{"product_id":"the-concept-of-failure-represented-by-the-nisei-characters-in-john-okadas-no-no-boy-von-michael-burger","title":"The Concept of Failure Represented by the Nisei Characters in  John Okada's 'No-No Boy'","description":"\u003cp\u003eSeminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Augsburg (New English Literatures and Cultural Studies), course: Japanese Canadian and Japanese American Literature, language: English, abstract: A proverb says: ¿War does not determine who is right, just who is left¿. Left, that is\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003enaturally the veterans who managed not to get killed in battle and thus survived their\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emission. But left, that is also the ones who refused fighting in a war for their country,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efor whatever the reason. War and its aftermaths clearly do not take a decision on which\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eof the two behaviors is right. It just leaves the involved people opposing each other contrarily\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e¿ like left and right.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn John Okadäs novel No-No Boy, almost all of its characters are immediately\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003econfronted with the previously mentioned discord. Set in the Seattle of 1945, No-No\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBoy deals with the outer and inner conflicts of a young Japanese American, named\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIchiro, who refused the draft by a government, which in his eyes deprived him of his\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eidentity as an American. The narration starts with its central character, Ichiro, who had\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ejust arrived at a bus station in Seattle and now sees himself confronted with a drastically\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003echanged and diverse Japanese American community. By telling the story from Ichirös\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eperspective, Okada thereby convinces his audience with an authentic depiction of ¿a\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003equest for self-identity under extreme circumstances¿ (Huang, 2006: 152) in this fragmented\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand torn segment of society.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike his protagonist, Okada himself was an American-born son of Japanese immigrants,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ea so-called Nisei, and therefore also got evacuated from his hometown Seattle\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eduring the war years. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, Okada was in his\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emid-twenties and, unlike Ichiro in the novel, volunteered in the US Air Force, only to\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eget discharged again directly after the war, in 1946 (see Huang, 2006: 152). Okada\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etherefore can be rated a prime source for rendering a Japanese-American community in\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSeattle which on the one hand ¿struggles with and seeks to recover from the disruptive\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eeffects of the internment¿ (Cheung \u0026amp; Peterson 195), and on the other hand has to deal\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewith the repercussions of a more or less forced recruitment. Moreover, during the progress\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eof his book, Okada confronts the topic of racism and segregation in the United\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStates with his ¿painful, powerful, and nuanced messages¿ (Huang, 2009: 768) ¿ some\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eof which the United States of the 1950s were not yet ready for. [...]\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"aw-variant-hidden-subtitle-div\" id=\"aw-variant-subtitle-9783640512386\"\u003e\u003ch3\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Libri","offers":[{"title":"Softcover - 9783640512386","offer_id":39429096931421,"sku":"9783640512386","price":17.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0940\/0622\/files\/8d8ed032-97b3-4804-98a3-f5f4cdb9a134.jpg?v=1777615326","url":"https:\/\/shop.autorenwelt.de\/products\/the-concept-of-failure-represented-by-the-nisei-characters-in-john-okadas-no-no-boy-von-michael-burger","provider":"Autorenwelt Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}