THE WASH: A Traditional Ethnic Play in The Mainstream Arena

Hisham Muhamad Ismail

doi:10.32996/ijllt.2021.4.3.6

Abstract

The Wash is considered the third part of Philip Kan Gotanda’s family trilogy alongside with A Song for a Nisei Fisherman and Fish Head Soup. This series represents his sincere attempt to discover and truly depict the Japanese American family, as well as to delve deeper and deeper into it. The idea of the play is mainly driven from two real-life stories. The first is about a friend whose elderly nisei mother has left her father and begins a new relationship, but this story did not spread in the Japanese American community. The second is about a writer whose ex-husband still comes to cut her garden even after the divorce. And both stories represent the old traditions in this community, which Gotanda himself tries to expose and criticize at the same time. Gotanda uses this play to push the restrictions of his ethnic community to be familiar in the mainstream arena.

Highlights

1 The Wash (1985) can be safely regarded as an example of the traditional Japanese theatre because it has many features that constitute this type of theatre
Galda and Cullinan in their book Literature and the Child and Jenkins and Austin in their book Literature for Children about Asians and Asian American, have classified specific criteria that should be traced for any literary work to be described as ethnic
Gotanda exposes some typical conflicts in this play with an attempt to push the limits of ethnic box by discussing other untouched subjects in the Asian American literature

Summary

Introduction

Susan Abboston elucidates that in the Japanese culture, as depicted in the play, a woman is expected to live for her husband and children and not give a thought to her own needs and desires (Abbotson, 2003). At the time we think that Gotanda wants to present Nobu as a victim of his cultural upbringing and of his war time experiences as a west coast Japanese American internee, he returns to present Nobu’s daughter Marsha in dialogue with his father, comparing him with Sadao and reveals the reasons behind ruining this house; MARSHA: He’s a nice man...

Results

Conclusion