Identity Lost And Regained

The interment experience of Japanese Americans changes the JapaneseAmericans’ life. Many writers try to represent this kind of experience, and the mostsuccessful writer among them is John Okada. He successfully puts both the “yes”people and the “no” people in his book No-No Boy. This thesis pays great attention tothis special Japanese Americans’ experience from the perceptive of trauma theory andthe life-story model of identity. It seeks the root that causes Japanese Americans’confusion after World War Ⅱ.This thesis not just focuses on seeking identity, but itexplores the causes for the protagonists’ identity lost. Through the combination of thetwo theories, this thesis discusses the way that makes the protagonists find theiridentity and provides a new way to analyze Japanese American works.This thesis contains four chapters and a conclusion. The first chapter mainlyintroduces the development of trauma theory and the life-story model of identitytheory, John Okada’s life and experiences and his No-No Boy and the background ofinterment. The second chapter concerns about Japanese Americans’ isolated life inAmerica through the points of their loss of ideological setting and their psychologicaland cultural trauma. The third chapter concerns about their searching for the unifiedidentity. Taking Ichiro as an example, his dilemma and struggle are caused by theabsence of ideological setting, the negative nuclear episode of transformation, theabsence of clear imagoes and generativity script. The fourth chapter describes thatIchiro is trying to reintegrate into society and self. He tries to accommodate the new ideological setting. The positive nuclear episode makes him accept the “yes-yes” boysand makes him feel the hope for life. The last chapter is conclusion. Through a seriesof experiences, Ichiro finally finds the hope for life which suggests that there is stillhope for the whole Japanese Americans.