The Buddha in the Attic

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“First-Person Plural: The Personal and the Collective”

In this activity, students will write a short narrative or poem(s) in the first-person plural, exploring the ways in which a collective voice can be a powerful force in communicating a universal truth.

Engage in a creative writing project in which you write a short narrative or poem(s) in the first-personal plural point of view, similar to the viewpoint in The Buddha in the Attic. Your work may be fiction or nonfiction and poetry or prose. Consider what type of story would be well told using this specific perspective: How would a collective voice serve a particular story and help convey certain messages?

In addition to The Buddha in the Attic, consider the following texts that also use the first-person plural:

• “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks
• “We Are Surprised” by Ada Limon
• Selections from “The Mothers” by Brit Bennett (Content Warning: mentions of abortion and suicide)

Share your work with the group. As a culminating activity, participate in a reflective discussion with your peers about the different ways in which the first-person plural can be used in storytelling. In the discussion, compare and contrast your and your classmates’ writing with the way Otsuka has written The Buddha in the Attic.

• In what ways did the novel inform your own creative writing?
• In what ways did the class’s writing diverge from Otsuka’s?
• How has your understanding of the function of the first-person plural evolved throughout this activity?

Teaching Suggestion: Allowing students to publish their work anonymously may help students to feel more comfortable sharing their work this way. Alternatively, it may be helpful to guide students through a writers’ workshop in which they work in small groups to give and receive critical feedback on their work for the purposes of revision and improvement.

Differentiation Suggestion: It may be helpful to lead students through a scaffolded analysis of the supplemental resources, especially for students who might need reteaching and reinforcement re: first-person plural.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. One of the concepts explored in The Buddha in the Attic is the tension between one’s identity as both Japanese and American.

• How do the women approach preserving their Japanese cultural identity while navigating being an immigrant in America? (topic sentence)
• Analyze and discuss at least 3 ways in which the women’s identity and lived experiences are impacted by being both Japanese and American. Consider how the outbreak of World War II alters the women’s philosophy on cultural identity.
• In your concluding sentences, consider how your thoughts connect to or support the theme of The Unique Place of Japanese Women in Racist America.

2. While the perspective of the women in The Buddha in the Attic is written in the first-person plural, the perspective of the children is written from the third-person plural point of view.

What is the significance of the children’s point of view, and how does this help reinforce other themes in the novel? (topic sentence)

• Analyze and evaluate the use of third-person plural. How does this narrative choice reinforce the collective as shown in the voice of the women, and how does it also add complexity to this collective? Refer to at least 3 text examples in your discussion.
• In your concluding sentences, consider how this narrative perspective helps support one of the unit’s main themes.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. The relationship between the women and their husbands is a central thread throughout The Buddha in the Attic. Analyze the ways in which this relationship changes over the course of the novel, from figures the women know only from photographs to men taken away from them for uncertain reasons in the wake of a war. How do the events following Pearl Harbor change the dynamics between the women and their husbands? In what ways does it alter the men’s needs and wants, and how is their absence felt by the women who remain behind? As you compose your essay, cite direct evidence from the text to support your thoughts and strengthen your points of discussion.

2. In The Buddha in the Attic, names and the act of naming hold great significance. Chapters 4 and 5, in particular, grapple with the significance of names in relation to the women’s children. Compare and contrast the names that the women choose for their babies (as shown in Chapter 4) with the names that those children eventually choose for themselves (as shown in Chapter 5). What does this difference show about the relationship between the women and their children and, by extension, the older generation with the younger generation? As you compose your essay, cite direct evidence from both chapters to support your thoughts.

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What do the many rhetorical questions in Chapter 1 emphasize about the experience of the picture brides?

A) Ignorance

B) Confusion

C) Uncertainty

D) Resentment

2. What do the descriptions of the different hometowns of the women emphasize about their identities?

A) They are diverse, despite their shared experience of being picture brides.

B) They have very little in common and cannot relate to each other.

C) Their differences are such that they do not trust or like each other.

D) Despite their various hometowns, they all come from similar backgrounds.

3. Which of the following passages in Chapter 2 best emphasizes the wide range of experiences the women have during the first night with their husbands?

A) “They took us on our knees, while we clung to the bedpost and wept.”

B) “They took us as we cried out with pleasure and then covered our mouths in shame.”

C) “They took us the way our fathers had taken our mothers every night.”

D) “They took us by surprise, for some of us had not been told by our mothers.”

4. What best describes white Americans’ reactions to the presence of Japanese immigrants in their communities?

A) Indifferent

B) Welcoming

C) Hostile

D) Inconsiderate

5. In Chapter 3, the quote “You now belong to the invisible world” refers to which aspect of the women’s lives?

A) Their roles as wives

B) Their jobs as laborers

C) Their identity as mothers

D) Their status as non-white

6. What best describes the women’s feelings about the language barrier they face in America?

A) Annoyed

B) Resigned

C) Optimistic

D) Frustrated

7. In the following quote from Chapter 3, to whom does the word “them” refer: “We loved them. We hated them. We wanted to be them”?

A) The white women

B) The women’s husbands

C) The bosses

D) The women’s mothers

8. In Chapter 4, the quote “She had a face that could stop an earthquake” implies what about the baby’s physical appearance?

A) She is large.

B) She is beautiful.

C) She is ugly.

D) She is bald.

9. What best describes the husbands’ involvement with their children?

A) Tender

B) Detached

C) Hesitant

D) Loving

10. In what month is the Feast of the Dead?

A) April

B) January

C) August

D) October

11. What most likely reflects the women’s feelings about their children’s assimilation into American culture?

A) Melancholic

B) Relieved

C) Impressed

D) Resentful

12. In Chapter 6, what do the many answers to the question “What did we know, exactly, about the list?” reveal about the mood in the early days following the outbreak of the war?

A) It is clear what is going to happen.

B) The rumors have proven to be accurate.

C) There is a lot of anger among the families.

D) No one actually knows anything for sure.

13. What is most likely the source of the anonymous letters sent to Japanese American families in the mail amid the disappearances of the men?

A) Non-Japanese community members

B) Local government officials

C) Other Japanese families

D) Law enforcement officers

14. In Chapter 7, what does the detailed description of the many Japanese Americans leaving their homes for the internment camps emphasize about this experience?

A) It only impacted those of lower economic status.

B) It spared no one, regardless of background.

C) The white citizens didn’t agree with the rule.

D) They didn’t think they would be gone for long.

15. Which of the following passages from Chapter 8 best describes the impact that the removal of Japanese people has on the white citizens remaining?

A) “New people begin to move into their houses. Okies and Arkies who’ve come out west for the war work.”

B) “The Japanese have left us willingly, we are told, and without rancor, per the President’s request.”

C) “And after a while we notice ourselves speaking of them more and more in the past tense.”

D) “Boxes and trunks are hauled up out of basements and loaded onto pickup trucks under cover of night.”

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. What kinds of secrets do the women carry with them, and what does this show about their possible motivations for signing on to become picture brides?

2. In Chapter 4, the collective voice says, “We gave birth during the Year of the Monkey. We gave birth during the Year of the Rooster. We gave birth during the Year of the Dog and the Dragon and the Rat.” What is significant about measuring time in this way, and what does it show about the women’s relationship to each other?

3. What is the significance of the perspective shift in Chapter 8?