A Tale For The Time Being By Ruth Ozeki

When an autobiography, a type of novel, comes to mind we think of a book, which speaks about the author written by the author. We tend to believe that autobiographies are solely written for the purpose of the writer to share their life. Often we may confuse their writing to be self serving or narcissistic without truly realizing the purpose of the autobiography. Many times an autobiography is written to help those who are struggling with the same types of problems. This type of novel can help either directly, by speaking of similar obstacles that characters may have faced and successfully overcame, or indirectly, in which the obstacles may seem unrelated to the reader but the messages conveyed are similar. In the novel A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, autobiographies help characters cope with their own lives.
Nao’s diary at first may seem to have been written specifically about her own life. However, it includes the lives of her entire family more specifically her father, mother, uncle and grandmother. Another autobiography, in the form of letters, is found within Nao’s diary. Nao receives these letters from her grandmother, which were originally written by her uncle Haruki #1. After reading the letters Nao idolizes her uncle. She describes him in a very brave way, “he was a superhero, and brave and mature and intelligent ”(261). Nao sees Haruki #1 as a role model and looks up to him. She uses these letters as a form of hope and finds a belief in herself. The brave duties that Haruki #1 took on for his country gave Nao a sense of pride; these duties prove to her that her entire family is not disgraceful. This form of autobiography gives Nao a reason to live in order to discover more about her