Life/Death

According to my dictionary, the meanings of these words are…

Life: the ability to breathe grow, reproduce, etc. which people, animals and plants have before they die and which objects do not have.

Death: the fact of somebody dying of being killed. The end of life.

However, through these pages, I find we can use these two words even people are alive. In this book, Nao thought she became a living ghost after her funeral in school. In her mind, she had death in her life. However, after moving to Miyagi during her summer vacation, I’m sure her mind is changing. She is trying to find the meaning of life in her mind. “I think holding hands makes her feel more confident, and so I got into the habit of holding her hand when I was next to her, and to tell you the truth, I liked it, too. I liked the feeling of her thing little fingers in mine. I liked being the strong wasn’t there, she used her stick. I liked feeling more useful than a stick. “(Ozeki, p189) Nobody used to have accepted Nao before living in Miyagi with Jiko. That made her mind dead. However, now she finds that she can help someone, and the feeling satisfies her mind like somebody needs her. In my opinion, this feeling makes her live.

At the same time, I also find Ruth’s life/death in her life. “My whole life is a break. I really need to do this.” “My whole life is a nap. I need to wake up.” (Ozeki, p185) She uses “break” and “nap” as explain her life. I assume, however, these words also connect with her life/death in her life. She gets her object to clarity Nao’s life, so she doesn’t have time to take a break and also a nap. In our life, finding our purposes are important to feel that we are alive.

[ Time ]

There are at least five time differences : Haruki #1, Jiko, Nao, Ruth, and ‘now’ through this story. Each time has different situation. However, I found out that basic social situations are similar. For instance, bullying exists in all ages such as bullying among army toward Haruki #1 , in junior high school toward Nao probably more than ten years ago, and nowadays.

I was really moved when Jiko had been dying and painting ‘生’ (Life). I feel that Jiko is the person who really understands what 生 means because she lost her son and almost lost her grand-son and great grand-daughter too…. Apparently, Jiko gave the word 生 to Nao and Haruki #2.

“Our human body appears and disappears moment by moment, without cease, and this ceaseless arising and passing away is what we experience as time and being. They are not separate.” (Ozeki, p.324)

 This quotation is so true. No one can live forever. This every moment is time being. Thus, Nao kept a diary to make a mark on the world. For me, keeping diary is to organize my thoughts, and when I look it over again, I can recall how I spent time.

[ Memory ]

I think this reading part is talking about memories a lot. It was impressive for me to read Haruki #1′s Letters and conversation between Haruki #1 and Nao. Although these letters do not describe his true feelings, I still can see change of his feelings.

January 2, 1944 ”The way ahead was clear, and I could stop worrying about all the silly metaphysical business of life – identity, society, individualism, totalitarianism, human will – ….”(Ozeki, p.251)

March 27, 1945 “I’m afraid my day is approaching and my next ‘official’ letter to you may be the last one receive from me.”(Ozeki,p. 258)

Haruki #1 faced his death more than for one year. He pretends to be optimistic in the first letter. But, the second one that is his last letter in the book shows his longing for his mom, Jiko and fear of death in the near future.

I was thinking why Jiko had given Haruki #1′s remains to Nao. Jiko knew how Haruki #1 hated war, the government and its bullying politics of imperialism and capitalism and exploitation. Thus, I assume that Jiko wanted Nao to be peaceful person as Haruki #1 had wanted to be when she knew bullying toward Nao. She felt similarities among them. Nao also gave the letters since she wanted his father to understand how how he was coward unlike Haruki #1.

Reading these parts made me think about a lot of things such as war, , September 11 attacks, suicide, a natural disaster, nuclear, and bullying.

[ Death ]

In this reading part, it mentions about earthquake, Tsunami, and nuclear power  accident in Japan a few times.

“I have lost everything. My daughter, my son, my wife, my mother. Our house, neighbors. Our whole town.”(Ozeki, p.111)

“Nuclear power is energy for a brighter future! The correct understanding of nuclear power leads to a better life!”(Ozeki, p.141)

It was time for me to face death too. TV programs reported us horrible situations there all the time, and everyone talked about it all the time. I thought of it all the time too. The number of deaths were getting more and more.  The death was not only things that people lost in Japan. It was also the death of hope. They lost places to live and work, and neighbor communities and properties including memories such as photos. Nobody could foretell it happened then. As the second quotation says, ironically, Nuclear power station in Fukushima was hope for the population in this district… It made a lot of businesses and subsidies there. However, that accident made a huge impact on the world. As this book talk about that, people should never forget about fear of Nuclear.

Moreover, death is related to both Nao’s existence and Ruth’s feeling. Nao got held her fake funeral by classmates.

“I was already a vengeful ghost, haunting the living, so it didn’t really matter if I lived or died, and anyway…..”(Ozeki, p.131)

Ijime against Nao was too much awful…  I really had difficulty reading these part. But, I think these cruel ijime sometime happens in Japan, so it became a social problem.

“It was true that compared with Manhattan, there wasn’t a lot of excitement on their island, but how much excitement did you need if you were dead?” (Ozeki, p.142)

It is interesting to see similar feelings between Nao and Ruth at the same. Ruth kept reading Nao’s diary it happened in the past as if she was trying to sort out her feelings again.

The meaning of “Masala”

It says that Masala means a bunch of hot spice in the film. Mina was born as Indian in Uganda. But, she is familiar with American culture more than both Indian and Ugandan because she spends most time in America. On the other hand, Demetrius is a  black American. Thus, their love is such a cross cultural thing like Masala spice.

intergenerational conflict in immigrant communities

In order to explain this topic, I can use an example of relationship between Mina and Jay. As I says before, Mina identifies as American. In contrast, Jay was born in Uganda and spends most time there until his family is expelled in the 70s by Amin. He really resents for it because he identifies himself as Ugandan, so he has a complex about his color and Mina’s parent has  a grudge again black community a lot unlike Mina.

I was really impressed by Jay’s lines, “My home is where my heart is.” Even though he had obsessed with returning to Uganda and reclaiming his property from Uganda’s governments, I assume that he realized that his heart was with Kinnu in America after his visit to Uganda again. Okelo has already passed away and the environment where he used to be has changed too.

The scene when Jay’s family is expelled from Uganda reminded me of exclusion against Japanese American during WWII. Both Asian groups in Uganda and America were distinguished by not nationalities they identified as but their races or colors.