Obasan Chapter 7 Summary

  • The package is huge and heavy. It's already been opened, but when Naomi asks Obasan about it she doesn't answer. As usual.
  • The package is a journal.
  • Last year Aunt Emily promised to send Naomi her "works," but she didn't expect her to send a journal.
  • Even though we're itching to read what's inside of Aunt Emily's journal, Naomi spends some time describing her Aunt. Picture a small lady with chunky legs. She doesn't stop talking, and she is constantly on a crusade for Japanese Canadians. That's Aunt Emily.
  • She hands Naomi academic papers about WWII and the internment camps every couple of seconds. Aunt Emily is enraged about everything. Naomi doesn't get it. It's in the past, she thinks, get over it already.
  • At home there are more documents. Aunt Emily keeps talking about the same thing even though no one else is interested. Meanwhile Obasan is somewhere else, totally not getting involved. Good idea Obasan.
  • Now Naomi has to read Aunt Emily's manuscript. It's her sixty page long epic treatise on the plight of second-generation Japanese Canadians. Naomi skims it.
  • What's the point of opening up these old wounds? Uncle and Obasan are grateful for everything Canada has given them. Shouldn't Aunt Emily be too? When everybody heads to bed, Naomi tries to tell Aunt Emily to let bygones be bygones. Yeah right, in your dreams.