John Okada's No-No Boy illustrates the racial conflicts between the Japanese-American community and American popular culture, as well as the differing views on assimilation among Japanese themselves. Americans. Kenji, suffering from a fatal wound suffered fighting for the United States during World War II, represents a sort of embodiment of the tensions between Japanese and American identities. Kenji is fatally wounded while fighting for a country that has interned his family members. However, his valiant return from the war allowed him to reconcile with his father. Their close kinship contrasts starkly with the relationship between older and younger Japanese-Americans that manifests itself in internment camps. Kenji also rejects the projected racism evidenced by some of his fellow Japanese and Chinese-Americans. While Kenji will never live up to his father's image of the "ideal" American Dream, he is relatively content with his position at the crossroads of seemingly divergent identities. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay There is a clear distinction between Asian and American identities. Okada recognizes that when a "sweet-looking Chinese girl" (2192) is invited by a white boy to her high school prom, "she has grown up in the world, or so she thinks, for it is evident in her expression and her ways" (2192). While he does not completely reject his heritage and continues to recognize other Asian students in the crowd, he “flaunts” his new status. This sense of internalized inferiority places the Asian, and therefore the Japanese, identity below the American one, in the context of upward mobility and economic vitality relative to the American dream. In this sense, many minorities, including Japanese people, will subvert or reject their heritage to conform to the norm and achieve a more desirable "accepted" position in society. Okada uses a particular assortment of words and phrases to characterize the Asian-American Girl at the Prom. Okada uses these literary devices to suggest that the high socioeconomic status of her prom date, a white boy, is an empty and perhaps fleeting example of Asian upward mobility. At the beginning of the paragraph, Okada describes the Chinese girl as “sweet looking” (2192). This description portrays the Asian American girl as innocent and perhaps easily subject to exploitation by white American males both in high school and in society at large. In many traditional societies, women are highly valued and expected to marry within their ethnic groups. Thus, there remains a likely stigma among older Asian-Americans, whose perspectives Okada will analyze later, toward a Chinese girl attending prom with a white boy. The possibility of sexual exploitation and degradation of traditional values ​​could be a cause for concern. Okada deduces that simply attending prom with a white student is not the same as growing up significantly in society. He writes that: “She is resurrected in the world, or so she thinks, because it is evident in her expression and manner” (2192). Okada alters the tone of the narrative by including a global perspective. The world is a big place, and the fact that a girl emerges into it based solely on the background of her prom date seems marginal and banal. It's a difficult situation for the Chinese girl. She is likely aware of the stigma and relatively unusual nature of her interracial prom experience. Thisit might make her feel ashamed. Furthermore, however, it is perhaps tempting to contradict one's traditional cultural norm and try something “different.” Okada, with his globalized extrapolation at the beginning of the sentence, perhaps infers that this fascination is false and that the Chinese girl is not really improving her social standing. Okada is nominally critical of the Chinese girl's actions at the prom. While he does not directly criticize the action of picking up a white boy at prom itself, he is skeptical that his actions reflect a deep understanding of the historical, cultural, and socioeconomic narratives that converge with his prom experience interracial. He writes that: “She does not entirely ignore the other Chinese and Japanese at the ball, which would at least be honest, but worse, she flaunts her newfound status on their faces with haughty smiles and overly polite laughter” (2192). With words like “haughty,” Okada sets a tone that reflects the girl's arrogance towards her cultural background and heritage. In Okada's eyes, he doesn't care about the ramifications of his actions. In fact, the girl directly distances herself from her community, both on a larger scale and at the prom itself. She "flaunts" her false status in a dishonest nature. The use of the word "honest" cuts through the sentence and gives a dark, if almost cold, tone to the girl's actions and evokes a sense of community and cultural betrayal in her choice of prom date. The Chinese girl's experience at prom with a white boy has profound implications for young minority women. Traditionally, white men in positions of power sexually exploited and violently abused minority women. While these women, perhaps in some cases, have established close relationships with these men, historically they do not appear to have improved their socioeconomic status as a result. Overall, it was a depersonalizing relationship and a false narrative. In Okada's America, these lines were perhaps more subverted, as white men enjoyed less explicit power over young minority women than in the past. However, they still appear to exercise their privilege and harm minority communities. Therefore, from Okada's point of view, the Chinese girl at the prom with the white boy is a cultural travesty. Kenji's family's status represents the perfect American dream that is beginning to unravel. Kenji's father adopted a number of characteristics that could be described as quintessentially "American". He refers to Kenji as "Ken" and Kenji refers to his father as "Pop". When Kenji asks his father if he is happy, his father says yes, saying that "'Hana and Tom have great jobs, and Eddie is in college making more money at a part-time job than I did for everyone." . of us'” (2183). However, his father's shattered American dream is physically embodied by Kenji's war wound. Kenji's injury prevents him from achieving the upward mobility that his father attributes to the realization of the American dream. When Kenji winces in pain, "the father twists his face as if the pain were within him" (2184). For the father, Kenji's pain arouses "pain". The injury is a concrete reminder that Kenji, even though he is a decorated war hero, will not be able to achieve the economic independence that is key to the American dream. Kenji's father will never realize his vision of the American dream. When he first immigrated to the United States, he hoped to make his fortune and then return to his village in Japan. He says that, “'I came to America to become a man.