Frank Chin's captivating afterword to the novel No-No Boy highlights the crucial influence of John Okada's literary activities in his own life as a writer. Asian-American writer. In a world where words once danced on the pages of books to the sound of only white authors, Okada helped create an identity for Chin and other “yellow writers.” Unlike Chin, who defines his own career in terms of that of another, the novel's main character denounces the part of himself that remains from his mother and instead seeks an identity that embodies the direct antithesis of everything that 'she represents. Before the war and his fateful decision to refuse the American draft, Ichiro Yamada reveals himself to be a malleable young man, victim of the biting impact of his overzealous mother. In his hatred and despair after a two-year prison sentence, Ichiro expels the parts of himself tainted by his mother's harsh conditioning. In an effort to rebuild his shattered identity, he models his new self against the opaque and pessimistic perspective implanted in him by his mother. Ichiro's optimism and self-realization can therefore only arise from the death of his mother. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Ichiro's time in prison continues to haunt him after his release, as relentless harassment from all facets of society only spreads his feelings of guilt and shame. Therefore, Ichiro evaluates himself and questions his motives for refusing the project in the first place. The root of the problem, he decides, lies with his mother and her stifling presence in his life. Her extreme conservation of Japanese ideals and complete rejection of the Americanization of herself and her family impressed Ichiro from a young age. Ultimately, this foreign belief system is accepted and integrated into one's own identity. So the anxiety inherent in being a "no-no boy" could be attributed to that part of him that wasn't his; It was her way of saying that she had made him what he was and that what made him say no to the judge and go to prison for two years was the shoot of a seed planted by the tree. mother… (Okada 11) Despite discovering a scapegoat for his deep shame, Ichiro continues to suffer from his refusal to enter the war. Even though the part of him responsible for his decision was decidedly not native, it was nonetheless a part of him. Therefore, Ichiro begins to hate this part of his identity. He expresses this disgust in response to his mother's denial of her own madness, while she claims that those who think she is crazy instead envy her strength: At the hands that had settled forever between them [Ichiro] continued to cry : “Not your strength, fool. wife, my crazy mother. Not your strength, but your madness that I took. Look at me!" He grabbed her wrists and tore them from her face. "I'm as crazy as you. See in the mirror the madness of the mother which is the madness of the son. See. See! (Okada 43) Hate Ichiro's behavior towards his mother poses a serious problem because it also causes hatred towards himself. The solution for him is to dispel his mother's values ​​and beliefs and replace them with new elements modeled on everything he has. she is not and she refuses to let her son become However, until Ichiro can rebuild himself, he is left with a barren identity. Not only does he blame his mother for the emotional anguish. psychological torment he endured as a direct result of his refusal to participate in the conscription, but he also attributes the cavernous holes in hisidentity: Mom is the rock that hammers, always hammers, hammering, in her discreet, determined, fanatical way until there is nothing more to say... She is the one who opened my mouth and made my lips move to say the words that earned me two years in prison and a void emptier and frightening than the caverns of hell. (Okada 12) Rejecting his mother's values, and thus the source of his own self-hatred, Ichiro takes the next step in his rebirth – but not without the effort and struggle that accompany his boldness. For years, the identity conceived and imposed by his mother was the primary source of Ichiro's self-concept. By eliminating him from his life, Ichiro falls into a downward spiral of severe marginalization. He and other second-generation Japanese Americans, or Nisei, feel isolated both from their parents' Issei generation as well as from the American population at large. Ichiro cannot fulfill any of these roles; he is neither Japanese nor American. Previously, Ichiro had defined himself as his mother's son and the reflection of her ideals. The moment he frees himself is the moment his identity darkens into infinite nothingness: I am only half of me and the half that remains is American by law... But it is not enough to be American only in the eyes of the law and that is not the case. you just have to be half an American and know it's an empty half. I'm not your son, I'm not Japanese, and I'm not American. (Okada 16) With the eradication of his mother's past influences, Ichiro successfully demolishes the remains of his former self and prepares for the arduous process of rebuilding. His lack of identity creates emotional trauma and raises the ontological question of his place. It also provides him with a blank canvas on which he will paint his new life. Lost, without a mold to find form, Ichiro submits to the ever-present malevolence he feels towards his mother. His former role as his mother's son – and the embodiment of her ideals – transforms into that of a separatist who represents the direct opposite of his restricted outlook on life. This shift in definition comes to the fore when Ichiro first meets Emi and attempts to convey his identity to her in non-contemporary terms. “I ruined my life and I want to know what made me do this,” he told her. “I'm not sick like them. I'm not crazy like mom or your dad. But I had to be. (Okada 91) The gaps in Ichiro's self-definition arise from the intrinsic ambiguities that reside in descriptions of this type. Due to his mother's oppressive nature and his inability to become his own person during his childhood, Ichiro has a strong sense of who he was and no longer wants to be. Yet he lacks a clear vision of himself. He doesn't seem to be able to express his own personality, but rather he is able to assert the attributes that he is not. For Ichiro, defining himself in terms of negative affirmations is both a limited and ineffective way of reconstructing his lost identity. Knowing that he is "neither sick" nor "crazy" says little about Ichiro's character and furthermore creates a rather incomplete sense of self. Ironically, the death of Ichiro's mother is the only catalytic event that allows him to complete his rebirth. With his mother's suicide, Ichiro no longer has a basis for determining what he is not; rather, he must turn to the outside world and establish his identity from a much broader perspective. This revealing new perspective on life and the results of a violent bar fight at the end of the novel leave Ichiro enlightened instead of disillusioned. No longer considering himself “not [his mother’s] son,” Ichiro seeks comfort in an outside world.