The Nisei Daughter Three and Four

February 24, 2008 bonkie02

In the beginning of chapter three, An Unpredictable Japanese Woman, Monica Sone tells us that she wants to be a dancer. But she doesn’t want to be a Japanese dancer, she wants to be an American dancer. I found it interesting that her father said no because he thought that she would become a geisha like over in Japan. But he still doesn’t want Sone to become a dancer in America because they dance “trashy”. “I lumbered out to the main auditorium to help serve tea, reeling like a grounded butterfly” (pg 46). I found this sentence interesting because it described how she felt like she was living in America but yet she still has to practice Japanese culture. All she wants to do is be free but she is just a “grounded butterfly”living as a Japanese American.

The part where Monica, her mother, and Mrs. Kato are trying to get on the streetcar I thought that it was funny how she was really embarrassed when her mother and Mrs. Kato were speaking Japanese and everyone was looking at them. I think that this shows that Sone doesn’t want to be seen as a Japanese girl but rather an American girl. I also liked how she added that her mother tries very hard to learn English and she talks about for a little while in the book. But her father on the other hand doesn’t feel he should need to learn English and she only only talks about him for a paragraph or two.

In the second section, The Japanese Touch, I noticed that Sone loves American Holidays but when it comes time to celebrate Tenchosetsu  she doesn’t want to go and has no way of escaping it because she is Japanese. Also when the ceremony is done the last sentence she writes is “We scattered in all directions, as we raced home to recapture our holiday plans” (pg. 70). It sounds to me like that ceremony was just like school and that it wasn’t considered a real holiday to Sone. But then it seems that she only likes the holidays where she can have fun and be “free” like the Japanese picnic one. I liked this chapter, too, because it talked about all the holidays they celebrate, Japanese and American ones, and I enjoyed reading the similarities and differences.

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