Gilgamesh translated by Stephen Mitchell
Answer these questions as you read. Provide answers on a separate sheet of paper in complete sentences for credit; cite the page number where the material was presented in the text.
Introduction and the Epic “Gilgamesh”
1. What was the original form of this epic? In what language and what form did it first appear?
2. You are told in the introduction that this work is a “legend.” What does this mean?
3. How many tablets did it take to excavate the known portions of this story?
4. What are the lessons or themes within this epic poem?
5. What does the beginning, the Prologue, of the epic suggest about its origins?
6. Who forms Enkidu, Gilgamesh’s best friend? Who does the author liken this newly-created figure to in Christian scripture?
7. Who is Shamhat in the story?
8. Who is the Goddess of Love in Sumerian/Babylonian tradition?
9. What causes Enkidu and Gilgamesh to fight?
10. Who is the God of the Cedar Forest that Gilgamesh attempts to slay?
11. To what aspect of modern history does the author compare the battle (28)?
12. Who is the Sumerian/Babylonian God of Sun and Justice?
13. Why do Gilgamesh and Enkidu argue over which path to take in this battle?
14. What foreshadowing does the author mention regarding the outcome of the battle with Humbaba?
15. According to the author, what does Ishtar send the Bull of Heaven to do? Why?
16. What does the Death of Enkidu teach both Gilgamesh and the reader?
17. Why does Gilgamesh go on his quest for immortality? What causes this decision?
18. Who is Utnapishtim and what does he have to teach Gilgamesh?
19. What does the author suggest about the “plant of immortality”? Does is work?
20. Who is Urshanabi and what is his role in relation to Gilgamesh?
21. What should we take from this story, as a lesson or moral?
22. What causes Gilgamesh’s failure in his quest?
23. What does he associate with his successes in the closing lines of the epic?
24. What similarities are expressed in this piece, as it relates to Genesis, chapters 1-3?
Obasan by Joy Kogawa
Complete the study guide questions on separate paper in complete sentences. This assignment will be collected during our first school day and is being given for credit as part of the unit test.
Know who the following characters are: Briefly describe each in your own words.
Naomi (Megumi Naomi Nakane)
Uncle (Isamu/Sam Nakane)
Obasan (Ayako Nakane)
Emily Cato .
Stephen
Mother
Father (Tadashi/Mark Nakane)
Grandpa Nakane
Grandma Nakane
Dr. Kato
Grandma Kato
Nakayama-sensei
Nomura-obasan
Old Man Gower
Rough Lock Bill
Mrs. Sugimoto
Uncle Dan
Eiko and Fumi
Kenji
Miyuki
Sachiko
Saito-ojisan
Mr. Barker
Mrs. Barker
Vivian Barker
Penny Barker
Setsuko
Tomi
Chiek
STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS –
Chapters 1 – 7
1. Compare the narrator's voice in Chapter 1 (the scene with the Uncle) to the voice of Nomi as she enters the dialogue of the narrative in Chapter 2 (as school teacher).
2. Is there a difference in tone? If so, what elements could possibly account for this change in voice and tone? Explain any cultural differences in the role that the narrator plays in each scene. Explain any differences related to age and the public/private division.
3. What do you notice about Kogawa's treatment of time? How does time structure the narrative, if at all? Why are the dates included in Chapter 1 significant? Is the story written in linear time or does it jump around in a non-linear fashion?
4. In Chapter 3, how does Kogawa characterize or delineate the character Obasan through the domestication of space (14-18)? How does she describe the space that Obasan inhabits? What does this reveal about Obasan? What physical description does Kogawa give of Obasan? How does this description compare to the description of Uncle in Chapter 1?
5. How is Kogawa's biculturalism evident in the opening chapters of Obasan? How is this biculturalism manifest in the language that Kogawa uses? How is the English word "Uncle," as opposed the Japanese word "Obasan" (Aunt), significant in relation to each of these characters? How else is this linguistic split revealed in the novel?
6. Analyze the significance of the Attic scene between Naomi and Obasan in Chapter 5 (27-32). How is the "attic" symbolic for cultural and familial memory? What perspective toward memory is suggested by Kogawa in this scene? What view of human existence and mortality seems to be forwarded in this scene? How do the objects present in the Attic signify human absences?
7. How does the passage (30/2) foreshadow and illuminate the dream sequence that occurs in Chapter 6? How is the body envisioned in the dream? Who are the various personages in Naomi's dream? How is the fragmented or severed nature of the woman’s body (35) related to the transitory quality of dreams (36)? Does Kogawa seem to suggest that this transiency also exists in life? Why or why not?
8. How is Emily's journal (that Naomi reads in Chapter 7) a parallel autobiographical narrative to Kogawa's own autobiographical narrative that unfolds in the novel? How are Naomi and Emily different? How (if at all) are the two women alike? Compare Naomi's character both to Obasan and Emily--suggest similarities and/or differences between the three women. How does Emily's character reveal the bicultural conflict that the Nisei felt?
9. Photographs (as well as dreams and memories) are essential in Kogawa's narrative for constructing a personal identity (21 & 57). How does seeing the photograph of herself as a young child with her mother help Naomi to relive that moment from her past and to reconstitute a remembered experience from a visual image? How is "seeing" important in understanding Naomi's recollection of the photographic event (57-58)? Why is the "language of eyes" censured? How is the flat, photographic maternal body different from the immediate fleshly body of Grandma Kato (in the childhood memory of the bath)? Why?
10. How do Emily's words reveal that the act of remembering is actually a process of "re-membering"? "You are your history. If you cut any of it off you're an amputee" (60). How then is the fragmented body of the woman in Nomi's dream in Chapter 6 related to the fragmented memory of her mother, a memory that is literally re-`membered, or put back together, through the photograph?
Chapters 10 - 12
11. What is the significance of the "Momotaro" story in Chapter 10, told to Naomi by her mother? What do the "old old man and the old old woman of the Momotaro story" reveal about Naomi's "shadowy ancestry" (66)? What does the second paragraph on page 68 reveal about Nomi's mother?
12. Analyze the scene with the chicks and the white Hen: what do the hen and the chicks seem to represent? How is this opening scene of Chapter 11 related to Naomi's subsequent dream of torture and mutilation (73), again illustrating the fragmented body (74)? How are both of these scenes related to the final scene in the Chapter involving Mr. Gower (74-77)? In all three cases, what is Kogawa revealing about the nature of power? about the victims of power? Try to isolate all of the thematic similarities in the three scenes and explain their significance.
13. Many of the fears that Naomi experiences as a child seem to come together in Chapter 12. Discuss the opening page of this chapter (78) in contextual relation to the epigraph and opening page of the book. How is the "stillness of waiting" in which "time solidifies" (78) related to the opening passages of the novel. Give specific examples from the text.
14. Compare the memory of Nesan's departure in Chapter 12 with Naomi's other early memories of her mother, particularly the ones recalled from photographs (21-23 and 56-58). How is the problematic surrounding the eyes – literally the blocking or prohibition of the gaze for the mother and the daughter – relevant to their relationship? How does Kogawa heighten this inability to see in the rest of the Chapter (81)? How is the fear of the fragmented body manifest in the last two pages of Chapter 12?
15. Further explain the significance of Emily's journal (as presented in Chapter 14) as a parallel autobiographical narrative: how is the fact that much of Naomi’s personal, familial and cultural history is revealed through Emily's letters important (analyze the significance of the differences between the two women and its importance)? How is the fact that Emily's letters are addressed "Dear Nesan" important to Nomi's reading of these letters? Analyze the importance of the comparison between the sufferings of the Japanese Canadians and the Jewish victims of the Holocaust: what is Kogawa revealing about war and power? How are the passages on 98 and 112 ironic – what do they reveal about the nature of racism?
Chapters 29 - 31
16. Early in the novel, Emily describes the treatment of the Japanese Canadians in language that evokes cattle and images that evoke livestock. How does Kogawa utilize different metaphoric language (in the voice of the narrator Naomi) in Chapter 29 to describe the horrible living conditions of her family? List some of the quotes that are imbued with metaphoric language (particularly 233-234). Discuss at least one of the quotes and what it attempts to detail.
17. Compare Kogawa’s use of this same descriptive language in Chapter 31, which despite its metaphorical similarities, results in a different tone. How is the tone different? Again, please list quotes that illustrate this difference, including page numbers. Analyze the vacillation between pessimism and optimism in the two chapters. Why is Naomi unresolved in her perspective, why does she go back and forth in her perceptions?