The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka centers around the story of Japanese immigrants in America who came in search of better lives.They were a group of young ladies who dreamt of a new life with their unknown husbands in America.They knew well that if they stayed back at their homeland,they would end up in the fields like their mothers.
They were totally ignorant of the new land and when they reached there,to their misfortune,their expectations did not meet reality.Their yet to be husbands had no resemblance with the persons in the photographs as those photographs were 20 years old.The chapter First night is a devasting account of physical consummation. Although they dreamt of a new life,their condition was no better in the unknown land.They had backbreaking works in the fields.Some of them worked as cooks in their labor camps,some as dishwashers,some as sharecroppers etc.,
In the chapter Babies,different conditions under which they gave birth are vividly described.They brought up their children how the natives did and they were more comfortable in the foreign land than their parents.And on one fine day,order came for the Japanese to be interned and they were forced to leave their households back in America.
An interesting thing to be noted is that in the final chapter,the collective voice of the Japanese changes to the American."The Japanese have disappeared from our town.Their houses are boarded uo and empty now."A few days after their disappearance,people even forgot about their existence.They came there,lived there,gained nothing and disappeared.
First person plural narrative is the point of narration employed in the novel.Recurring usage of same phrases through throughout the entire chapter is a stylistic technique the author has adopted which is annoying at times.The narrative style is highly poetic.It can be said without doubt that Otsuka has succeeded in giving a haunting and heartbreaking account of Japanese women
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