father. 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:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
She’d been in America for almost twenty years now. But she did not want to cause any trouble—“The nail that sticks up gets hammered down”—or be labeled disloyal. She did not want to be sent back to Japan. “There’s no future for us there. We’re here. Your father’s here. The most important thing is that we stay together.”…
Loyalty. Disloyalty. Allegiance. Obedience.
“Words,” she said, “it’s all just words.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4
Quotes
And when our mother pushed us gently, but firmly, from behind, and whispered, Go to him, all we could do was stare down at our shoes, unable to move. Because the man who stood there before us was not our father. He was somebody else, a stranger who had been sent back in our father’s place. That’s not him, we said to our mother, That’s not him, but our mother no longer seemed to hear us…He got down on his knees and he took us into his arms and over and over again, he uttered our names, but still we could not be sure it was him.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5
Quotes
I spied on you—you get up at six, you like bacon and eggs, you love baseball, you take your coffee with cream, your favorite color is blue.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
