Speaking Through Seeds

              “Imagine you are a seed…” (Ozeki 3). This request Yumi Fuller, a character from Ozeki’s novel All Over Creation, asked paralleled a motif that was splattered throughout the novel. Just as the readers were to imagine themselves as seeds, Yumi was represented by through seed imagery throughout the novel. This seed symbolism revealed various characters’ innermost beliefs and suppressed emotions. This usage of symbolism in the novel to communicate unspoken thoughts emphasized humans’ nature to subconsciously reflect their personal beliefs through secondhand means.

The environment in which you grew up shapes your identity. The people who live around you shape your political stance, mannerisms, and beliefs. In the majority of cases, this is true. And in "All Over Creation", two of the character's environments did shape their identity. For Yumi Fuller and Cass Quinn, both women struggled growing up to find their identities in their hometown of Liberty Falls, Idaho. The conservative nature and mannerisms of the town, and their parents, influenced both women to stray from the norm. Yumi grew up to be a liberal and "free spirited" adult, unlike her conservative and strict parents and members of her community. Cass grew up to be a loving, strong, and caring parent unlike her abusive father.

In Ruth Ozeki’s novel All Over Creation, the intersection of identity with environment becomes apparent time and time again. For one character in particular, this intersection plays a large role. Yumi Fuller, the daughter of a Japanese woman and a native Idahoan, grows up in an area where she, as an Asian American, looks quite unlike any of her other peers. At age fourteen, she runs away, leaving the home environment behind and focusing on creating a new life, as well as identity, for herself. No longer does she want to be the foreigner in Idaho: she is now the self-made woman: A real-estate agent, professor, and single mother.

In Ruth Ozeki’s, “All Over Creation,” she presents the intersection between individual’s identity and the environment. Oozes presents this idea through Yumi’s “exoticness” in her own hometown, whether it was when she was still a child, or when she visits many years later as an adult. 

            All of the characters in All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki, have very distinct identities that were transformed by many different aspects of their lives.  When Yumi was only 14 years old, she left her family to live on her own and find her true self.  During her journeys she formed her own identity along with her children’s identities in Hawaii.  Her mother, Momoko, found a special connection to nature that allows her to explore her own identity.  While the people in one’s life have a very large effect on one’s identity, the biggest factors that form a person’s identity is their environment.

The environment can have a large impact on a person’s identity. The people that they surround themselves with influences their values and beliefs. That does not mean that a person cannot divert from that and develop their own identity, based on how they truly want to be. Yumi, in Ruth Ozeki’s All Over Creation, is an example of a person who feels the need to run away in order to thrive and become the person she wants to be. Additionally, I also felt that I need to be in a new environment in order to create my true identity.

           People’s identities affect the environment as much as the environment affects people’s identities. If a person’s belief is to protect the environment then part of their identity is that they are an environmentalist. Likewise the environment can shape people’s identities because if they are given many resources they can either choose to use it respectfully or take advantage of it. Despite the interconnected ideas of the environment and people the relationship is largely not a mutual relationship from what I’ve seen. Starting from the colonists who arrived to the Americas, people have continued to take more resources from the environment than needed to sell for a profit.

class today was amazing! thank u ~nkechi~ and anne! 

the last barometer statement we discussed today was about how Binh was "... exoticized into obscurity (and) obscures the way other people can see you". i'm thinking about this in two ways: (i) with reference to his father and being haunted by the Old Man and (ii) sexuality and Binh's identity as part of a queer diaspora. 

pg 193: "every day, i hear the Old Man's voice shouting at me from beneat the earth, where, I tell myself, he now lies." Binh's father is constantly admonishing him, shaming him for his homosexuaility and his struggle with his own sexuality is apparent in this. 

“All Over Creation” tells the story of Yumi and how she runs away from home at fourteen and how she must come back years later to face her dying parents. The reason she runs away is because her father lashed out when he found out she had an abortion. Elliot is the teacher who impregnates her. He is the new guy in town and everyone is wary of him for good reason. Elliot is the real foreigner in their quiet farm town.

https://psmag.com/disability-heads-to-the-polls-what-you-need-to-know-for-election-day-f391bbf95016#.5y3kl32dn