Find the perfect quote to float your boat. Shmoop breaks down key quotations from Obasan.
Versions of Reality Quotes
The only way to be saved from harm was to become seductive. In this latest dream, three beautiful oriental women lay naked in the muddy road, flat on their backs, their faces turned to the sky… T...
Language and Communication Quotes
"Isn't it dangerous?" I asked. Uncle is almost never direct in his replies. I felt he was chiding me for being childishly afraid when he said abruptly, "Mo ikutsu? What is your age now?" (1.18)
The Home Quotes
The house is indeed old, as she is also old. Every homemade piece of furniture, each pot holder and paper doily is a link in her lifeline. [...]They rest in the corners like parts of her body, hair...
Prejudice Quotes
It wasn't a fishing vessel or an ordinary yacht, but a sleek boat designed by Father, made over many years and many winter evenings. A work of art. "What a beauty," the RCMP officer said in 1941 wh...
Memory and the Past Quotes
They all look rather humorless, but satisfied with the attention of the camera and its message for the day that all is well. That for ever and ever all is well. But it isn't, of course. Even my ele...
Literature and Writing Quotes
"Mukashi mukashi o-o mukashi …," Obasan says, holding the photograph. "In ancient times, in ancient times, in very very ancient times..." (10.1)
Mortality Quotes
"Everyone someday dies," she says eventually. (3.9)
Identity Quotes
"Miss Nah Canny," he says. "Not Nah Canny," I tell him, printing my name on the blackboard: NAKANE. "The a's are short as in "among"—Na Ka Neh—and not as in "apron" or "hat." Some of the childr...