November 4, 2016 - 23:44
Who is Yumi Fuller? Who is she to the people around her and herself? Yumi’s experience in the subtly racist Idaho as the sole Asian student forces her to take a look into the environment that has helped to shape who she is. While Yumi is not solely defined by her childhood and the people there, the influence and their reactions to the differences between Yumi and the other townsfolk help to direct Yumi towards discovering who she is. By experiencing the various events occurring around her, some of which are fueled by ignorance and others a desire for the exotic, the readers are able to understand the influences the town had on Yumi. Even if Yumi does not fully understand it herself, by experiencing these factors she has been led to create decisions that have been based on her experiences in this type of environment. In such a place where she stands out against everyone else, she understands that she is different from everyone else in terms of appearance and culture. The charged atmosphere around Yumi and the environment she has grown up in has helped to shape her personality: a seemingly selfish girl who is easily infatuated and is attuned to being the center of attention.
Yumi’s subtle isolation from the other members of her community begins with her appearance. In a land where most people appeared to be as same as the potatoes her father grew, Yumi was like a weed that grew up to be different. Her dark hair, brown eyes, and ‘ethnic’ food set her apart from the other children in her school. Throughout the school’s plays, “Yummy was always the Indian princess, even in first grade, when everybody else in their class was still playing gravy” (Ozeki 7). Due to her different appearance, Yumi had always been placed as the exotic princess while being set apart from her other classmates. Yumi is not allowed to be the same as her other peers, this isolation is due in part to the subtle themes of racist behavior and exotification of Asian bodies which starts Yumi’s self-centered behavior. While this type of elevation may be problematic, the focus of this paper lies instead upon Yumi’s view of the series. After growing to be the princess year after year, Yumi has started to acknowledge that because she is different from everyone else, she too should have these privileges that come to her because she is inherently different. Instead of an environment where all the students are equal, the separation of Yumi from her classmates creates this idea that she must be different while she is just as much of a potato farmer’s daughter as the next person.
Elliot Rhodes also adds to the problematic environment that Yumi stays in. His idolization and fetishization of Asian culture and bodies becomes a toxic environment in which Yumi is in. Yumi’s experience with Elliot becomes problematic for various reasons besides the pedophilic nature their relationship is based upon. Yumi is seen as a commodity that Elliot is able to use as he pleases as seen when Yumi insists that “[she] knew that. That’s what [she] meant, too” in order to keep him with her (Ozeki 20). His blatant disdain for a serious relationship with Yumi creates an environment in which there is an adoration coming from Yumi while Elliot is using her as he sees fit. This type of environment is problematic for Yumi’s development as she feels as if she needs to justify herself in order to fit in with Elliot’s ideal version of her. This type of thought creates problematic relationships for Yumi as she does not maintain a stable relationship afterwards with her other now ex-spouses. The environment in which Yumi spent time with Elliot has made an impact within her, one that helps her to make decisions in which she decides that it is not worth sacrificing herself for others if the relationship is not going to work out. Elliot’s fetishizing treatment of Yumi’s Japanese features is mistaken by Yumi for her own personality which she adores. In this vulnerable state, Yumi takes to heart whatever Elliot says, taking note of how he mentions Berkeley and his apparent disdain for capitalism. Her eventual journey to Berkeley was probably based upon the idealistic way in which Elliot described it. The environment Yumi had been in with Elliot helped to shape the decisions she decided to make.
While Yumi is not necessarily defined by her past, there are aspects that she had experienced before that had a major part in helping her make her decisions. From her special treatment as someone different from the rest of her peers to the idolization of her features, Yumi’s experience in a majorly-white town has had many negative effects on her, some of which are apparent in her future. The effects of environment may not be blatantly obvious, however it is important to understand that Yumi’s character is based upon the different experiences she has had while growing up. These childhood memories of the types of places she grew up in helped her in shaping her decisions in the future be it ideas placed into her minds like others, her concept of what people around her were like, or idea of what she wanted or didn’t want in life.