The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

moving and inspiring, but it is also problematic, leading to the possibility of failure and disappointments. The Buddha in the Attic, by Julie Otsuka, exemplifies this belief with a story about Japanese women that come to America for a better life. It illustrates that the American dream is a failed dream for those who immigrate to America. The novel The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka, follows the lives of a group of young women as picture brides as they travel by boat to America waiting to meet

notable works that male privilege played a key role in were Jack London’s The Sea Wolf and Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic. While both novels contain male privilege in them they both take pretty different approaches to the same idea. In The Sea Wolf, women are seen as frail and only fit for certain types of work, most of that work being rearing the children and taking care of the house. In The Buddha in the Attic, the story is very different. Women are expected to do everything that a man would do

Newspaper’s Effect on Japanese-American Internment The novel, Buddha in the Attic, by Julie Otsuka tells the story of a group of Japanese picture brides and their life in San Francisco leading up to World War II and the Japanese Internment. While describing the women’s lives leading up to internment, Otsuka makes it apparent that there is a lack of reliable information provided about what is happening. In Lloyd Chiasson’s article, Japanese-American Relocation During World War II: A Study of California

the immense amount of culture shock, and the downplay of one’s culture in the new place. Additionally, it can also lead to feelings of withdrawal from society and its counterparts. The Japanese women, from the boat, in the novel The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka feel displaced when they first come to America for their new lives. This leads to them clinging to what their life back home was like, full of the culture and faith they were used to. Consequently, this feeling of being lost from their

will never cease to be critical in understanding the way we evolve, interact, and identify as humans. Throughout the novel, The Buddha in the Attic, Japanese women struggle to connect with new people and surroundings in America as all they have ever known was their native land, Japan. Claude Lévi-Strauss's experience in “A Writing Lesson” might be used in reading Julie Otsuka's novel as both return to the root of communication and display how linguistic barriers are so limiting. Lévi-Strauss states

orchard in Sebastopol, after searching for firewood one usually warm Autumn morning high up in the hills. I cut her navel string with my knife and carried her home in my arms” (Otsuka 55). This is one example of how hard-working and dedicated to their new lives in America the Japanese women were in Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka. They always powered through to the next thing that needed to be done, no matter what or how they felt. Gaman is a Zen Buddhist term from Japanese meaning “to endure with

According to Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka, The Japanese women certainly were confused by the customs of the Americans, “Why did they mount their horses from the left side and not the right…and locks on all of their doors…to whom did they pray...and drank the milk of cows?” (25)