A Paradise Lost - KOPS - Universität Konstanz

flowers glowing like stars in the gathering dusk. Then, she turns and lights upon
the roof again (93-4).
While Watanabe’s young characters are left to figure out their own meanings, the older
ones can find strength in their experiences and in their mana. Thus, though the
significance of “Aunty Talking to the Dead, the half-Hawaiian kahuna lady,” is replaced
by her son’s “Paradise Mortuary” business, the old woman can rely on the things she has
learned: “Then she began to sing – quietly, at first, but very sure. She sang the naming
chants and the healing chants. She sang the stones, and trees, and stars back into their
rightful places. Louder and louder she sang, making whole what had been broken” (112).
Also, the retired Buddhist priest in “The Prayer Lady” has to be reminded of the
connection of his life with place and people, his merits: “Sensei had built the temple with
the labor of his hands […] His faith had become strong. And long after he’d finished with
the mortising, shingling, and painting, the structure had continued to shape what he’d
become. Through its doors he’d entered the life of the community” (124). Building the
Luhi temple, he has helped build the community. His frailty recedes as he is strengthened
by this realization.
Community. A place you can identify with, a place you can feel a part of. A place where you can raise kids
5.4.4 Community
who can grow up knowing their neighbors.
Rodney Morales – When the Shark Bites 579
Frequently in Local literature, one comes across similar descriptions of community,
rooted in small villages, neighborhoods, streets, or lanes. The setup is multiethnic,
working class, and suffocating and nourishing at the same time. Luhi village in Talking to
the Dead is such a community, or Mamo Street in Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s Heads by
Harry. 580 In most cases, its significance for the characters is implied, gathered from the
579 Morales 2002: 86.
580 See page 170 in this study, quotation annotated by footnote # 442.
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