The Voice of Silence in Joy Kogawa’s Obasan

Joy Kogawa’s Obasan draws on the theme of breaking silence and finding speech as a powerful device to address the absence of Naomi’s voice. That is to say, Obasan presents the conflict of silence that cannot speak. Naomi, being brought up in a hostile environment, experiences the struggles of the past and being voiceless. Gradually, Naomi finds herself wandering and achieving nothing. Unable to express her feelings, Naomi stays mostly speechless in her life. To a great degree, she remains traumatized and repressed until she speaks of her own voice. Later, in tracing the absence of her mother, Naomi finds that her mother’s voice must be revived rather than simply recorded in a letter. Apparently, the novel has moved from muteness to a spoken voice. Near the end of the journey, as Naomi stands looking at the coulee in the early prairie dawn, she has transformed her antipathy into love and finding her own voice. At best, Naomi’s choice of speaking is her way out of silence and applying her voice moves her toward a better future.