When the Emporer Was Divine Chapters 1 & 2 Questions

Chapter 1

1. Whose point of view dominates this chapter? The woman’s
2. What does the woman see in the window? Otsuka tells us that “she wrote down a few words.” [p. 3] What do they turn out to be? The woman sees a poster in the window; the few words turn out to be the list of things she can bring to the internment camp.
3. How much time passes between the appearance of the notice and the events of the rest of the chapter? What do we learn has happened during that time? A few days pass between the appearance of the notice and the rest of the events. We learn that she has packed all the things in her house away, locking and hiding some things, she lets the bird free and kills her dog.
4. What items does the woman buy at the hardware store? What does she intend to do with them? Why might Mr. Lundy keep insisting that she can pay him later, and why is she in turn so determined to pay him now? The woman buys twine, and two rolls of tape, she tapes the boxes with the tape and ties up her dog with the twine. Mr. Lundy might keep insisting that she can pay him later because he knew she was going in to an internment camp.
5. Which of the family possessions do the woman and her children pack; which things do they leave behind? What do their choices tell you about them? Discuss the significance of the bonsai tree, the reproduction of “The Gleaners,” and the portrait of Princess Elizabeth. The family possessions that the woman and children pack are not much, only some clothes and a picture, the boys baseball glove. It shows that they are not very attached to the past. The bonsai tree shows that they are going to try to let go of their Japanese roots, and the reproduction of the Gleaners shows she is tired of submissiveness but follows the rules anyway.
6. Otsuka describes the woman as someone “who did not always follow the rules.” Where in this novel do we see her doing this? In the novel we see the woman following the rules when it comes to packing and in the internment camp.
7. Why does the woman kill White Dog? How does she explain its disappearance to the children? Do they believe her? Where else do we see her lying to the? The woman kills White Dog because they could not take him with them. She does not really say anything about his disappearance except affirming that the dog is old and cannot hear well. They believe her. She also lies to the children about where they are going and such.
8. Why is the boy so insistent on keeping his hat on? The boy is so insistent on keeping his hat on because it is a present from his father and its all that he has.
9. The girl worries about her looks, noting that “people were staring.” [p. 15] What might be the real reason they were staring at her? The real reason might be because she is of Japanese descent.
10. Why does the girl ask her mother to make her practice for her piano lesson, and why, when her mother refuses, does she practice anyway? The girl asks her mother to make her practice for her piano lesson so that she could have some authority, but practices anyway to keep normalcy.
11. At what point in the evening’s routines does the woman begin to cry? What is the significance of “La donna é mobile,” a song whose title means “Woman Is Fickle”? The woman begins to cry when she sits down after freeing the bird to drink, she relates to the song “La donna e mobile”.
12. Discuss the significance of the chapter’s final sentence: “Then they would pin their identification numbers to their collars and grab their suitcases and climb up onto the bus and go to wherever it was they had to go.” [p. 22] Why is the author vague about their destination. The author is so vague about their destination because the people who were headed to internment camps did not know where they were going, and went blindly in to the desert.

Chapter 2

1. Whose point of view dominates this chapter? What clues does the author use to indicate this shift? The girl’s point of view dominates this chapter; the author begins to describe the girl to indicate this shift.
2. How much time has passed since the family left its home and what has happened in the interim? A day has passed since the family has left their home, and they had ridden on the bus, experiencing people’s stares and the soliders.
3. Why have the girl’s shoes gone unpolished since spring? Because she has not had the time.
4. What sights draw her attention as she gazes out the train window? She sees people coming home from church, a couple riding bikes, along with a dried up lake.
5. Why does the soldier tell her to pull her shades down? The soldier tells her that so that people in towns could not see the passengers on the train and would no throw things.
6. What might account for the boy’s newfound interest in horses? How do the grownups around him treat this interest? What about their responses might be confusing to him? The boy had a new interest in horses because of his time at a horse stable, the grownups tell him to grow up to be a big strong “American” boy. Their responses may be confusing to him because he already thinks he is an American.
7. When the girl asks Ted Ishimoto if he is a rich man, he says “Not anymore.” [p. 33] What might account for his answer? The fact that he is on that train and had to give up his money may account for his answer.
8. Do you think the girl’s story about her father is true? Why or why not, and if it isn’t true what might be her reason for telling it? Why does she later tell Ted that her father never writes to her? I think the story about her father is true because of how international his affairs were to make him seem threatening. She may tell Ted that her father never writes to her to make him feel sorry for her.
9. What is striking about the boy saying that he forgot his umbrella? Is he telling a deliberate untruth or is he forgetting what actually happened? At what other points in the book do the characters suffer lapses of memory or remember events falsely? It is striking that the boy actually chooses not to bring along the umbrella, we have not read far enough yet in the book to recall more moments in which people cannot remember ask me later.
10. Why might the boy draw his father inside a square? Because he is in jail.
11. What is Tanforan and what happened there? In what different ways do different characters remember it? Tanforan is a horse stable, the boy and girl worked there and the boy realized he wanted to be a jockey there. The boy remembers it more fondly than the girl.
12. During the night the train crosses the Great Salt Lake. Given that the girl is asleep at the time, who is observing this crossing? And what might this narrator mean by “the sound of the lake was inside her” [pp. 46-7]? The woman is observing this crossing, and the quote may mean that since they are moving to the desert she needs to remember the sound of water to survive.