Chasing the American Dream: The Message Behind Otsuka's Literary Devices Anonymous College

What is the American Dream? It’s the idea that people can come to America with nothing and make something out of nothing; the pulling oneself up by his or her own boot straps. “The Buddha in the Attic”, is a poetic novel written by Julie Otsuka accounting a group of Japanese brides chasing the American Dream. The novel is written in a poetic fashion, detailing the experiences of Japanese immigrants during the bombing of Pearl Harbor and internment of all people of Japanese descent in the United States. Julie Otsuka utilizes multiple literary devices such as assonance and imagery to convey a group of women chasing a dream that is seemingly unattainable.

Otsuka writes this book in a lyrical voice that is unique. The book is written from a first-person plural that describes the experiences from a group perspective, not just from one person at a time. This collective, first-person plural voice is able to provide the reader with a full picture of the experience of Japanese immigrants. Assonance is used to emphasis this group of women had a collective experience as brides from Japan, We stopped writing home to our mothers. We lost weight and grew thin. We stopped bleeding. We stopped dreaming. We stopped wanting. We simply worked,...