The characters in the novel When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka find themselves in a rather comforting place that they call “home”. The father has a job outside the home, the mother works inside the home, and the children go to school and make friends with white people. They seem to be the exact definition of the typical American family of the 1940s. The characters in Otsuka's novel never felt that they fit into the stereotypical American "box" because of their physical appearance and their culture. However, once confined in the camp, they begin to feel a sense of exclusion from what they once had and learn to deal with these feelings in different ways. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay To begin with, the reader notices that the young girl in the novel has a tendency to talk excessively about the past. Even on the train, before the family arrives at the camp, the anonymous character talks to an older man about his scarves and the pairs of shoes his father had given him from Paris. She said: “My father gave it to me. He traveled a lot. He bought it for me the last time he was in Paris. I asked him to bring me a bottle of perfume but he forgot. He brought me this scarf instead. It's very clear, isn't it? (Otsuka 33) Although this may seem irrelevant to the reader and they may think that the nameless girl just has her head in the clouds or is spoiled, it shows her desire to find her. stable and comfortable life that she had before. these characters appear as opposites to the mother. They are placed in the same situation, but they cope with it differently. The girl tells people that her father never writes to her, and although it seems like a heinous lie, I think she must be making things up because she is not comfortable in her life now ( Otsuka 34). For the reader, it appears that her invented world is a way to make her forget all the evil she is going through. She is in denial, so she spends time creating lies instead of accepting reality. On the other hand, the mother in the story begins with strong emotion. Even though the reader feels that she misses her home and her husband, she remains strong for her children and does not show that anything affects her at the beginning of her and her family's expulsion and then her arrival at the camp internment. But as time goes on, the reader sees her begin to lose hope that her life will return to the normalcy she was accustomed to. Otsuka writes perfectly to describe her anguish and pain: “She said she had no appetite. Food bored him. “Go ahead and eat without me,” she said. The boy brought him some food from the dining hall – a plate full of beans, a pile of pickled cabbage – and put a fork in his hand” (94). The mother accepts reality only too well. This is what causes his mental and most likely physical deterioration. She's stayed strong for too long and she's growing tired of the weather, the sights, and the situations she and her family have found themselves in. Otsuka says that the mother dreams, but they are not the same type of “dreams” as her daughter. offers to entertain strangers on the train. Instead, she becomes nostalgic. The mother dreams of her childhood, a time when things were simpler, and she could go fishing without worry (Otsuka 95). As a little girl, she no longer had children to protect and no longer had to survive alone. “For the first time in months, he thought he saw her smile” (Otsuka 95). In direct relation to these,.