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so our focus was cultural estrangement which is form of alienation from your culture, where your personal values, are very different than those of the people around you. we found that the quotes allude to the fact that although the japanese children in the past might have embraced their traditions, as they grow up they realize they must adapt and stray away from their roots in an attempt to be accepted by the more powerful class in america

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Summary: This article provides a good overview of family estrangement between grandparents and adult children. It defines family estrangement as "the breakdown of a supportive relationship between family members" and goes on to give reason why it occurs. It may be from emotional abuse, different views on family roles, clashes from personalities or values, or neglect.

Implications: Many families face this sort of estrangement as the kids grow up. It is common for kids to distance themselves from their parents later in life. We begin to see this in Buddha in the attic. The kids begin to disagree with the values of their parents and their culture.

Connection: This article covers family estrangement between parent and child which is definitely a present theme in The Buddha in The Attic. We see in the beginning that the parents often leave the kids alone when they have to go to work and don't come back for them until they are asleep. We also see the kids start rejecting the traditional cultural beliefs of their parents. These are both factors mentioned in the article that could lead to family estrangement later in life.

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Values, Attitudes and Cultural Estrangement 

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Values, Attitudes and Cultural Estrangement 

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Summary: In this excerpt of a book of social psychology, the author talks about cultural estrangement and how it comes from the feeling that one's beliefs, values etc. are discrepant from society's. The section also talks about a study of subscales like "atypical" (those who felt that their values do not fit society's) and "misfit" (those who don't feel they fit in with society).

Implications/connection: Basically, this estrangement occurs when someone is  put into a situation where they are alone in their beliefs and when they feel that they are not accepted. This usually leads to them attempting to change a part of themselves to try and fix this issue. In the Buddha in the Attic, the ones going through this estrangement are not really alone. The people feeling this way actually make up a majority of the younger Japanese generation in America. In the story, the children grow up and as they do, they find out that they are so much different from the ones who have the power: the Americans. This makes them become americanized and feel shame towards their own culture. With both pieces, Values, Attitudes and Cultural Estrangement and The Buddha in the attic, individuals are seen to push their own cultures and beliefs away because they feel alone and that their values don't match society's.

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Summary:  In this article by The New York Times, the author talks about how common estrangement is between children and their parents. The article mentions that many kids at a young age started to distance themselves from their parents and it continued throughout the course of their life until their adulthood when many of them cut off connections with their parents.

Implications: Not all families have some sort of Estrangement but most adults distanced themselves while others still kept in touch with family members at a distance.  In some cases it got so bad that parents would never hear from their children again and in The Buddha in The Attic many of these women let it happen while the parents in the article had no control of the situation.

Connection: This text connects to our theme because it talks about parental-child estrangement that occurs continuously throughout The Buddha in The Attic.  This article highlights the reality of estrangement and the effects of it on a family member/members. This connects to The Buddha in The Attic because Otsuka talks about how the children in the text are distancing themselves from their parents and culture. They do this because they wish to cut ties with their past and it includes cutting ties with their parents. Many young adults in America will cut off ties for certain reasons but they all formed during their childhood as it occurred in The Buddha in The Attic and Debunking Myths About Estrangement.

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"We told them stories about tongue-cut sparrows and grateful cranes and baby doves that always remembered  to let their parents perch on the higher branch. We tried to teach them manners...We praised them when they were kind to others but told them not to expect to be rewarded for their good deeds (68).

Analysis: The above quote talks about how these women raised their children.  They took pride in teaching their kids good manners and good behaviors as well. In doing so, this highlights what these mothers learned as children and have passed those onto their children.
this is showing how the mothers are trying to keep their influence in their children lives but we have to remember that this is before the children started to grow up and get a sense of how the world works.

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"One by one all the old words we had taught them began to disappear from their heads. They forgot the names of the flowers in Japanese. They forgot the names of the colors."

"They went to no parties (they were invited to no parties). They played no instruments (they had no instruments to play). They never got Valentines (they never sent Valentines)."

Analysis: These quotes are tied together as they show how this Japanese family strays away from Japanese culture as they move to the United States. However, they struggle to assimilate to American culture as well. This shows how this family is in their own cultural "bubble" as they strayed away from Japanese culture but are also not accepted in American culture.

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"But when they tired and began to cry out for us we kept on working because if we didn't we knew we would never pay off the debt on our lease. Mama can't come. And after a while their voices grew fainter and their crying came to a stop" (61).

Analysis: The kids are just left by themselves all day when the parents have to work. They even begin to cry out for them, but, though they probably want to, the parents can't leave their jobs to give attention to their children

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"They would not be seen with us at the temple on the Emperor's birthday. They would not celebrate the annual Freeing of the Insects with us at the end of summer in the park...They laughed at us whenever we insisted that they bow to us first thing in the morning and with each passing day they seemed to slip further and further from our grasp" (75-76).

Analysis: As the quote entails, the children are growing up and are gradually adapting to become more American and feel cultural shame. They don't want to do the same things that they used to including nostalgic and traditional events because they feel ashamed of their own culture and they want to be accepted by the more powerful majority: Americans.

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"They spent their days now living in the new language, whose twenty-six letters still eluded us even though we had been in America for years...And even when we sent them to the Buddhist church on Saturdays to study Japanese they did not learn a thing (73).

Analysis: These kids are now morphing to their "American" life and they have purposely left their past and culture behind. They distanced themselves from  their parents and heritage because they are embarrassed of their roots and choose not to be themselves, but an "American".