Sylvia And Aki

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2011

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Farming as Equality, Dolls as Friendship

There are several small symbols scattered throughout the novel. Of these, the most thematically significant are farming as equality and dolls as friendship, both of which center around the complicated relationship between the Mendezes and the Munemitsus.

Both families are farmers who work to nurture the land and grow produce, which in turn nourishes their communities. Without food, humans can’t survive, and without rich soil, food can’t grow. In this way, farming can, in principle, represent both diversity (the soil) and equality (everyone needs it to live). Mr. Mendez’s callused hands and the Munemitsus’ efforts to cultivate the land also reflect the hard work and effort to fight for and value diversity in American society. In the incarceration camps, Japanese Americans cultivated the unforgiving desert soil to grow plants and vegetables, just as they had cultivated the worse farmland in California when they immigrated, reflecting the healthy richness of a diverse environment compared to the harsh desert (that is, white superiority and racism). Sylvia notices these vegetable plots at Poston, her first conscious realization of the similarities and struggles of Japanese Americans along with her own.

On Sylvia’s end, Gonzalo is also the one who fights hardest for integration, speaking with the Westminster superintendent, rallying other Latino parents, and ultimately going to court for the right to educational equality. In addition, Mr. Rivera (a florist also involved with cultivating plants) is the one who recommends David Marcus, the lawyer who represents Gonzalo in court, further cementing the connection between farming, equality, and diversity.

Similarly, the dolls Carmencita and Keiko/Miyoshi symbolize Aki and Sylvia’s friendship. Although the girls are separated by state lines, hundreds of miles, and barbed wire fences, their friendship is both foreshadowed by the dolls and flourishes through them. Sylvia’s curiosity about and admiration of the doll Keiko (originally Miyoshi) reflects her interest in Aki. Her viewing of the dolls as sisters despite—or because of—their traditional styles and differing skin tones hints at the strength of diversity and the friendship that will develop between them. Sylvia’s declaration that Keiko, a Japanese doll, likes empanadas, a Latinx food, further cements this connection, which culminates in the girls exchanging dolls when Sylvia moves away, thereby cementing their friendship.

In this way, aspects of domestic life, such as farming and dolls, symbolize the importance and benefit of equality and diversity, as well as the precious friendships that can form from each.

Language, Letters, and Memorabilia as Heritage and Connection

Connections, both to heritage and to loved ones, are very important to Sylvia, Aki, and their families, symbolized by the use of Spanish and Japanese and the presence of letters, photos, and other memorabilia throughout the novel.

The dolls are an obvious example of this, as they wear traditional Japanese and Latina clothing and are constructed in traditional styles. In addition, Sylvia and her family are proud bilingual Spanish and English speakers, with Sylvia’s mother singing in Spanish to encourage her children on the first day of school. Aki’s father also uses Japanese in his censored letters, while Aki and her mother occasionally use Japanese phrases when interacting with the Mendezes. These reflect positive connections to the families’ respective cultural heritages, particularly in a time and society where assimilation is expected.

On the other hand, heritage is also dangerous, especially for the Munemitsus, and the painful sorting of memorabilia reflects their importance and the risks of treasuring them. Family photographs mark irreplaceable family history and loyalty to the land they live on in California but must be thrown away, much as their rights were taken from them. Traditional houseware and other large valuables must be stored, sold, or hidden to avoid detection, just as Aki and her family must cooperate and assimilate to survive. Aki’s father, an Issei with imperfect English, is constantly censored and viewed as a threat because of his closeness to his cultural heritage. Like the discarded photos and other memorabilia, Aki’s family is scattered, further dividing them not just from each other but also from their history and heritage.

In contrast, letters are what bring them together. Pop’s letters, even censored, are their only indication that he is alive, if not well. Seiko’s letters from Denver bring his news and his love and candy for Aki. Most significantly, Sylvia’s letters to Aki indicate her interest in creating a new connection rather than just maintaining existing ones. Sylvia and Aki’s friendship begins with their letters, which allow them to cross physical and figurative obstacles to unite in the face of adversity despite everything barring their way.

Hands as Class/Ethnicity

Sylvia notices hands several times throughout the novel, each leading to a new or deeper understanding of the complex, often unfriendly, society around her. Therefore, for Sylvia, hands symbolize class or ethnicity.

Sylvia’s hands are darker, like caramel, indicating her Latina ethnicity. Her doll Carmencita’s hands are also brown; Sylvia is proud of the color because her hands are her own—there are no others like them in the world—just as she is an individual.

Gonzalo’s hands are also dark and callused from fieldwork; although he keeps them meticulously clean in opposition to negative stereotypes of Latinx people, he can’t hide the evidence of his hardworking personality and blue-collar job—his hands will always speak for him.

Keiko’s hands are delicate and white, both indications of traditional Japanese beauty standards for women; Sylvia finds them beautiful and impossible to mimic, reflecting the socially constructed differences between her and Aki. Aki is not white but “white enough” to be accepted at Westminster. Still, Sylvia puts Keiko and Carmencita together and believes they look like sisters, proving that bonds are stronger than skin color or blood.

In contrast, the Westminster secretary and court typist’s hands are pale and smooth, always tapping a keyboard. This indicates their white ethnicity and white collar jobs, reflecting their perceived racial, class, and, therefore, social superiority. Although Sylvia imitates them, she always feels separate from them, both by law (segregation) and by society (second-class citizenship and discrimination). White people are proclaimed “clean,” but Latinos are “dirty”; Sylvia can’t scrub the color off her hands, nor does she want to; neither does she want to be told that her hands or anyone’s hands make them lesser in value. As she wonders during the trial, “How can a man [...] swear to tell the truth and then lie like that?”

In this way, hands reflect social status, such as class and ethnicity.

Sylvia And Aki

Symbols & Motifs

Farming as Equality, Dolls as Friendship

Language, Letters, and Memorabilia as Heritage and Connection

Hands as Class/Ethnicity

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