Introduction
The novel is about a man called Christopher Banks whom both of his parents disappeared his father was opium. Christopher was then forced to live in their aunt’s place where he desired and vowed to become a detective in that he was motivated by the fact that he did not know and understood the disappearance of his parents in a span of two weeks. Later he covers thi9sd through a large extend as he accomplished his work in china as he followed most of his cases.
As a little boy for example he has trouble as his parents disappeared who are feared to have been kidnapped. The traumas of life occurred to Christopher, as he cannot concentrate in anything when he remembers about his parents. As he was doing, his investigation fantasies evaporated between facts. He was challenged that if manages to solve a particular case he would be averting a major catastrophe. In the instance of his encounter with the police of Chinese’s and Japanese trauma fouls in his mind when he recognizes that he was living at the expense of his mother who was napped and made the concubine of chi9nesse war lord called Wang KU.
The personal trauma when the world falls altogether, he seizes opportunities with both hands for example, on how he particularly went that first in the desire to follow up to his goals. He turns out to be successful and plan. The fiction as an example that pushed him to crime fiction that makes smaller individuals follows up the case of his father. The title also depicts the result as he leaves s with none of his parents around.
In the novel “When we were orphans’ Kazuo reveals the historical background of a detective who went through so much psychological trauma right from his childhood life. In the first part, Banks is taken to his aunt Sarah in Britain. The area itself reminds him of his schooldays traumatic return when he was a child to Shanghai. In this part, one can note discrepancies between memories of his two friends like Osbourne who went to England with him and that of his past.
His meeting with h Aunt Sarah in again reminds him of a time he spent with his parents together with Akira his childhood friend. This is an important section for it gives critical insight into understanding Banks’ fantasy that dominates much of his adult life, the fantasy of reuniting with Akira. When Banks entered Chinese war-torn police station he meets a soldier whom he suspects to be Akira. This makes both of them to be arrested because they were leaking information to the Japanese soldiers.
Banks always believed that his parents quarreled because he was neither English nor Japanese. At home, he spoke Japanese while in school he learnt English culture through interaction with other students. Self-blame is the trauma that he went through because of his background though he had no control over it since the environment taught him to do so.
Another trauma that Banks faced is that of realizing that his parents were no more there. He was convinced that when he goes back he would meet his parents where they used to live. He pushed his way through warring Japanese and Chinese soldiers only to find out that his father had run to Hong Kong while his mother had been as a concubine. Towards the end of the novel, Banks asks for forgiveness after reuniting with his mother because he taught he was to blame for all their misfortunes.
Works Cited
Ishiguro, Kazuo. When We Were Orphans. New York: A.A. Knopf, 2000. Print.
