Title and Theme Essay: Picture Bride

Every year, the United States of America takes in hundreds upon thousands of immigrants who seek a better life from the country that they came from. The idea of the immigrant is that they have come for a foreign country to seek a better life, and to make a good living. In the novel Picture Bride by Yoshiko Uchida, major themes are united by the main protagonist Hana and the high hopes that she has upon reaching America and the reality she faced, as revealed through, how love caused her to make irrational choices, how differences in cultural interests can lead to distancing from loved ones, and how betrayal and sadness can make a family grow stronger. To start off, Hana’s choices driven by love have caused her to make irrational …show more content…
At the start of the book, Hana has been given high hopes by her family who have been praising the new husband she is to marry, Taro Takeda. Taro’s relatives, have told Hana’s family of Taro’s successes in America, and Hana’s family made the choice to send Hana to America where she was to be married. Upon arrival in Oakland, California, Hana is greeted by Taro, and quickly her hopes are dashed. She later goes and sees Taro’s shop which in her eyes in nothing but a failure. This leads her to have less attraction towards Taro, and instead she starts to feel both physically and emotionally attracted to a man named Kyoshi Yamaka. “Oh such a story.’ She gasped, and put a hand on Yamaka’s arm. As she did, she felt his hand rest lightly on her thigh”(37). However, things only get worse from here, and it all climaxes when Kyoshi decides to get physical with Hana. “When