Based on the passage, which one of the following aspects of Kogawa's work does the author of the passage appear to va...

Victoria on May 14, 2019

Hello @Shiyi-Zhang,

The author of the passage focuses on the "subtle techniques" employed by Kogawa "that serve to emphasize her major character's heroism and to critique the majority culture," including the novel's form and the symbols it employs. The author discusses how the form of the novel "parallels the three-stage structure noted by anthropologists in their studies of rites of passage" and how Kogawa uses "motifs drawn from Christian rituals and symbols" to subtly critique the majority culture and their supposed ethics.

We can now begin to eliminate some answer choices.

A is incorrect as we cannot be sure that Kogawa is making a political statement through her novel as this is not discussed by the author in this passage. In addition to this, Kogawa's novel is focused on the Japanese-Canadian experience during WWII, an experience that is now widely recognized as unethical and inhumane treatment.

B is incorrect as we do not know the extent to which Kogawa has developed her characters. We solely learn about Naomi through this passage and this character appears to be based on real people from the past as opposed to Kogawa's imagination.

D is incorrect as the author of the passage only provides us with one example of Kogawa's use of Christian rituals and symbols. Therefore, we cannot be sure of the extent of Kogawa's knowledge of these rituals and symbols nor the author's feelings about them.

E is incorrect as we do not know whether Kogawa was objective in her descriptions of Naomi's tragic life; therefore, the author does not appear to value this aspect of her writing highly, if it exists at all.

C is the correct answer in this case as it is the main focus of the passage. From this fact, as well as the process of elimination we have employed above, we can conclude that this is the aspect of Kogawa's work that the author of the passage values most highly.

Hope this was helpful! Please let us know if you have any further questions.