English
“When the Emperor Was Divine” is considered to be a historical novel written by highly-acclaimed Japanese American author Julia Otsuka. It is regarded to be her debut novel, which was published in 2002.
The theme of a Japanese American family dispatched to an internment camp in the Utah desert during World War II runs through the novel. The central idea of the novel finds its particularization in the wartime experiences of Otsuka’s mother’s family. In general, one can take into consideration that the novel is written through the perspective of four family members, focusing their attention on eviction from California and their time in camp. Upon a closer perspective of four family members, using many various natural symbols such as dust, flower, weather and seasons to demonstrate a reader that nature itself plays a considerable role in the novel. Nature is delineated as a facet and, in complex way, expands the narrator’s story. On the whole, universal symbols implement feasible mutual feelings, ideas and thoughts the author as well as reader share.
There are a lot of symbols which can be barely or just not palpably observed by a reader but they do certainly exist. Thus, this is completely the case with Julia Otska’s novel “When the Emperor Was Divine”.
Such symbols, which are considered to be conspicuous to the eye, can add new and appreciable levels of meaning to the given novel.
The novel also contains varied universal symbols that are also known as archetypes, i.e. a character element or plot that recurs in cultural or cross-cultural contexts. Nevertheless, there are universal symbols in definite contexts transform into becoming personal ones in Otsuka’s novel. Personal symbols or private ones “may only be detectable in the context of one particular story or poem. There are a great deal of recurrent symbols which are categorized in the cardinal contexts of nature and colors.
The principal nature symbols are considered to be dust, flowers as well as the weather and seasons. Dust is regarded the smallest by size of the three subcategories, but despite of its small size it affects the family profoundly. There are a lot of definitions of dust, but one of them claims that, “it is a small grain, generally less than a few hundred micrometres in size and composed of silicate minerals and glassy nodules” (Encyclopedia Britannica). Hence, the definition demonstrates how small the parts of dust virtually are. Indeed, dust itself consists of very small, scarcely visible parts but has a formidable impact on the family.
The sentences “all that he could see was dust” (Otsuka 77) and “a dust storm would blow for hours, and sometimes even days, and then, just as suddenly as it had begun, it would stop, and for a few seconds the world was perfectly silent” (Otsuka 77) showing that the dust, even though it is composed of scarcely visible parts, influenced the family’s situation and varied circumstances in an essential way. The narrator underscores how menacing the dust is, since the world became completely quiet when the dust storm stopped. The above-indicated lines provides a notion how unthinkably extensive a dust storm really is. The dust is everywhere, its sound is nearly deafening. The narrator amplifies the latter by depicting the family’s hankering for the storm to end and alleviation when it ceases. Being a peculiar symbol, the dust acquires particular significance when the geographical location is taken into account; in a desert, the amount of sand is considered to be incalculable as well as beyond the understanding of human consciousness.
Subsequently, in accordance with The Bible, humans were formed by God from dust (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, Genesis 2:7, 2007). Dust becomes a symbol of man’s feebleness, “for he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalms 103:14, 2007). The narrator emphasizes the fact that dust symbolizes feebleness and mortality as well when depicting the son’s act to write his name in the dust and what remains after a night: “one evening, before he went to bed, he wrote his name in the dust across the top of the table. All through the night, while he slept, more dust blew through the walls. By morning his name was gone” (Otsuka 64).
When the boy recognizes that nature obliterated his name he feels feeble and weak; a person without a name lack importance and value. His relation to others is indispensable in such a context in terms of comprehension the symbol of dust; unfortunately, a person with no identification feels less worthy. Once and again, the geographical location of the desert is substantive; there is nothing but sand in the desert, which enlarges the boy’s feeling of solitude. The dust also underscores the boy’s feeling of feebleness. The boy accepts dust as an evil enemy and eventually a menace to the family’s existence is validated in the lines, “yellow dust devils whirled across the sand” (Otsuka 103). The narrator frequently uses dust in order to reveal menacing and destructive world, surrounding the family. Moreover, the dust destroys the family clock, which stops working since its mechanisms are clotted with dust (Otsuka 103). Dust is regarded as negative symbol as it inflicts the family to lose track of time, a vital part of human existence.
Besides, small parts of dust affect the family’s situation in a pessimistic way, resulting a negative cycle of varied events. In obedience to the Biblical interpretation, one has to take into consideration the fact that dust was one of the ten plagues that Egypt suffered from. The whole dust of the world transformed into gnats, which spread among the Egyptians, but not among Israelites (Exodus 8:17, 2007). Thus, it is within the realms of possibility to joint Japanese Americans and the plagued Egyptians, and the Caucasians and the Israelites. The dust delineates menaces against the family’s existence, and moreover it is represented as one that had to be steered clear. The boy confessed that the dust even intruded his dreams (Otsuka 64). By and large, one can observe that again universal symbol changed into personal one which is exceedingly influenced by various factors and evidences of the family’s life.
Once again dust as a symbol can be discerned when mother comes back to the house and does the cleaning. It is something that bedraggled the family and their house. When other people lived in their house but once left it, mother aspires to erase all the traces of the intruders. Dust arises “from everything under the sun: minerals, seeds, pollen, insects, mold, lichens and even bacteria. Its sources also include bone, hair, hide, feather, skin, blood, and excrement” (Amato, 2001). These previous inhabitants left not only the traces of their physical energy but also mental one. Thus, they both lie in varied layers.
Another pivotal symbol in Otsuka’s novel is flower. The narcissus plays a considerable role. The narrator claims that narcissus in the garden are white (Otsuka 10). Thompson asserts that people in Japan adore flowers that drop their petals one by one. Hence, the rose is not regarded with much affection. Sometimes flowers with many petals can be considered as good ones as they represent many years of life. Therefore, a narcissus fits into the novel as it has a lot of petals, which drop one by one.
The narcissus has its origin from the Greek mythology, when a man called Narcissus fell in love with his own reflected picture, and eventually changed into the flower that bears his name. Indeed, in both Greek and Egyptian mythology, the narcissus constitutes death. In the novel, the narcissus symbolizes mother’s apprehension concerning future. The narcissus also imports personal relationship pertaining to mother. Her husband was arrested and she lived at a very uncertain time. The narcissus displays mother’s destiny going to the internment camp, going from the tranquil time to imprisonment and uncertainty. The narcissus itself demonstrates how eerie future can be.
There are still another flowers represented in the Otsuka’s novel. A girl named Elizabeth Roosevelt, who used to live next to the family, and, more precisely, on the other side of the fence, continues sending the boy varied letters and in one of such letters she sends him “a tulip bulb which he named Gloria” (Otsuka 69). A tulip bulb blooms in early spring, and spring typifies an immutable resurgence. It is regarded as a certain beginning of something new. A tulip bulb constitutes various expectations concerning a better future for the boy and his family as well, and their life in the camp will be changed into something better.
The fence itself is also regarded as a symbol which referred to the relationship between the boy and the girl. It indicates the fact that there was a fence between them, i.e. they had different apprehension of the world even though they were neighbours.
Moreover, above-mentioned flower appears when a man in camp was shot. A friend of the dead man “had noticed a rare and unusual flower on the other side of the fence. It was his belief that his friend had been reaching out to pick the flower when the shot had been fired” (Otsuka 101). This flower for the man is considered to be, in some extent, a personal symbol of a striving for freedom as it grew across the fence, which keeps away him from the rest of the world and his surroundings. The tragic death represents how an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, because the man wanted only to pick a flower, can result a fatal casualty.
Furthermore, the tulip bulb demonstrates spring as a symbol of something new. One can draw a parallel between spring and winter, where winter is the time when nature lies to rest. The theme of the seasons as well as weather is recurring in the novel: “The first signs of spring: mild days, buds in the fruit trees, no more long lists of the dead” (Otsuka 137). The conditions of the family are extremely poor, and the weather conditions mirror the situation they are in.
With winter always come clouds. In Christianity clouds play a principal role as they represent the unseen God, covering the sky (Fraim, 2001). These clouds for the boy are considered to be a certain reflection of varied problems he faces continually. They shadow his future, indicating that his future is darkened.
Another momentous symbol is a symbol of borders. The Japanese American families are sent to the Central Utah Relocation Centre which is located on the side of the mountains seen from a Californian perspective. On the other side of the mountains there is nothing but desert. “The mountains were farther away than they seemed. Everything was, in the desert. Everything except water” (Otsuka 58). These three sentences demonstrate the life in the camp, drawing a parallel between the family’s previous and normal life. The absence of water shows the importance of life in general as it is considered to be crucial for survival humans, animals and plants.
One can observe that there are a lot of varied symbols which can be important and complex simultaneously. Thus, a reader detects something new by paying attention to the symbols and their concealed contexts and meanings.
Works Cited
Amato, Joseph. Dust: A History of the Small and the Invisible. University of California Press, 2001. Print.
Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 1 Mar. 2016.
Fraim, John. Symbolism of Popular Culture, 2001. Web. 1 Mar. 2016.
Otsuka, Julie. When the Emperor Was Divine. New York: Anchor Books, 2002. Print.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, Exodus 8:17. Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2007. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, Genesis 2:7. Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2007. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, Psalms 103:14. Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2007. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.
