Essay Questions

What is the significance of the character Emi in No-No Boy by John Okada?

The author has used the character Emi as both a symbol and irony. She is ironically used because sometimes she is accessible but other times unavailable. She signifies the affectionate approach of Ichiro to relationships due to his suspicious nature, which contradicts Emi’s patience nature. Emi lives alone most of the time because her husband deserted her. However, when the husband is asked to go back, he stays at choice. When the husband leaves, Emi does not know when he will return. However, Emi's husband departure gives Ichiro an excellent opportunity to find a chance of talking to her.

Explain the imagery of contradiction in No-No Boy.

The author shortchanges the reader's perception of the woman washing the dish stand forcefully when he says that she has thin arms. Initially, the reader believes that she is a strong well-built woman but the author paints a contradicting picture that leaves the reader wondering how she is able even to support herself. He writes:

"There was power in the wiry, brown arms, a hard blind, the un-reckoning force which coursed through veins of tough bamboo.”

From the above description, the reader creates an image of a strong woman but the author turns around to say that she has thin hands.

What do the Hospital Doors symbolize?

Kenji is fixated with the thought that death is catching up with him as he visits the hospital. The hospital doors are a powerful symbol of death in the story. When Ichiro makes up his mind to visit Kenji in the hospital, he expects the worst because he is not sure whether he will make it out of the hospital doors alive. At the hospital, Ichiro is cared for using the revolving doors to enter the hospital because he sees death in them. Instead, he decides to go through using the swinging door. The revolving hospital doors symbolize the routine patients who are brought in but never pass out of the same doors alive.