35 pages • 1 hour read
John OkadaNo-No Boy
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1956A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
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Important Quotes
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BetaChapters 10-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary
Ichiro goes to the Christian Rehabilitation Center where he is interviewed by a man named Morrison who speaks some Japanese, having traveled to Japan before. Ichiro tells Morrison that Gary, a friend of a friend, is working for him. Morrison replies that Gary is a great worker but “has a problem.” Ichiro sheepishly owns up to having the same problem. Morrison says he can give Ichiro a job working alongside Gary and that maybe the three of them can find a way to resolve their problem. Ichiro says he will consider the offer and then goes to talk with Gary, who is painting the center’s sign. Ichiro and Gary talk about their time in prison; Gary says that he feels he is a better person for it, that before his incarceration, he just talked about making art but now he really does it. Gary also tells Ichiro about his experience of discrimination at his last job, where he was hated for refusing the draft. One lone co-worker, an African American named Birdie, stood up for him and was nearly killed for doing so. Eventually, Gary tells Ichiro, Japanese Americans will cease to harass him when they realize that they will never be treated like whites. Ichiro isn’t sure if this is true, but tells Gary to inform Morrison that he is not interested in the job.
As Ichiro leaves the Christian Rehabilitation Center, he thinks back to another experience with Christianity when he was interned and forced into farm laborin Idaho.There hebefriended Tommy, who was determined that Ichiro give thenearby church a chance.For awhile, Ichiro did enjoy the company he found there,but then at aservice,henoticed an African American being discriminated against.He gave up on Tommy and the church.
Chapter 11 Summary
Ichiro gets a phone call from Freddie who is desperate to get together for some fun. Ichiro’s father gives him some money, which Ichiro reluctantly accepts. Hefeels too old to be getting money from his father but promises to help him out with the store in the future.
After a chat with a shoe-shine named Rabbit, whom Freddie hoped would be able to provide them with girls, Freddie and Ichiro go to play pool at an establishment where Freddie clearly has a bad reputation. Freddie and the owner fight over the table assigned to the two friends. Ichiro tries to get Freddie to calm down. They play a little, until Freddie whacks the table with his stick and enrages the owner. A scuffle ensues,and Freddie and Ichiro run for the door. They decide next to head for Club Oriental, a place where both of them have run into trouble before for being no-no boys.
When they arrive, Ichiro proposes a toast to Kenji. He is upset by Freddie’s cavalier response, “Okay, to your friend, that son of a bitch, wherever he may be.” But before Ichiro can say much in response, Bull, the confrontational Japanese American vet who taunted Ishiro earlier in the book, pulls Freddie out of his chair by the collar. Others try to break up the fight but Bull is determined to pummel Freddie and Freddie retaliates. Ichiro finds himself caught in the middle, though he repeatedly pleas with Bull to stop. At one point, Ichiro knocks Bull down and winds him. Freddie uses the chance to start the car. Bull reaches in and tries to pull Freddie out of the vehicle but Freddie hits him with a wrench. Freddie then speeds off down the street, nearly hitting a pedestrian, before flipping over and slamming into the side of a building. It is obvious he hasnot survived the crash. Ichiro goes over to Bull who screams and then begins to sob desperately. Ichiro puts an arm around him, thinking of all those he has encountered since getting out of prison. He walks away, feeling a “faint and elusive insinuation of a promise” and wondering if maybe there is some tiny glimmer of hope ahead of him.
Chapters 10-11 Analysis
Ichiro receives another job offer,which he again turns down, this time from Mr. Morrison at the Christian Rehabilitation Center. Unlike Mr. Carrick, Mr. Morrison is visibly angered discussing Ichiro’s refusal to serve in the military. In fact, he insists on extracting an apology out of Ichiro. He offers to try to help Ichiro, just as he helps “drunks, morons, incompetents, delinquents, and the physically handicapped” (220). Ichiro’s conversation with Gary, an old friend who also refused military service and went to jail for it, reveals another perspective on the issue of identity in America. Unlike Kenji, who believed things would become more equitable in time, and Freddie, who thinks there is no hope for no-no boys, Gary thinks that eventually other Japanese Americans will come around and accept them once they realize that Asians will always face discrimination and never be seen as truly American. Ichiro isnot sure about this but tells Gary, “I’ll think about what you said” (228). As he walks home, trying to piece it all together, Ichiro thinks back to a church community he visited while relocated to the Midwest during internment. Though he enjoyed it there at first, he witnessed the church community openly discriminate against an African American, and the prejudice made him stop attending.
The book ends with an invitation to join some debauchery with Freddie. It’s pretty clear to Ichiro that Freddie is on a mission to self-implode. Freddie’s outburst at the pool hall is unnecessary and when they arrive at Club Oriental, Ichiro tries to force him to be more safe and sensible, even asking, “I have your word?” (244). But once Bull initiates violence, Freddie seizes the opportunity to act out his death wish. After Freddie dies in his car crash, all Ichiro can do is try to console Bull, “sharing the empty sorrow…feeling the terrible loneliness” (250). He walks away from the scene, looking for a glimmer of hope that he admits he cannot see “but the feeling was pretty strong” (251). The qualifiers of “faint” and “elusive” suggest that the promise Ichiro still seeks is not going to be easy to find, but bolstered by Emi’s companionship and the memory of Kenji, he may mold a positive future.
