Preview

The Kappa Child Hiromi Goto Summary

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
259 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Kappa Child Hiromi Goto Summary
Hiromi Goto’s The Kappa Child takes a daring, yet necessary reflection on Canadian norms, value systems, gender roles, formal policies and overall identity. While weaving the reader through a maze of sci-fi fantasy and reality, Goto presents the story of our Japanese-Canadian protagonist, who struggles through the facets of introspection and self-realization.

What immediately stood out was Goto’s deliberate attempt to examine the Canadian immigrant “experience,” drawing a contrast to that of Canadian born individuals. As we discover the protagonist once lived in British Columbia and is of Japanese-Canadian descent, the reader is instantly prompted to identify the protagonist as a product of the institutional racism inherent in British Columbia’s

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    When change is thrust upon us, it can change people with it, but when it does, it’s important to remember where you’re from. The importance of this essay is it depicts a time in history when change occurred to a people who, willing or not, did not see the coming effect it would have. This will cover Al Pittman’s, The Day I Became A Canadian, and his point of view on how changing nationalities belittled his country. This will also examine how his writing, being rhetorical elements like sentence structure and diction, enhances his writing, bringing out more emotion in the reader.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Honore de Balzac, a French novelist, once said, “Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact”. Tomson Highway’s story “Hearts and Flowers” relates the despairing experiences of an eight-year-old Cree boy whose personal achievement at a small-town music festival takes place on the same day that Parliament provides the franchise to Native people. To begin, the white people were ignorant towards the Native people. Secondly, the white people treated the Native people with a lack of respect. Finally, Native people are revoked from their right to vote as well as being thought of as non-human.…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In part two, Chang investigates white supremacy and the forced allotment onto the indigenous people. The author informs the reader about the politics behind the allotment that eventually caused racial issues among the people. This part of the book emphasizes the significant connection between land and identity during this time for White…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    , 1999. [ 2] Paul Yee, Saltwater City. A n Illustrated H istory of the Chinese in Vancouver [M ] . Vancouver : Douglas and M cIntyre, 1988. [ 3] , . : [ M] . : , 1993. [ 4] Pierre Berton, T he Last Spike[ M] .Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1971. [ 5] Wayson Choy. T he Jade Qeony [ M] . Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 1995. [ 6] Edgar Wickberg. From China to Canada: A History o the Chinese Communities in Canada[ M] . Toronto: M cClelland and Stewart, 1982. f [ 7] Peter S. Li. The Chinese in Canada[M ] . Toronto : Oxford University Press, 1988. [ 8] Wayson Choy. Paper Shadows : A Chinatown Childhood [M ] . Toronto: Penguin, 1999. [ 9] Karen Romell. [ 11] . Op en Sky [ J] . Step Magazine1990( July / August) . : : [ J] . , 2004, ( 3) : 116- 123. [ 10] Edward W. Said. Cultur e and Imp erialism [ M ] . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. [ 12] Marty Chan. Wayson Choy[ EB/ OL] . http: / / www. 136. 159. 250. 102 / gauntlet / eg / features / stories / wordfest / choy . html. [ ] : [ A] . . [ C] .…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shun-Wai's Hypocrisy

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In countries all around the world, Canada is seen as a welcoming land where one can emigrate and experience all kinds of opportunities while still retaining their traditional heritage. In theory, this is a brilliant concept, but much harder to put into practice. Immigrating families try to adapt to their surroundings, but when the culture is so different, trying to feel accepted and at home means sacrificing some of the norms they grew up with. As can be seen in much of today's literature, it is often impossible to strike a balance between the culture we live in and the culture we grew up in. Take the case of the mother in Taien Ng's short story Shun-Wai. She maintains that she is Chinese, even to the point of accusing her daughter of being like a "gwua-mui"—a white girl—whenever she disagrees with her. This behavior is hypocritical since the mother has been acting more like a Christian Canadian than a Chinese woman since her arrival in Canada.…

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jeanne is now reaching the developmental stage of her youth where she is learning the harsh truths of the world and formulating her own views and opinions of the world surrounding her. It is not until she encounters her differences in the form of subtle racism that she realizes that being Japanese is not something she can solely push away. She must accept her identity because that is what the society at the time forces her to do: “…I would be seen as someone foreign, or as someone other than American,” (158). She will always be an outsider looking in: unable to truly be one with the culture she so strongly identifies with. She may not even be acknowledged: “…I would…perhaps not be seen at all” (158). She cannot be seen at all representing how alone and invisible she feels in an environment beyond reproach at the time. It is interesting to see how desperate Jeanne is to join the environment that reproaches her for existing. Her acceptance of her Japanese ancestry is a very important transformation that will lead to a more complete fulfillment and understanding of her own…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    2. In paragraph 7 when Foster was visiting Canada to see Olympics in Montreal, he was held back for questioning , while white folks processed quickly. This is an example of stereotyping. In paragraph 35: the author states that he never invited to picnic or party due to his race. This is an example of race discrimination. In paragraph 28: Glenys ( the author’s wife) never felt respected by the white customers. They bypass her to speak her white employees. Even some white offer her a job to clean their home. This is an example of stereotyping and race discriminations.…

    • 359 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    Japanese descent in British Columbia might have actually had a negative effect on the province’s…

    • 3327 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Canadian society race, class and gender play a significant role in social relation and discrimination. In the article, we can see that race; gender and class are interlocking and interconnected structures of oppression. There is much evidence that support this argument. For example, in the article is talks about a Brahmin dark-skinned women whose been travelling from London to Calcutta. According to her class she is privileged, she is discriminated due to her gender and as her race she is deprived (Stasiulis, 41). Discrimination is not a straightforward process. The woman is Brahmin; therefore she is at the very top of the Hindu caste system. However since she’s a woman, a man of a lower caste may have more power because in her society, men…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Double Happiness demonstrates how the force of media, production, and family dehumanize and objectify cultural hybrids. This objectification is defined by the process by which human potential is transferred to a materially existing form, setting one away from their unique nature. This is accomplished through the community’s ideal conception which inaugurates a low degree of integration and high degree of isolation in Asian Canadians. In turn, this pushes their consciousness towards internalizing particular values and objectives. This organization driven by those within a higher status in the system ensure exploitation and erase the line between person and persona; thus, the characters are designed as instruments and face a…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Events in the novel take place as a direct result of bigotry, such as the search for a "right handed Jap." This comment made by Horace Whaley to Sheriff Moran, caused a search warrant to be issued, with special attention to persons of physically apparent Japanese descent. Even while in court, a supposed place of justice, racial barriers still existed. Nels Gudmundsson attempted to overcome this obstacle by his statement of "...the shape of Kabuo Miyamoto's eyes, the country of his parents' birth -- these things must not influence your decision. You must sentence him simply as an American, equal in the eyes of our legal system to every other…

    • 375 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lovely Hula Hands

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Doing so, Trask participates in many important practical and theoretical debates, and writes purposefully and passionately against the continued violence against her land and people beyond mere consciousness-raising and, reasonably, on the offense. What is interesting about Trask’s writing is her clarity. She tells tourists not to visit, Hawaiians not to practice their indigenous culture peripherally, historians to be more self-reflexive, and haole’s to unpack their knapsacks of white privilege and colonial histories. It is also clear what is at stake in her interrogations and resolutions; the survival of Native Hawaiian people, rights, culture, and lands.…

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The main drive in Ian Mackenzie’s, a person responsible for most of the dispossession that the Japanese-Canadians faced, war on Japanese people was preventing them from returning home (Sunahara 89). He and his supporters did not want “traitors” to live near them. His main concern in the internment of Japanese-Canadians was not their safety and security, rather it was the loss of labour in many Japanese-dominated industries. Ian Mackenzie wanted to sell Japanese-Canadian farms to help deal with the loss of production and provide homes for returning veterans (Sunahara 89). As a result of racial prejudice, Mackenzie lacks any feeling of humanity towards Japanese-Canadians.…

    • 1144 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    As Choy explains what “banana “means, he tells the history of how his parents settled to the BC coast from China. Choy reveals the painful experiences his parents endured when they arrived in North America. Choy’s parents suffered racial bias from North Americans. Moreover, they could not apply for citizenship because of the “Chinese Exclusion laws” (365)”. Choy also acknowledges how Chinese people risked their lives during the Second World War, by joining the army. After the war ended, Chinese gained the right to be a North American citizen.…

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Summary: Hiromi Sugita

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The consequence of a life-threatening conflict from Kayo’s salvation defines Satoru as an epic hero and causes him to enter another conflict, allowing him to save more children but leading to his self-sacrifice. After saving Kayo, Satoru turns his attention toward Hiromi Sugita and Aya Nakanishi. Kenya notices and states, “First [Kayo] and now it’s like you’re Hiromi’s guardian” (“Closure”). Kenya realizes that Satoru has entered another conflict by volunteering to protect Hiromi. Later, Kenya restates that he desires to assist Satoru in any way possible, and again Satoru agrees. Furthermore, Hiromi has always shared close bonds of friendship with Satoru; however, Hiromi spends most of his time alone after his friends go home due to his parents’ work schedules. To diminish Hiromi’s loneliness, Satoru walks…

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays