Ironically, Winnifred Eaton published most of her works under a
Japanese-sounding name, Onoto Watanna, but she was of Chinese
ancestry. In "Me: Book of Rembrance "her narrator is called Nora
Ascouth, but in the plot, as Nora journeys from her birthplace in
Canada to the West Indies and to the United States, Eaton recounts
her own early life and writing career. One of sixteen children,
Nora leaves her destitute family in Quebec to earn a living. Only
seventeen and with ten dollars in her pocket she sets sail for
Jamaica and the chance to do newspaper work. Nora ends up in
Chicago, moving from job to job, trying all along to sell stories
she writes in her spare time. When she discovers that the man with
whom she is in love is married, she moves to New York and gains
achievement as a novelist. Against this nineteenth-century
sensibility of Nora's search for success and love, Eaton conveys
the powerlessness of the typical young woman of the working class.
Her autobiographical plotline discloses a remarkable secret,
Eaton's reticence about her own half-Chinese ancestry. Despite the
silence of the text, "Me: A Book of Rembrance " reveals
turn-of-the-century views on race, gender, and class. In Jamaica
Nora describes the racial inequities and disparities. Moreover,
when she says, "I myself was dark and foreign-looking, but the
blond type I adored," she reveals the extent of her own
internalized oppression. Although the author believes her own mixed
ancestry precludes prejudice on her part, the text proves
otherwise. Like other ethnic immigrants, Nora is indoctrinated into
America's Anglo preference.
General
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