Naomi

In my Japanese History Class we were asked to read this book called “Naomi”. Naomi is a waitress at a restaurant, very poor, post WWI. One day, this westerner guy came to the restaurant and decides to “hit” on her. Telling her, come with me and you will be much happier. So she did, considering that she didn’t have much to lose any way. Pretty much the whole story talks about her being spoiled, then she gained too much self-confidence and starts cheating on him. Then at the end they broke up but she seduces the man back to her. He was trapped In her world I guess. Reading this I hoped that Japanese wouldn’t think, considering this is a book about Japanese westernalizing, that all westerners are like this nor the Americans think that Japanese women are all like her. Reading these novels definitely makes me hate to be the one in the middle (like in US History, when we talk about WWII, I feel this unneeded tension in the class).