Grade 11 Unit 4
Julie Otsuka’s novel tells the story of Japanese “picture brides” who emigrated to the United States in the early 1900s. These women were matched with husbands based only on their pictures and family recommendations. The novel is told in the first person plural, from the point of view of many girls and women, none of whom is individualized as a continuing character, but all of whom are vividly described in a sentence or two. The novel traces the experiences of these women and the families they created or joined. Highlighting the hardships and discrimination the Japanese women faced in their new home. The novel ends with the women and their families being forcibly removed from their homes under the Japanese incarceration that occurred during World War II.
Big Ideas
To understand a culture, you must see the daily life of many – not just the experiences of a few.
Despite being a nation of immigrants, United States has a long tradition of keeping newcomers on the outside.
The United States has a history of exploiting and oppressing immigrant populations.
Japanese incarceration during World War II reveals the United States’s racist treatment of nonwhite immigrants
Fiction can bring history to life.
Culminating Task - Argumentative Essay (Choose one)
Read the article by Bhira Backus, “A Sikh Temple’s Century”. Backus’ article looks at another minority experience in California, and is also written in response to a mass killing of American Sikhs living in Wisconsin. Compare and contrast Backus’ observations to Otsuka’s in The Buddha in the Attic. Has America’s approach towards immigrant culture changed in the last 100 years? Why or why not?
Variation on #1 – Elizabeth Day’s review describes The Buddha in the Attic as “half poetry, half narration – short phrases, sparse description, so that the current of emotion running through each chapter is made more resonant by her restraint.” Do you agree or disagree with Day’s praise? Support your argument with evidence from the text.
“Iyo left with an alarm clock ringing from somewhere deep inside her suitcase but did not stop to turn it off. Kimiko left her purse behind on the kitchen table but would not remember until it was too late. Haruko left a tiny laughing brass Buddha up high, in a corner of the attic, where he is still laughing to this day.” These objects are all that remains to testify to the Japanese’s existence in this community. Compare and contrast this erasure of the Japanese community to the treatment of marginalized communities today? (i.e. Native Americans, Middle Eastern and North Africans, African Americans, or the LGBTQ+ community)
