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Post by jarelyrebollar on Jul 25, 2024 18:52:44 GMT
I'm noticing a theme of alienation within the graphic novel. Existentialism often explores feelings of alienation and isolation, central to Citizen 13660. Okubo and other Japanese Americans experience a profound sense of alienation, both from the broader American society that views them with suspicion and hostility and within the internment camps where they are segregated from the outside world.
I am also wondering if there's another example of alienation in the graphic novel that I am missing, or if I am overthinking.
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Post by Dr. Nemmers on Jul 26, 2024 2:38:48 GMT
Oh, for sure. One of the telling things here is that in the legal code the Japanese citizens were sometimes referred to as "aliens," no matter what their citizenship status. (We still hear this sometimes in local discussion today, as in "illegal alien."
A big thing about alienation is that it can be a two-sided coin: we speak occasionally of a person alienating themselves through a certain decision or action-- by choosing this, they have caused a rift between them and the other party, and and/or estranged or put some distance between them. So in that sense, you can alienate yourself.
But the alienation we're seeing in the literature this summer seems not to be self-caused, but other-caused. That is, it's more a product of a group of people deciding that others are aliens, and doing actions to cause those other people to be estranged, or othered, or whatever. I immediately think of that episode in Bless Me, Ultima, wherein Antonio is laughed out of the classroom and forced to eat his tortilla and beans out behind the schoolhouse.
Case in point: When "we" (Americans) speak of the abuses inherent to the Japanese "internment camp," it's framed as something that "we" did to "them." It's an inherently alienating perspective, that centers the "we"....(white Americans?) and alienates the other (the Japanese). (The same thing has happened all over the world, but most notably in Nazi Germany, of course).
So yes, something to look for as we read this. Glad you brought it up!
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Post by gillianlaird on Jul 26, 2024 18:48:41 GMT
Jarely, there is definitely a sense of alienation within the novel. However, I feel like this is combatted by the fact that the images tend to depict groups of people. Clearly this is meant to depict the awful reality of how many Japanese Americans were forced into these camps and what they endured there, but I could also see the idea a sense of community might have formed among them. Then again, I could be totally off base with this and the only goal is to depict what the author went through.
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Post by connorswauger on Jul 29, 2024 2:46:39 GMT
This reminds me of a short story we read last semester in AfroFuturism called “I Left my Heart in Skaftafell”. It’s about an African American man who travels to Iceland and it also has to do with being labeled as “the other”. The similarities I see betweeen Citizen 13360 and this short story are that safe spaces seem to be limited or nonexistent. Just like the man leaving America finds himself in a new land, people still see him as apart from them and the same with Okubo. They have to denounce loyalty to Japan while swearing their life to the U.S, while still being seen as an alien/enemy.
It’s like a double edged sword in a way.
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Post by jarelyrebollar on Jul 29, 2024 13:32:47 GMT
Y'all bring up some thought-provoking points about alienation and community in Citizen 13660!
Alienation is indeed a two-sided coin. While it can be self-inflicted, in Citizen 13660, it's mainly imposed by society. The internment of Japanese Americans during WWII exemplifies societal alienation, similar to Antonio's ostracization in Bless Me, Ultima. Both highlight how deeply societal divisions run.
In addition, the images in Citizen 13660 depicting groups suggest a sense of community among internees, showing resilience and unity amidst adversity. This reflects how people often find support in shared suffering.
Lastly, the comparison to the Afrofuturism short story I Left My Heart in Skaftafell is insightful. Both stories explore being labeled as "the other" and the struggle for identity and belonging. The interned Japanese Americans face a double-edged sword of renouncing loyalty to Japan while still being viewed as aliens in the U.S., echoing the broader challenges of maintaining identity and seeking acceptance in a society that perpetuates alienation.
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Post by gnicholson3 on Jul 31, 2024 20:32:47 GMT
Your idea of external alienation made me think of the different points of alienation that we've seen in the semester. In Barbary Shore, Lovett is alienated from 'before' by his head injury and his amnesia. In The Man Who Lived Underground, the novel shows a physical alienation that separates Fred from the world above. In Winter in the Blood, when Lame Bull and our protagonist drink together they joke with foreign, white "acquaintances" (33). The sense of otherness is pervasive in each of the novels we have read in really distinct ways. In Citizen 13660, the type of alienation/othering we see is a societal othering. The different ways in which otherness and alienation appear within the genre is quite intriguing.
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