Thursday, November 15, 2012
Yoshiko--The Mail Order Bride
I know it's a little late to be talking about White Boy Shuffle, but it just dawned on me how crazy Yoshiko's role in the book actually was. We all knew that Psycho Loco said he was going to get Gunnar married by the time he turned 18, but I didn't actually take that seriously at all. I skimmed over that little promise, convinced myself that he was joking, and completely forgot about it until Yoshiko was actually a physical presence in the book. The craziest thing was not that Psycho Loco got a mail order bride from who-knows-where out of who-knows-what circumstances for 18 year old Gunnar, but more that later in the novel it turns out that Yoshiko is the perfect girl for Gunnar, and eventually the love of his life. There was definitely a tone of surrealism throughout the whole story, but it struck me especially with Yoshiko and Gunnar's marriage. I mean how many guys have never ever been with a girl in their life, get set up with their wife from a mail order service at 18, and then realize that their new wife is actually their soul mate? For a long time I couldn't believe that Yoshiko was even there in the first place, and secondly that she and Gunnar were really and truly in love. The most puzzling part is that, as we get acclimated to Yoshiko and her character in the novel, the more it feels like she was always there. She fits right into the story, develops into the perfect girl for Gunnar, and even gets pregnant with his child. We have to constantly remind ourselves that her character doesn't even appear until the last quarter of the book, despite the huge impact and influence she has over Gunnar's adult life. The most curious part to me is that regardless of the little time she is given to be a part of the story, Yoshiko blossoms as a character without having any real introduction. We never find out about her past, what drove her to become a mail order bride, how she picked up English so well, and whether or not she even had/has a family. From an outsider point of view she seems like a sorely undeveloped character, but in context, in the actual text of the novel, she is a pivotal piece in Gunnar's narrative. Maybe I should get a mail order husband.
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You are totally right: she like a mystical figure. But I think that this just adds to the surrealism of the novel. Also, there's just something so dream-like about having a happy ending in a relationship whose premise is modeled off of thousands that are never romantic at all. Yoshiko is kind of like Gunnar's fairy tale that way. But this is so unrealistic that I don't think you can really base anything in real life off of it...I hope you were kidding...but I really love Yoshiko as well.
ReplyDeleteOmg haha, I was totally and completely joking with the last sentence there! But yes, definite agreement, I was completely smitten with Yoshiko and I really was in love with her and Gunnar's relationship (as nonchalant as their love seemed).
DeleteI was talking with Megan about her ideas for a response paper after class today, and she noted how striking it is that Yoshiko assimilates to Hillside culture *much* more easily than Gunnar does when he arrives from Santa Monica. It's as if she is somehow less "foreign" in this context than awkward, preteen, "white Gunnar"!
ReplyDeleteYoshiko's role in the novel is also connected to the general introduction of Japanese poetry and philosophy, which has a lot to do with Scoby's (and then Gunnar's) evolving conceptions of suicide as heroic. (And when he invites the US government to deploy the mythical "third" A-bomb from WWII to destroy Hillside, another connection between the Japanese and African Americans is established.
Yeah exactly! That's exactly the kind of stuff I was talking about when I meant that she has a huge influence on Gunnar's life and Hillside just after entering the story. But now that I think of it, I never realized really how quickly she managed to be fully assimilated into the Hillside community (even just looking at her encounter with Betty and Veronica way back on her first day).
DeleteI was having the same thoughts when I got to that section in the book. It's so weird how Yoshiko enters the story, and we seem to be meant to barely blink. Gunnar gets a wife, life goes on as planned. What? That doesn't even make sense! She's a great character, I like her and all, but after the marriage scene I was expecting some serious waterworks from Gunnar about how he's now unavailable and can never go out and search for a companion for himself. It's disorienting that that's just not important to him.
ReplyDeleteYes I agree that its very strange that we're all just supposed to kind of take her sudden appearance into stride, but seeing how perfect they are for each other, I do think it makes sense that he's not necessarily crying or upset by this almost kind of 'forced' marriage. At the end of the day, he is very much in love with Yoshiko, and you have to understand that he never really was drawn by women before to have felt like he was missing something by getting married to her.
DeleteI think that among being a lovable, surreal character, she provides some much-needed comic relief near the end of the novel. Her fiery personality balances out the humor and sadness in the novel to keep the reader from plunging into depression along with Gunnar. Possibly my favorite line in the novel is when Gunnar briefly tries to drown himself, and she comments that her mother warned her that a black man would impregnate her and then run off with a white girl, so he must be messing around with a mermaid in the water! In the midst of such a stressful, depressing situation, she still has the energy to make funny comments. I wish that I could lighten the atmosphere like that sometimes!
ReplyDeleteI looove her. She's witty, and hilarious, and intelligent, and just so understanding and emotional in a subtle way. I definitely thought the whole mermaid comment as Gunnar was drowning was one of her best moments, especially because we hear the things coming out of her mouth but we know just how distraught she actually must have been feeling.
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