The Divided Self, The Illusive Homeland

As the rising study on Asian American literature, more and more readers andcritics are interested in Japanese American literature. As a branch of Asian Americanliterature, it has both universal chrematistics as and its distinctive features. JohnOkada’s No-No Boy is one of the representatives and classics, which described thedevastating consequences of American Internment for Japanese Americans. Ichiro, theprotagonist of this novel, was the representative figure of the persecuted. In Okada’swriting, through the detailed description and the monologue, a picture of fragmentedindividuals, family, and community were revealed before us.The polarities between Japan and America, the conflicts and generation gapbetween Issei and Nisei, and the hostilities between Nisei veterans and no-no boy aredisplayed vividly and incisively in the novel. Based on the study of trauma, the racismand the conflicts between Issei and Nisei, this paper intends to interpret this novelfrom the perspective of existential psychoanalysis, represented by British psychiatristR.D.Laing. His theory of the divided self can be applied to explain the living status ofJapanese Americans in this novel.Actually, most of the Japanese American characters in No-No Boy lead a twistedand dead life. The body belongs here, while the heart belongs there. As a whole, theybelong nowhere. By using the term of the divided self and ontological insecurity aswell as the related theory, this paper tries to investigate the causes of JapaneseAmerican’s fragmented life experience, seek for strategies for them to solve their problems of identity and discuss how they could step out of the living dilemma toembrace a better future.Though the characters in No-No Boy are not schizoid, most of JapaneseAmericans couldn’t experience themselves as a complete person but a divided self.Part is American, part is Japanese. Part is right, part is wrong. And part is true, part isillusive. The floating spirit was scattered in the free land of America, with no safeharbor to return. According to Laing, people’s suffering like this should be owed tothe sick society, specifically, in this novel it is the social prejudice as well as Americanracism that we should blame.