Fictive Fragments of a Father and Son
Fictive Fragments of a Father and Son…
After
reading this piece I was left wondering how bizarre it is for a father and son
to be so disconnected. I know parent-
child relationships are not easy but to grow up with a father and no know much
about them boggles me. Children are
directly shaped but the experience of a parent.
Not knowing much about a parent leaves a child lost in who they are. A child is left to put the pieces together
with the little information they have.
They rely strictly on the imagination.
We see this in this narrative as the narrator makes up stories and
assumptions about his father’s life to figure him out. He has to try out different scenarios in his
mind to fit the puzzle pieces of his father together.
I asked myself why a parent would
not want to share their story with their child, especially one that is so
important to their culture and history?
What
I came to realize at the conclusion was that maybe for the father to move on in
life he had to forget his past. If he
opened himself up to all of the hurt would he have been as successful? In adopting
being “200 percent American” gave him everything he has today. Maybe if he exposed his son to his terrible
past he might of felt it as a burden.
Sometimes in life in order to move on we have to leave the past
there. If he was to open himself up to
that portion of his life it keeps him from becoming fully “white”. “My father’s name was originally Katsuji
Uyemura. Then Tom Katsuji Uyeumura. Then Tom Katsuji Mura. The Tom K. Mura.” As the father became more “white” he moved
farther and farther away from his identity.
He is not the man from the interment camp anymore. He is a blue collar American.
I agree with your statement about leaving the past in the past sometimes. No two people are alike and therefore we all choose to handle the traumatic things that happen to us differently. Some choose to just accept who they are and live with it while others believe that by changing your name or your religion, it will change your culture; when in fact in societies eyes just by the way you look... if you do not fit the typical american blonde hair, blue eyes you are considered to be what your cultural background is whether is be Japanese-American, African-American and so on.
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