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Environment and Identity in “All Over Creation”

What happens when you cross potatoes and satellites?

In my rough draft of this essay, I picked out some quotes from Momoko in All Over Creation. My biggest question about Momoko was why she is a secondary character who is not granted any narration, while her husband, daughter, and other more vocal characters were. I used that question to ask more specific ones in the context of the quotes I found, which led me to realize that Momoko has some wisdom for the others, relayed in the terms of plants and flowers. From there, I saw just how important Momoko is to those around her, even if they might not realize it. Link to draft: /oneworld/changing-our-story-2015/momoko-quiet-force

Nature, economy and identity revision

November 6^th, 2015

The story begins with the description of the earth.

“It starts with the earth. How can it not? Imagine the planet like a spirit peach, whose pit forms the core, whose flesh its mantle, and whose fuzzy skin its crust- no, that doesn’t do justice to the crust, which is, after all, where all of like takes place. The earth’s crust must be more like the rind of the orange, thicker and more durable, quite unlike the thin skin of a bruisable peach. Or is it? Funny, how you never think to wonder.”(p.3)

There is a complex, yet undeniable relationship between environment and identity. Every aspect of one’s identity has been molded by the environments they have resided in. In All Over Creation, Ruth Ozeki deliberately lays out an elaborate web of almost inconceivable connections between her characters and environments to convey the importance of the relationship between environment and identity. In All Over Creation, Ozeki answers the fundamental question, “What makes me, me?” by exhibiting the dependency of individual identity on environment.

“ ’Chicken Little is imprinting on me. That’s her name. Wanna see?’ She approached and … and I could see the chick’s bright, beady eye. ‘Okay, that’s enough,’ Ocean said, … ‘I don’t want her to imprint on you.’ (p. 159)”

Ocean treats Chicken Little with a great affection. She lets Yumi to see it but just for a moment because she does not want it to recognize Yumi as its mother. Moreover, she may wants to be its only mother.

All Over Creation: Identity, Perspective, and Interconnection

Ruth Ozeki’s text is an exploration of environment. The social, the religious, and the natural environments influence and are influenced by the characters in the novel. Throughout All Over Creation, it is plain to see that the interpersonal relationships in the novel form a network – an environment, so to speak – that affects everyone and everything else.

In Ruth Ozeki’s book “All Over Creation”, it is clear to see the identity and environment closely related to each other. The environment here means not only physical environment but also social environment and, which both help shaping people’s identity. The complexity of the relationship between people’s identity and environment is revealed in the book.

Fucking and Places: Sexual and Spatial Memory in All Over Creation