My Year of Meats

This chapter is prefaced by an excerpt from Shōnagon in which she comments on the way life “seems like a dream – astonishing and senseless” (145).

Still feeling ill over the debacle with John, Jane makes an impromptu trip to visit her mother in Qualm, Minnesota. She reflects on how as a child it took her so long to realize her Japanese heritage made her different; her designation as “Indian princess” when playing with her peers had not struck her then as racist (148). Later on, she was called a “chink” during a softball game; after that, she began to realize how negatively her difference could be interpreted (149). She wanted to marry someone of a different color because she didn’t like the idea of all colors being separate, as a book she found at the library, Frye’s Grammar School Geography, presented them. 

Jane was able to make her dreams come true when she met Emil, an exchange student from Zaire who saw her running down the streets of Japan one day and immediately chased after her. They fell in love, and she eventually admitted her desire to marry someone of a different race. Emil said that could be called “racism” but agreed to marry her anyway (152).