Old Man Gower Silence Analysis

“Silence is violence” is a common phrase used by people nowadays which references people who lack initiative when it comes to speaking out against oppression. The same phrase could be applied to the ideas within Shusaku Endo’s novel, Silence. Endo was clever to name his novel Silence, because the word is a very prominent symbol within the story. In fact, it plays a crucial role to the development of the main character. Although some readers may argue that the role of silence in the book is neutral, I claim that silence plays a negative role for the characters because it is what causes protagonist Rodrigues to renounce his faith. In the story, it represents the silence of God, which induces Rodrigues to question his religion through the torture of innocent Japanese Christians.

Emily: Emily is another aunt of Naomi’s except she is different than the others in the family, as she doesn’t possess the typically Japanese values and practices. She pushes Naomi into looking back into her past.

The day after her father's death, the women of the town went to give their condolences to Miss. Emily. To their surprise, Miss. Emily was "dressed as usual" and had "no trace of grief on her face (Perrine's 285)." Emily told the women that her father was not dead. Finally after three days of trying to hold on to her father, "she broke down, and they buried her father quickly (Perrine's 285)." The town's people tired to justify Miss. Emily's actions, by saying that she had nothing left, and was clinging to the one thing that had robbed her for so long they convinced themselves that she was not crazy.

Both “Naomi” and “The neighbor’s wife and mine” are representative stories of westernization of Japanese culture. Naomi was written by Junichiro Tanizaki and published in newspaper in 1924. It demonstrates aestheticism and created the word naomism that represents the modern girl. The neighbor’s wife and mine is also a story that shows how Japanese people were longing to be like westerners. Both are stories of transition from classic Japanese culture to modern western style culture. I would like to describe how each story represents modernity and the difference of each women modernization.

A man from Goodreads proclaims, “Kogawa documents a dark part of our history that every person should be aware of.” By him declaring those words, it is inferred that children would not be able to comprehend the darkness of the book; however, adults would be able to think precisely about the message the book conveys and relate to the hard battles Naomi faced. Kogawa displays the depth of adults’ mind and thoughts with the use of figurative language through

Secondly, Naomi in A Complicated Kindness shows poor judgement by falling into a world full of drugs and alcohol, causing self-destruction. When Naomi’s mother, Gertrude, and her sister, Natasha abandon Naomi and her father, Raymond, it results Naomi’s innocence to shatter. Naomi becomes mentally and emotionally unstable due to the lack of a mother figure and the loss of an older sister that she once had. It is clear that Naomi drowns herself in her own sorrows and darkness, until she loses her identity completely when she states, “But love, like a mushroom high compared with the buzz from cheap weed, outlasts grief," (Toews, 243-244) instead of creating a life for herself and learning to move on. Due to enabling her past to control and

It is easy to see Najmah’s experiences have major impacts on how she develops from being a immature girl to a girl whose loss drives her to unite her family. (MIP-1) Najmah’s Father and brother being

In this essay I would like to argue that in Secrets and Lies Mike Leigh is suggesting that secrets cause tensions in families and destroys relationships between family members. Firstly, I would like to consider that it is actually true according my own experience because there is been some lies and hidden secrets in my family as well and once they are exposed, it causes embarrassments to those whom are affected. Secondly, I believe secrets can form a negative and positive impact once they are exposed because, it can be a turning point where families consider reuniting and leave the past behind which obviously happens in Secrets and Lies. Sometimes it happens

It is displayed when Papa in Farewell to Manzanar, isolates himself from the entire camp, causing controversy around him. That controversy led to conflict on whether others should help out Papa or leave him to suffer. Conflict leads to a split in the group and that is the deconstruction of the family right before Jeanne’s eyes. In Anne Frank the Diary of a Young Girl, Mama immediately tells her daughters how she will start to see them as friends rather than her actual daughters or family. This lack of connection between Anne, Margot, and their mom causes anger to flow through their blood. Anne now feel alone in the world since she no longer can look up to a mother for guidance and the deconstrion of the family starts. Both the father in Manzanar and the mother in the “Secret Annex” use methods of coping from fear that led to the fall of their family. The fall made an environment of pure misery and pain. No one truly loved each other, some were even afraid to look each other in the eye, but it isn’t all doom. Once the family left Manzanar, they were there for one another, they cared for each other because there was no longer a problem to cope about. Peace had finally come to the world and therefore, peace to the family. Anne experienced something similar, as the family had spent nearly two years in the Annex, many suggested that the war would be coming to an end. With that hope of peace, the group started to operate like a productive group should. Unfortunately, that hope lead to the death of everyone in the Secret Annex besides the father. Anne died on March 12, 1945, however she was not wrong about that hope as a few short months later, the war would end. Although it is impossible to end conflict with people, there is grace in those fate’s who try. Problems change people, but if they could believe in hope, that things will get better, they could avoid all the

their dead relatives. A glimpse of an old quilt makes her return to the old question of why her mother never came back. As a child, Naomi asked Obasan about her mother, but Obasan provided no information. Now, Obasan can’t find what she is looking for, and Naomi helps her back to bed.

In the book, she speaks candidly about how her parents were violent towards her during her upbringing, and how negative her parents were towards her. She explains

Aunty Emily, who happens to be the only one who is out spoken, tries to convince Naomi to speak up. She believes that by endlessly reconsidering or revisiting past wrongs and events, they will never crop up again. She believes that facing up to the past, talking about it, affirming it, thinking through and understanding it can prevent them from making the same mistakes. Aunty Emily witnessed so much awful sights during the Second World War but was not in entrenchment like Obasan and Uncle, or Father, Mother and Naomi and does not understand how painful and agonizing it is for others to remember their wartime experience. Emily is a woman full of energy and life but it is never clear to her that her efforts does not have much impact on

The story takes place in 1924 but it was published in 1947. This was a time of radical change in Japanese culture. Western ideas were dramatically influencing Japanese tradition. In particular, Japanese women were beginning to reject the traditional housewife role for a vision of greater personal independence and freedom. The story is clearly a metaphor for the impacts of these cultural changes on the stability offered by Japanese tradition. Tanizaki uses the story to show what he perceives to be the betrayal of Japanese culture and ideals that will come from westernization. As the story progresses, Naomi is slowly but steadily transformed from the object of Joji’s fantasies and desires into a controlling and manipulative master.

Naomi, the titular character of Junichirō Tanizaki’s novel, is a young girl taken in by Jōji, a wealthy man, as he hopes to develop her beauty and maintain her purity, shaping her into his ideal woman. As he uses her for his sexual and emotional needs, he is avalible for her own social and economic gain. Manipulating Joji with sex, she is able to get an apparent upper hand. She gains income, social status, and was able to fool him.

Secrets come in many forms, from white-lies to maximum disclosure; one secret can change family dynamics for a long time. The change in the family dynamic does not always have to be negative, it can be positive as well. Either way a secret or a series of secrets can impact how people feel about, view, and communicate with someone after information is disclosed to others.