I took the quote "Shit too was organized according to the plantation pyramid."
It took awhile for this book to get going for me. I guess I liked the global aspects of it rather than the little dramas occurring between the gradeschoolers. The ending wrapped up very nicely and was more fulfilling than I expected. Amazing, that he was able to win all that money, probably because he learned the math in school, in such a short time, while he just as well could have been stuck on the plantation for the rest of his life working the fields living in a sewage pile. It is funny to me that he sends the 6000$ back to his brother who doesn't believe the family should be paying their grandfather anyway, and now with the war going on they have an exceptional oppurtunity to completely forget about it.
For some reason the analogy of the shit pyramid caught my attention. It shows how Kyoshi's thoughts were organized and how, like his brother he is able to realize that the shit trickles down hill as the saying goes. The plantation boss on the top and his brethren in filipino camp at the bottom. Its amazing how people thought they had to live in those conditions and under that amount of oppression, and its hard to believe that this was happening in a part of America, even though Hawaii didn't officially become the 50th state until 1959.
Kyoshi was lucky perhaps that a war had started and that he was able to go. I think we all would rather die fighting than live a life at the bottom of a pyramid of crap.
Hi Eric,
ReplyDeleteYou have some very interesting observations on your writing. First, the pyramid-like organization of the plantation, if we really think about it, it works just like in any other civilization. It is normally those with money and power who sit at the top of the pyramid and the poorer and more vulnerable ones at the bottom. Also, the part about forgetting about the debt, I have to admit it’s not a bad idea at all; however, for the Japanese culture honor and proud are extremely important values that Japanese must have, if Kiyoshi or Toshio would have put the debt aside kind of forgetting about it, the shame brought upon the family would have been simply un acceptable. Thank you, you gave me a lot to think about.
Estela
Hi Eric,
ReplyDeleteI actually like the quote that you picked out and what you got out of it. When I first read this quote in the book I didn’t really pay much attention to it. But as I read your dialogue and you break it down and what you got from the quote I can see it more clearly. Good dialogue.