October 31, 2014 - 14:44
In Ruth Ozeki’s novel All Over Creation, the interconnectedness of the lives we live is explored. Ozeki creates a world with characters overflowing in dimension and depth. Her exhibition into identity and environment is portrayed in her use of physical and social environment as a catalyst for character development. The book is not written from a single point of view, with a single character of focus or a lone protagonist. Ozeki purposefully builds up each character, so that the reader could be free to decide who their own hero would be. This reader involvement is created through the characters’ unique dilemmas, sentimental longings and inter-personal relationships. It is through all of these elements that Ozeki’s world comes to life and characters come to fruition in the hearts and minds of her readers.
Going to where it all began, we look to the entrance of Yumi Fuller. Though the wheels of life are always turning in Liberty Falls, Idaho, Yumi’s return to her hometown sparks a wildfire of activity: her children meeting their grandparents for the first time, reuniting with her parents and best friend after decades, the arrival of a group of environmental activists and the return of a former lover. Yumi’s life was never easy and especially when she was in Liberty Falls. The environment of Yumi’s hometown plays a large role in the side of her that we get to see, arguably the worst she has to offer.
‘I’ve been out of control lately. I’m not usually like this. Something about coming
back here, just being in this house…’ ‘I know,’ Cass said…‘The minute I got back
here it all came flooding back, all the acting out and anger… (Ozeki 391).
It is clear that Yumi’s relatability comes from her deep rooted anxiety towards her childhood home. She can be seen as a hero to some because she returned at all, because she stayed longer than expected, because she continued to wake up every day with the weight of all her former mistakes on her back. Yumi’s perseverance is what makes her admirable, but her consistent inability to think through her actions is what may deter some from viewing her in such a positive light. Ozeki solves for Yumi’s failings as a hero to some by offering other options with different demeanors, purposes and motivations.
Cass Unger: wife, neighbor and best friend. Another character with depth of identity who reaches into the sentiments with her plight for motherhood. Cass’s humble beginnings of a potato strike empathy and her earnest behavior maintains her virtue. Her moments of joyous bliss with Poo make it easy to root for her personal yearnings to bear a child. “Secretly she believed that his infant proximity, his naked belly pressing against hers, might increase her chances of conceiving…she knew it was silly— (I)t couldn’t hurt to hope” (Ozeki 131). It is this small light, this little hope that Cass maintains that makes her an agreeable character. As a woman that has miscarried many times, is on the cusp of child bearing years and has all the stresses of running a farm, she does not forget what she truly wants for herself and out of her life. Cass is the one that stayed, the one that lived as she was raised, that grew up but not away. Her lack of movement hinders her ability to appeal to all. She is stagnant in environment though enlightened in character through her interactions. The influence of social environment brings out the heroes in others as well because we sometimes do not realize we have something to fight for until we have someone worth fighting for.
The idea of the rebel without a cause has been played with but never truly substantiated. With good reason, one fighting without a cause usually has no true, purposeful motivation. It is only when our lives intertwine with others that we realize our own self-worth. For Frank Perdue, it was meeting Charmey and making a baby with her that changed things for him. His identity as a foster kid looking for an escape turned into something more, something outside of himself.
(W)hen the big guard collared him, he allowed his body to go limp…keeping his
eyes closed and his mind focused inward on Charmey and the baby, and made the
first of the compromises required of a father—that he be relatively intact, present
and alive (Ozeki 320).
This power of personal appeal to Frank’s aggressive nature is one that can only be attributed to his new sense of self. By removing the constraints of the abysmal life he had in Ashtabula, Frank allowed himself to discover a piece he did not know he was missing. He uncovered a will to fight by not fighting, a will to live for the lives he cared for so dearly. Powered by love, Frank could be a hero in his own respects as well. Ozeki adds a questionable layer to Frank by having him go on fighting for Charmey and their baby by leaving the newborn with Cass and pursuing activism elsewhere. This act gives another layer to Frank and complicates his heroism.
Never truly allowing the reader to pick a hero without compromises or questioning, Ozeki keeps her characters ever-changing. With each new story, interaction and environment, Ozeki elaborates on the identity of her characters further. Proving that we are created through our experiences, the characters continue to evolve as do their lives. The beautifully inter-connected world Ozeki creates is a parallel to the world we live in and the people we are. Her exhibition is not simply into her characters but of all people discovering themselves.