Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine

Words: 765
Pages: 4
Open Document
During World War II, 120,000 Japanese-Americans were imprisoned in internment camps because of their race and cultural background. In these internment camps, they were stripped of their identity. After they were released, they could never go back to the life they once had. When the Emperor was Divine, written by Julie Otsuka, tells the tale of a family that was forced to live in one of these internment camps for years. This book shows the struggles and changes that both the children and parents faced, trying to survive in a country that was once their own, but has now labeled them “enemy aliens”. When the Emperor was Divine illustrates how xenophobia can poison society, destroying people’s lives, with the use of literary devices, imagery and symbolism, and its particular writing style. One way that the author demonstrates this theme is by use of the literary device of imagery. When the father comes home, the author describes him as a defeated man, aged from the years in a detention camp. He became, “a small stooped man […] his head was bare. He moved slowly, carefully, with the aid of a cane, a cane we had never seen before. He wore bright white …show more content…
The girl has begun to delve into her teenage years, “[leaving] the barracks early in the morning and [not] return[ing] until long after dark. […] [smoking] cigarettes,” (Otsuka, 92). It can be seen that the environment of the internment camp has changed her. Physically, her chances of getting lung cancer are significant to her mortality predictions, while mentally, she can never go back to living like a normal teenager, free from all the troubles of the world. From this scene, it is made clear that the girl has become a different person in the internment camps, as she has turned to drugs as an escape for the mental punishment that the internment camp
Show More

Related Documents: Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine

Analysis Of Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine

This is a book report about the novel When the Emperor Was Divine written by Julie Otsuka. When the Emperor Was Divine is a short novel about a Japanese-American family that goes to the internment camps during World War Two. It is told from a mostly omniscient point of view and provides a descriptive narrative on the lives of the nameless mother, son, daughter, and father. The namelessness of the characters provides a lot to the novel. Despite the family's citizenship, they are still nobody to the…

Words 950 - Pages 4

Examples Of Injustice In Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine

completely innocent and were blamed by association. The family in When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka illustrated how injustice can change people for good or for bad. The internment camps had a huge effect on the sister changing her into a negative person. In the beginning of the book, the sister was an excellent student who obeyed her mother’s request.They were running their daily routine on the day before they had to move. However, when she returned home from school she realized,…

Words 1014 - Pages 5

The Role Of Japanese-Americans In Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine

In “When the Emperor was Divine”, by Julie Otsuka, the story describes at one point how Japanese-Americans were treated unfairly and harshly in many ways by the people who ran the camp. To begin with, numerous Japanese-Americans were forced to be sent into these deserted and dusty camps where they need to follow certain rules and guidelines. The rules mainly stated what Japanese-Americans weren’t allowed to do, like for example they couldn’t read books that were in Japanese nor could they have any…

Words 223 - Pages 1