Obasan’s House
Obasan’s house symbolizes Obasan herself. It is filled
with clutter that to the outside eye might look like trash, but
is actually a collection of carefully arranged and catalogued objects.
Some objects will be reused for the sake of thriftiness, others
remind Obasan of some episode in her life. The old rubber ball,
for example, is a toy that survived Naomi and Stephen’s childhoods,
seeing them through many painful moments before winding up in Obasan’s
home. The library of objects reflects Obasan’s library of memories.
And the old, creaky house represents Obasan’s advanced age, her
frail body. After Uncle’s death, Naomi briefly wonders whether Obasan
could move in with her. The idea seems impracticable, however, because Obasan’s
identity is so wrapped up in her home. The house, Naomi says, is
Obasan’s “blood and bones.”
Spiders
The spiders in Obasan’s attic symbolize memory. The first
two spiders scuttle up when Obasan accidentally brushes their web
as she searches through a box, just as memories float up uninvited,
triggered by related memories. The spiders are quick, almost violent, just
as Naomi’s recollections seem to take on a life of their own, running
unbidden through her mind. After she sees the first spiders, she looks
up and sees the vast “graveyard and feasting ground combined” that
stretches across the ceiling. Naomi’s experience of underestimating
and then understanding the number of spiders foreshadows her experience
with her own memories, which come slowly at first and then overwhelm
her. Like the spiders, the memories are dangerous, and Naomi treats
them just as she treats the spiders: with a mixture of reverence,
fear, fascination, and repulsion.
