When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka is a novel about the difficult experiences of a Japanese-American family in an internment camp during World War II. The head of the family, the father, is suspected of espionage by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is arrested. The two children and the mother, left alone, went to an internment camp in Utah. Released after being locked up in the internment camp for three years, the family then returned to their home and waited for the father's return. Despite their hopes, the father comes home exhausted and thin, leaving the family forever changed, trying to figure out their new life. While several non-critical characters have their own names, the main characters in the novel remain nameless. The family in Otsuka's novel is subjected to various culturally oppressive behaviors that lead to drastic changes in character and behavior within each member of the family and a loss of identity: the mother becomes a "shell" of herself, the two children become more withdrawn. and introspective and the father becomes a stranger to the whole family. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The family's antebellum home was filled with an array of culturally significant objects, with the house itself demonstrating the potential coexistence of American and Japanese cultural identities. The main characters are not forced to sacrifice any aspect of their identity to conform to others, within the confines of their home (Gale). Conversely, the mother eliminates any association with Japanese culture from her home when government authorities arrest the father. The family renounced their Japanese lineage, due to the war with their country of origin, in order to illustrate their attachment to their American identity. Assimilation, therefore, leads the family to eliminate an important aspect of their life, which does not save them from the camp. This loss of identity occurs on a psychological level. The woman, upon returning from the internment camp, finds herself hollow from the inside (mentally empty) and spends a considerable part of her time sleeping or in silence (Ahlin, 81 years old). We can identify his loss of identity by comparing his nighttime weakness and his daytime tenacity. The mother struggles to control these characters while switching from one to the other. The following paraphrased quote refers to his difficulties finding employment after his release. The ads said they wanted help, that they would get training, but no matter where she went, she was rejected. He was continually told that the position had been filled; she told the author that she was afraid of ruining her eyes by doing this (Otsuka, 128). The strengths that were the hallmark of his personality at the beginning of the book fade in the camp. While children may seem more resilient to the loss of identity than their parents, they are also unable to combat the psychological torture that the family experiences as a result of the loss of identity. people at the camp. The girl identifies closely with her American identity into which she was assimilated because she has never displayed a strong connection to her cultural origins. The girl appears to be going through the middle stages of maturation: moving away from her family, evaluating social boundaries, and being with friends more than family. The boy, unlike the girl, has difficulty maintaining his Japanese origins. He mutters the emperor's name under his own breath as he passes a guard tower to demonstrate his resistance to giving up his identity. Following the events of the war, like their mother, the childrenbegin to lose their personality and identity. They conform to the identities they have been assimilated into simply out of fear of returning to the camp. They respect all the social regulations that accompany these identities so as not to act differently from others. The author of the novel formally illustrates this conformism and this identity deficit through the shared points of view of the children in the penultimate chapter. While the girl and the boy were different characters before the camp, the author shows that these characters became interchangeable after the camp because they use the pronoun "we". Two individuals who have lost their own personality, gradually becoming one person. This tortuous assimilation and the internment camp thus deprived these people of all the components and aspects that constituted their nuanced and complex personality. When the father finally returned to the family, he became sensitive to almost everything and thus suspected every person. who were walking near their homes. Inevitably, when he exhibits this volatile behavior at the bank, his own children feel a sense of shame because of him, to which they respond by walking away and covering their ears. In their memories, the father likes to sing to his children, he likes to draw with them; he's a normal human being. However, the incident at the bank ends up making its way into their dreams, destroying the image they had of their father. Neither the book nor the characters comment on the father's suffering. Moreover, this radical change of father takes the form of the war which affects him. The father's changes indicate above all his loss of identity. The internment camp caused suffering to the family and the war transformed the normal and optimistic man into a mentally unstable and strange man. One might expect the father to act like a normal husband or kind father after his release, but the harsh reality of the book seems to be that he is incapable of becoming normal again. After the father acts strangely for a short time, he undergoes another change, now becoming isolated and silent (Andersson). This is different from his early strange behavior as he no longer shouts to express himself, but instead refuses to speak with others. He begins to spend much of his time isolated from his family. The fact that he no longer expresses himself reveals his loss of identity within the family; the fact that he isolates himself is indicative of his loss of identity as a human being. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay By being subjected to several cultural assimilation behaviors, the characters in When the Emperor Was Divine by Otsuka experience drastic changes and a loss of identity. Gradually, the father is unable to communicate with other people or act as a father to his own family; being unable to continue a normal life. While on the surface one may imagine that the father's changes manifest through his personality changes, upon further evaluation one may discover that his inability to continue his role in the family is the cause of his loss of identity. . As a father, he is incapable of educating or teaching his children; and as a husband, he is unable to provide for his family; he is no longer able to live a normal life. Works Cited Ahlin, L. (2011). Traumatic states: “When the Emperor Was Divine” by Julie Otsuka. MELUS, 36(3), 81-98.Andersson, A. (2011). Read and teach when the emperor was divine. Teaching Asian America, 161-168. Gale, C.R. (2017). The house as a place of resistance in When.