Dash

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2014

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-9

Chapters 10-13

Chapter 14-Author’s Note

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Themes

Racism and Adversity

The theme of racism and adversity propels the narrative, as the anti-Japanese policies of the American government upend Mitsi’s life and sow conflict. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s choice to implement Executive Order 9012 puts Mitsi—and all Japanese Americans—in a terrible situation. Thus, racism produces individual adversity for Mitsi and collective adversity for the Japanese American community. Mitsi’s two best friends ditch her, Patty bullies her, boys on the street taunt her, and the general atmosphere turns Mitsi and Japanese people into hostile adversaries. Businesses hang signs stating that they don’t serve Japanese people. Conversely, businesses hang signs identifying as Chinese, so people don’t mistake them for Japanese people. Japanese people become outcasts and scapegoats. People think they’re somehow responsible for the attack or will support Japan because of their race. They reduce complex people to one trait––race. The simplification makes Mitsi want to declare, “I was born here in Seattle. At Swedish Hospital, just like you, Mags. I have brown eyes, just like you, Judy. I have never even been to Japan” (14). She wants to reaffirm her complexity: Her identity doesn’t boil down to race.

Racism is multilayered. There’s the outward racism of Patty, who makes “slanty eyes” and leaves mean notes in Mitsi’s desk. The boys on the street are also outwardly racist. When Mrs. Bowker rescues Mitsi, they ask her, “What are you? A Jap lover?” (17). The racism of Mags and Judy is less demonstrative. They don’t bully Mitsi like Patty, but they don’t stick up for Mitsi like Mrs. Bowker. Mags goes along with Patty’s racism, but dismissing Mags as a racist is unfair––reducing her to her worst moments and ignoring her non-racist actions. As it turns out, Mags removes the racist notes Patty puts in Mitsi’s desk.

Adversity, too, is complex. While racism is responsible for the main adversities—the racist atmosphere before the concentration camps and the coarse environment of Camp Harmony and Camp Minidoka—it’s not the only source. Mitsi adds to the adversity by refusing to adapt to the harsh reality of the concentration camps, and Lefty multiplies the adversity through his thefts and ruffian behavior. Mrs. Bowker tells Mitsi, “God gave us brains to think for ourselves” (44). Racism can’t take away a person’s mind, so people retain the power to think for themselves and not pile on the adversity. As Eddie tells Mitsi, “Just because they put us here, doesn’t mean we have to roll over and take it” (115).

Resilience and Hope

Racism and adversity produce the theme of resilience and hope. Throughout the narrative, Mitsi swings between resilience and hope and surrendering to racism and adversity. She shows fight when she writes General DeWitt a letter, asking to bring Dash to the camp. In Camp Harmony, she gives into the toxic environment. She stubbornly refuses to do anything, with the narrator explaining, “Mitsi felt like she was in one long game of freeze tag. She had been tagged and nothing could unfreeze her. Not new friends, not anything. Except going home” (91). The camps are lifeless, so Mitsi feels like she should be empty and unfeeling. Before the camps, Mitsi sinks into apathy. The narrator states:

[Mitsi] didn’t feel anything. Not when Patty Tibbets made slanty eyes, or when the newspaper blared headlines like ARMY MAY HAVE TO MOVE BAINBRIDGE JAPS. Or when she found another mean note in her desk. The new Mitsi was too cold, too deep under the water for anything — or anyone — to touch her (41).

Resilience and hope center on not yielding to cruel conditions, so Mitsi must resist the influence of the toxic environments. Before the concentration camps, she secures an ally in Mrs. Bowker. In the concentration camps, the letters from Dash “unfreeze” her and pull her out from “under the water,” as does her relationship with Debbie. Mitsi begins to understand that she doesn’t have to turn into a lifeless receptacle for gloom. She can make friends and draw and help other people, not because the concentration camps are okay, but because racism and adversity can’t extinguish her spirit or the compassion and creativity of those around her.

In the camps, Mitsi gives herself a purpose—earning enough money to buy a locket —and fosters a positive community with Debbie, the Tokuda family, and Mr. Hirai. The girls babysit Tokuda’s young son, Davy, and they help Mr. Hirai with his tumbleweed garden. They hold onto their feelings. They also preserve their capacity to create. Mitsi goes back to drawing, and the other Japanese people make a variety of things. Aside from making a tumbleweed garden, Mr. Hirai makes sandals. Eddie makes art, Pop makes furniture, and Miss Pellegrino makes a blackboard out of butcher paper. Creation is a form of resilience: It’s a sign of life and promise. With creativity, there’s agency and hope. People make things to express themselves and to better their future.

Friendship and Integrity

Friendship is critical for Mitsi, and key chunks of her identity revolve around her best friends, Judy and Mags. The narrator states, “Mitsi didn’t even know what her friends had gotten for Christmas! She couldn’t wait to tell them what she’d found under her tree” (6). Her friends provide Mitsi with a purpose. Back from the holiday break, she’s excited to exchange news about their presents. Judy and Mags define much of her life: Many of her best memories feature them. When Judy and Mags sever their friendship, Mitsi struggles with identity. The loss of her friends makes her feel like she’s missing a part of herself. The narrator says, “Now, in the lunchroom, Mitsi fought back tears” (14). Minus friends, Mitsi isn’t a happy person.

Friendship involves integrity, and if Judy and Mags are going to mistreat Mitsi, she shouldn’t be friends with them. Mitsi shows her sense of worth when she stops trying to keep them as friends. Mags tries to give her a note, and Mitsi replies, “You can keep that one” (63). Mitsi furthers her integrity by not bullying. She considers leaving a mean note in Mags’s desk, but she doesn’t.

In the concentration camps, friendship and integrity remain linked. Mitsi and Debbie become best friends because they’re admirable people. They’re creative and thoughtful, and neither like Lefty, the bully. Ted’s friendship with Lefty taints his integrity. Ted has values, but his connection to someone who lacks decency makes Mitsi question his goodness. Though Ted never becomes as bad as Lefty, to redeem himself, he has to separate himself from Lefty.

Mrs. Bowker is Mitsi’s friend, and she has integrity. She scares off the boys who bully her on the street in Chapter 1, looks after Dash, and writes letters in the voice of Dash to bolster Mitsi’s spirits. Mrs. Bowker doesn’t yield to the racist environment, nor does she accept any money to look after the dog.

Mr. Adams, Pop’s former boss at the electric company, juxtaposes Mrs. Bowker. Mom calls him a “good man,” and the narrator says that “it’s true” (71), but the reader might wonder why Mr. Adams didn’t try to keep Pop employed or why he bought Pop’s car. Like Mrs. Bowker, he could have negated the money and offered to store the car. As with racism and adversity, integrity is multilayered. Adams might possess integrity, but not as much as Mrs. Bowker. There’s something exploitative about the car transaction. The narrator allows for doubt when they state, “This was not a good ride. It wasn’t even Pop’s car anymore” (74).