Examples Of Foreshadowing In When The Emperor Was Divine

The Analysis of Foreshadowing Change: When the Emperor Was Divine From a very early age, people are told that growing up will happen regardless of whether it is wanted. Sometimes, maturing and changing happen quicker than suspected. In Julie Otsuka’s When The Emperor Was Divine, a family that has a semi-normal Japanese-American life, changes in an instant when they are ordered to go to Japanese internment camps following the events of Pearl Harbor. This family stays together, growing and evolving throughout the camp. Scarred by how they are treated, it only cuts deeper when they realize things will never be the same after their homecoming. Looking forward to the well-known face of their family member, this family realizes that not even familiar people will stay the same. The author uses
When placed in confinement for many years, people will often lose sight of their own identities, which causes them to change according to their new surroundings. Regardless of wanting to change, it is bound to happen physically, emotionally, and mentally. Before they were brought to the camp, the mother often wore things like red lipstick, pearl earrings, and face cream. During her time there, she loses or runs out of them and the sight of things like her appearance, which led to her losing sight of her routines and causing the ultimate downfall of her normal order. Following the family’s arrival at the camps, a change in physical appearance had already started to show, “There were little lines around her eyes that she had not noticed before. ‘When did you stop wearing lipstick?’ ‘Two weeks ago. I used it all up’” (Otsuka 37). This realization justifies the assumption that they are already enduring change early in the process. Towards the beginning of the book, the author introduces the mother's new glasses and the fact that she can finally see